The ability to generate electricity with solar panels has significantly improved in recent years. Prices of solar panels are decreasing, regulations are being adjusted, and both private and public property owners are showing increased interest. The solar energy market is currently experiencing exponential growth, with thousands of new installations every year.

At the same time, a discussion around solar installations as a potential source of electromagnetic disturbances, and EMC problems, has gained momentum. It is about the risk that radio communication is affected or that sensitive electronic equipment malfunctions. Research in this area has so far been a low priority, while studies of equipment on the solar market have pointed to the existence of quality deficiencies in terms of EMC.

Consequently, caution is exercised when it comes to investing in solar power installations due to the absence of clear recommendations on how to prevent EMC issues related to radiated radio frequency disturbances. This has resulted in limitations in expanding solar energy near defence facilities, airports, hospitals, and other critical infrastructure with sensitive electronics.

The work in this project aimed to replace uncertainty with knowledge based on measurements so that solar cell installations can be safely built in more places. We wanted to show how the design of the installation affects the EMC of the finished plant and to disseminate that information to the solar installer industry.

RISE developed a methodology to verify emissions from solar installations and provided a better insight into the extent and nature of the disturbances. In collaboration with Dalarna University, solar plants will then be built and verified with measurements to provide an understanding of how the technical design and choice of equipment affect the plant's total emissions, both radiant and grid-tied.

The knowledge has been condensed into easily accessible information for the industry with clear guidelines for the design of new facilities, approaches for evaluating existing facilities, recommendations regarding safety distances, as well as information for the training of installers as well as for clients for increased knowledge and security in handling EMC-related risks.

Energy-efficient and fail-safe machinery are fundamental to industrial competitiveness and sustainability. Advanced monitoring of equipment condition is crucial.

Optical fibre sensors are an emerging technology for condition monitoring since these sensors often are very small, discrete, cause minimal impact on the material and the environment and can be seamlessly integrated in natural and man-made structures such as bearings, pumps, and boreholes. 

In particular, Fibre Bragg Gratings (FBG) is a mature and established technology in industry. These sensors are ubiquitously used as thermometers and strain gauges in machine monitoring nowadays, but are, intrinsically, poorly sensitive to external pressure, making them inefficient for pressure monitoring.

In this project (PRINTS), we developed multiplexable, highly sensitive fibre-optic pressure sensors based on Fibre Bragg Grating technology, the same underlying technology commonly used by fibre-optic strain and temperature sensors.

The fact that this new pressure sensor can be installed on the same optical fibre and probed by the same read-out equipment as its strain and temperature counterparts is an important feature since it allows monitoring of an addition parameter without addition of further costs. The primary target application is health monitoring of pumps and similar machinery. 

The project consortium was made up of

• RISE, coordinator and expert in fiber optic sensor technologies,
• SKF, a provider of bearings and machinery with integrated sensors,
• Proximion, a manufacturer of Fibre Bragg Gratings and a provider of industrial sensor solutions, and
• Svensk Kärnbränslehantering (SKB), an end-user with the need for stable long-term monitoring in boreholes.

The primary target application was health monitoring of pumps and similar machinery, where we aimed at designing and advancing the maturity of a pressure sensor prototype to a state where it has been validated for machine integration by SKF. 

The project also evaluated the applicability for borehole monitoring. SKB sees potential benefits because of the use of fibre sensors for monitoring purposes due to its inherent advantages: compact sensors, long-range deployment possibility, the possibility to have many sensors on the same fibre, and the long life time in harsh environments. Here, the time horizon is longer, and the project aims more at evaluating the applicability of these sensors in the demanding and harsh environment of boreholes rather than developing an advanced prototype for pressure monitoring. 

These two applications illustrate the wide potential applicability of the proposed sensor technology in PRINTS.

The PRINTS project was carried out within the Strategic Innovation Program "Smarter Electronic Systems", a joint venture by Vinnova, Formas and the Swedish Energy Agency.

In the IntDemo program, the Swedish aviation industry collaborated to demonstrate technology that will contribute to competitive, environmentally friendly and safe technology in new aeronautical products and systems.

This project has developed, among other things, fiber optic sensor technologies that can be embedded in composite materials. The development have been carried out by RISE together with composite experts at SAAB and KTH. The purpose has been to demonstrate embedded measurements of temperature and strain.

