Main Subjects

• Thermal Power Plants
• Energy in Buildings
• Chemical Energy Carriers
• Dezentralized Power Supply and Grid Integration
• Nuclear and Fusion Technology
• Energy Economics and Informatics
• Renewable Energy and Energy Storage
• Utility Facilities

Thermal Power Plants

On a global scale, thermal power plants generate more than 90% of the electricity fed into the public grid and hence are the backbone of the electric energy supply of modern industrial societies. The specialization describes the design of different thermal power plants such as coal fired power plants, nuclear power plants, gas turbines and combined cycle power plants and their major components. Amongst those special emphasis is directed towards thermal turbo machines and the principles of applied combustion. The specialization is complemented by fundamental lectures on rotor dynamics as well as practical exercises in the framework of thermal power plants.　

The students will understand the basic operation of thermal power plants, their performance and environmental aspects. Based on their knowledge of the fundamentals in thermodynamics, fluid mechanics and technical mechanics they will be able to lay out, design and calculate power plants and their major components. They will understand the needs of future energy system with an increased contribution of intermittent renewable energies with respect to flexibility and alternative fuels.

This course introduces into design concepts as well as innovative technologies for high energy efficiency and renewable energy use in buildings. Emphasis is put on integrated solutions showing the interaction between space concept, construction principle, materiality, technical equipment and building energy performance. Besides the view on single buildings, aspects of urban planning with regard to energy infrastructure and sustainable development of urban quarters will be tackled, seeking possible answers on the question about the role of buildings and cities in tomorrow's overall energy system on different scales.

Two introductory lectures – 'Design, Construction and Technical Systems of Buildings' and 'Urban Planning and Energy Infrastructure' – provide necessary fundamentals for students without architectural background. This is followed by a lecture on 'Energy Concepts and Technologies for High Performance Buildings' which focuses exclusively on energy optimized building. It shows how the design strategy and the choice of appropriate technical systems can open the way towards net zero energy buildings. The seminar on 'Building Simulation' enables to experience the influence of different building and system parameters on the overall building energy performance, practicing with different simulation platforms.

One learning outcome is to get basic knowledge of architectural design principles, building construction, building materials properties and technical building systems in order to better understand their interdependencies in terms of building energy performance. On the urban level, the understanding of urban structures including energy supply concepts on different scales as well as urban planning processes is in focus. Further, the capability to evaluate different design concepts and planning strategies in terms of technical system integration, energy efficiency and sustainability is trained. Finally, the knowledge of different modeling techniques and the capability to apply the offered software packages for simulating the building performance in terms of energy and indoor comfort is fostered.

Chemical Energy Carriers are high quality fuels and chemicals designed for energy applications. Chemical Energy Carriers can be solids, liquids and gases. They are produced from fossil or biogenic energy resources (e.g. coal, mineral oil or wood) as well as from chemical substances as CO2 and H2. They are designed to be used in highly efficient energy conversion processes for supply of final energy (heat, power and mobility). Due to their typically high energy density they are well suited for storage and transportation over long distances. Chemical Energy Carriers will therefore play a major role in all future energy scenarios.

The lectures in the module "Chemical Energy Carriers" are focused on the characterization of Chemical Energy Carriers and the processes for production and use of Chemical Energy Carriers.

An Introduction to global reserves and production, environmental aspects, photosynthesis, fossil fuel formation will be given. Characteristic properties of raw materials and fuels, process overview of fuel upgrading, conversion and cleaning will be discussed. Examples like chemical upgrading processes in petroleum refining, non-conventional liquid fuels from fossil and biomass feedstock will be given.

Different lab-modules are focused on instrumental methods of analysing the essential properties of Chemical Energy Carriers. The students will have the opportunity to perform measurements on the institute’s test facilities.

The major outcome of the lectures will be the understanding of principles of production and upgrading of fuels, of fuel conversion processes (mechanical, thermal, chemical, biological, thermo-chemical and electro-chemical) and of criteria for assessing different fuels and fuel conversion processes.

The topic „decentralized power supply and grid integration" deals with technologies, methods and algorithms required for establishing a modern and flexible power supply system with a high amount of decentralized power supply generated by renewables. Current challenges of the European power supply system are the fluctuation of power generation especially by renewables and power consumption, voltage gradients by PV and electric mobiles in the distribution grid and voltage gradients in the EHV grid by the high amount of wind power in the northern part of Europe together with a regional lacks of power generation. This requires electric power transportation over long distances. The lecture "Electrical Power Consumption and Grid Control" provides basic knowledge about the physics of power transmission in the three-phase power system, technologies like HVDC (High Voltage DC transmission) and FACTS (Flexible AC transmission systems) as well as the basics of grid control such as primary and secondary grid control. The lecture "Superconductivity in Smart Grid Power Applications" provides knowledge about new grid equipment such as superconducting current limiters which allow fundamentally new grid architectures or superconducting cables and power transformers. Superconducting power transformers offer new ways of grid design and operation by the combination of the functionalities of a transformer with extremely low losses and a current limiter. Electric mobility leads to new challenges such as local peak power demands in the distribution grid but offers also new chances due to the storage capacity of their batteries. This capacity can be used e.g. for a local harmonization of the power demand of a smart home. The lecture "Efficient Energy Systems and Electric Mobility" illuminates these aspects having some impact on the future power grid architecture. New methods and algorithms are required for an active management of the distribution grid, basics are provided in the lecture "Smart Energy Distribution". The topic „decentralized power supply and grid integration" provides the tools to major contribute to the development of the future power supply system.

Students know the physical basics of power transmission by the three-phase power system. They are able to do the basic electrical design of the major components of an HVDC transmission system. Students further know the most important designs of FACTS (Flexible AC Transmission Systems) and their fields of application. They have knowledge about the grid control system and its functionality. Students further know strategies for operating an intelligent (smart) power grid. They further get knowledge about superconducting power grid equipment, their chances and the technological challenges to bring them into operation.

Nuclear power plants are contributing around 14% of the world-wide electricity production at competitive costs without emissions of greenhouse gases. More than 60 nuclear power plants are currently under construction and more than 150 ones are planned to be built. The courses on nuclear power will cover a wide range of technologies needed to design and operate such nuclear power plants.

The first semester will start with an introduction to the technologies of pressurized water reactors and boiling water reactors as well as to the physics of radioactive decay and nuclear fission. These courses will be accompanied by courses on mathematical modeling, on thermal-hydraulics and nuclear safety, as well as on the chemistry of the nuclear fuel cycle, which in total provide a solid basis for the specialized courses on nuclear technologies offered in the second semester.

These latter courses will go deeper into the reactor core design, including the neutron physics which are responsible for the fission chain reaction, the heat removal from the fuel rods by the coolant flow and the assessment methods for the safety performance of these challenging power plants. Moreover, nuclear power is not only available from natural uranium. The spent fuel can be recycled through the conversion of uranium to plutonium, for which we need fast reactors and a closed nuclear fuel cycle, which is subject of two further courses in the second semester.

Last not least, there are complementary but still important courses offered on radiation protection and on the decommissioning and dismantling of nuclear facilities, as well as on computational fluid dynamics, which are not based on the learning outcome of other courses. Moreover, a lecture on nuclear fusion technology will introduce to a new and most innovative domain of nuclear power technologies.

The students will learn to understand and apply the basic principles of nuclear reactor design, including the key technologies of core design and design of nuclear safety systems, and will be introduced to a number of additional technologies needed to convert nuclear power to electricity. Among these are the production and recycling of nuclear fuel, the handling of radioactive material, the design of nuclear power plants as well as an outlook to the alternative technology of nuclear fusion. The courses are mainly application oriented, corresponding with the needs of the nuclear industry, which are vendors, suppliers and utilities operating nuclear power plants.

Within this specialization, two disciplines converge by the use of computer based simulation models to analyze complex energy systems. To realize this, the lectures will focus on the one hand on optimization problems which are solved to optimality or approximately by using heuristics. On the other hand, the lectures provide an overview of the most central topics in the field of energy economics at present, namely energy efficiency and electric mobility, energy markets, energy resources and technologies as well as political framework conditions.　

The courses provide students with a basic comprehension of the different approaches of informatics, especially used in energy economics. Furthermore, the students will obtain an overview of the current trends in the fields of energy technology and liberalized energy markets.

The growing population on our planet as well as the successful development of economies leads to a fast rising energy demand and need of reducing environmental impact of power systems. So called "Renewable Energies" such as wind power, solar power, geothermal energy, hydropower or bio-energy have the potential to deliver sustainable Energy on windy and sunny days or as base-load energy, respectively. Without storage of energy, a transformation to energy system with low environmental impact seems rather complicated. With this in mind, the courses are designed for a deeper understanding of the underlying concepts and processes of different "Renewable Technologies" and "Energy Storage Concepts". Physical, geological, physic-chemical and technological aspects as well as simulation strategies for the different technologies are therefore in the focus of the lectures.

The courses provide students with a basic comprehension of the different approaches of "Renewable Energies" and "Energy Storage Technologies".

A profound knowledge of different technologies in a holistic view is the main outcome of the courses. This includes the quantitative understanding of underlying processes and mechanisms as well as the ability to implement state of the art technologies.

The main subject "Utility Facilities" is a multidisciplinary approach to the planning　and management, as well as to the process engineering aspects, of public utilities　for gas, water and waste treatment and disposal. The courses have components　in natural sciences, advanced and appropriate technology, socio-economics and　management.

Courses dealing with the application of basic principles of engineering, in special　problems of a municipal utility company, will be offered. Because this municipal　companies concern the utilization of water or fuels, special courses in drinking　water preparation (water treatment as separation, oxidation, biodegradation, disinfection and membrane technology) and transport and storage of chemical　energy carriers (e.g. gas grid, transportation and storage of gaseous fuels), will　also be offered.

In order to cover municipal companies for thermal waste treatment, special　courses in technical systems for thermal waste treatment (i.e. grate furnace,　rotary kiln, fluidized bed, pyrolysis / gasification technology) and the technology　of high temperature process engineering, dealing with the generation of high　temperatures and the heat transfer mechanisms at high temperatures, will be　offered, too.

To enable the students to operate public utilities for gas and water supply, waste treatment and disposal

To provide a multidisciplinary approach to the planning, process engineering and management aspects of such utilities

To enable the students to integrate regional requirements, while taking into account the long-range preservation of the environment