Fiber optics is an ideal platform for sensors that need to be embedded in other materials. An optical fiber is a few tenths of a mm thick and can be made thinner if needed. It is also possible to cascade sensors inside the fiber so that tens or hundreds (or even more) sensors are located along a single optical fiber.

The project is supported by Innovair, Sweden’s national strategic innovation program for aeronautics.

The Swedish steel industry is a world leader in special steels for advanced applications and supplies customized specialty alloy steels with very high demands on composition and quality.

To meet customers' ever-increasing demands, steel companies work continuously with their processes and their process control. Particularly problematic is to obtain data ​​directly from a melt, during production.

Typical analysis methods are largely based on sampling and analysis in the lab, time consuming methods that do not provide real-time feedback to the process control.

In this project, we focus on continuous, automatic and robust measurement methods for analysis directly in a steel melt. Continuous measurement provides data for controlling the processes with increased precision and can contribute to higher product quality and reduced production costs. Better control will also contribute to lower consumption of energy and raw materials.

The project further develops methods for real-time measurements of temperature and chemical composition in steel melts.

The development of a lance system with integrated LIBS (materials analysis) and temperature sensor systems was initiated in an earlier project. This project will further developed the lance and sensor systems. 

Field tests are carried out in experimental furnaces and steelworks of the end users.

The project is carried out within the Strategic Innovation Program "Smarter Electronic Systems", a joint venture by Vinnova, Formas and the Swedish Energy Agency.

Today's diversified energy production has an increasing element of renewable sources such as wind and solar. The uneven energy flow from, for example, wind power leads to a more varied load on the energy system. 

With the changes in energy production, greater demands are placed on components that are part of the system that controls and distributes the energy. 

So-called 'high voltage bushings' are costly and important parts of a transformer, key components in the energy system. The bushing provides insulation between the high and low voltage sides of the transformer, and controls the load (current) through the system. 

Being able to optimize the load gives important cost savings for the systems operator, and can enable an overall more stable and optimized energy system.  

In this project, technology is being developed to integrate fiber optic temperature sensors in high-voltage bushings. The project brings together expertise in fiber optics, composite materials, high-voltage components and systems and energy suppliers.

Fiber optic sensors have several unique advantages that make them suitable candidates for this demanding application.

• The fiber-optic sensor probe does not contain electrically conductive material, which would directly disqualify it for integration into high-voltage components.
• The optical fiber is thin and compatible with the materials used in the manufacture of a high-voltage bushing.
• The optical fiber can enable temperature measurements over a long distance along a fiber, ie one can monitor the temperature in many places in a bushing without integrating more than one probe.

The project has developed an optical fiber sensor that can be integrated into the bushing and provide continuous information about the temperature in the composite material. Sensor-equipped bushings have been installed in a transformer station and the operating temperature load is being monitored over several months time.

The project is performed within the Strategic Innovation Program "Smarter Electronic Systems", a joint venture by Vinnova, Formas and the Swedish Energy Agency.

Metals and minerals can in theory be recycled almost indefinitely. By reusing materials, you can save up to 80% energy compared to extracting and remanufacturing the metal. It also minimizes the use of new raw materials and the need for ore mining. In practice, however, there are many challenges with metal recycling, one such challenge is efficient sorting of the metal to be recycled.

Efficient scrap metal sorting with the help of lasers

This project developed a robust and cost-effective sorting technology for scrap metal. A laser-based sensor system measures what material the scrap piece contains and the system sorts the metal into the correct compartment.

The laser system is called LIBS, a well-established method for analyzing the chemical content of materials. In LIBS (laser induced breakdown spectroscopy), a high-energy laser pulse is fired at the material to be analyzed. This creates a local plasma where the content of the material can be identified spectroscopically.

Unlike other analysis techniques, such as XRF, LIBS can also identify the lighter alloying elements in steel, such as Si, Al and Mg. A LIBS-based system can therefore be used to sort scrap with better precision than if you use other measurement techniques.

A European consortium

The AUSOM project developed a LIBS-based analysis system that enables cost-effective and improved sorting of scrap metal in recycling facilities. The sorting system can contribute to:

• Environment and circularity: Less use of virgin material and the production of secondary raw materials of higher value.
• Social aspects: Better working conditions through reduced need for manual sorting.
• Economic and strategic benefits: Better access to high-quality secondary raw materials for European industry, less dependence on critical raw materials and associated import dependence.

This activity has received funding from EIT RawMaterials, initiated and funded by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a body of the European Union, under the Horizon 2020, the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation.