Thermography for More Safety

Wood pellets as an alternative and high-quality fuel have become increasingly important in recent years. Their local origin from sustainable cultivation in the region has given WUN Bioenergie GmbH the opportunity to respond to market demand as an environmentally friendly supplier of raw materials. However, like other fuels, stored wood pellets need to be secured and monitored around the clock to prevent causes of devastating damage in the event of a fire, for example. Robust and reliable thermography solutions are a suitable tool for plant protection here.

The Amager Resource Center (ARC) is a waste incinerator like no other. From the roof of the Waste to Energy facility, skiers and snowboarders wind their way down on green plastic mats from a height of about 80 meters, even in the summer. The city hall of the Danish capital, Copenhagen, is just five kilometres away. The location, which is almost in the heart of a European capital, as well as its use as a public leisure centre, shows how much confidence operators place in the safety of the ARC. An important component in the security concept is the WASTE-SCAN infrared monitoring system for early fire detection by InfraTec.

Many tons of waste are bunkered and processed every day in waste recycling plants. It is not uncommon for this to contain highly flammable materials. If ignition sources get into this storage area, for example during delivery, there is an acute risk of fire. Therefore, waste incineration plants are subject to the strictest fire protection requirements in order to prevent endangering the environment and local residents. For this reason, an extremely important preventive measure is the permanent monitoring of the waste bunker and, if necessary, the surrounding areas.

Since the end of 2010, the “Arab Spring” has significantly changed the political situation in some countries in Northern Africa and the Middle East. The related political and social upheavals had been initiated in Tunisia. To support the fragile democracy in a politically controversial area of conflict – located next door to countries like Libya and Algeria – the German Federal Foreign Office started to establish a governmental relief program for the Tunisian security authorities.

In the age of Industry 4.0, the demands on system suppliers are growing, not just with regard to the primary measurement and monitoring tasks, but also with regard to data networking and structure. To meet these demands, InfraTec has developed a platform‐independent internal data structure, which represents both the measurement and alarm data as well as the measurement sequences. Interfaces to control systems of leading suppliers, e.g. via TCP/IP in the PROFINET, Modbus, CC‐Link and many other versions, can be achieved flexibly and economically. The proprietary Gigabit Ethernet data interfaces of fast infrared thermography camera heads permit real‐time data analysis and evaluation.

Today's power and heating supply in the city of Bern is hardly imaginable without the Forsthaus energy centre (Energiezentrale Forsthaus ‐ EZF). This power plant combines a refuse incineration plant (KVA) with a wood heating power plant and a combined gas‐steam power plant. About 120,000 tons of waste are recovered in it annually. This results in about 360 GWh of electrical energy and 290 GWh of thermal energy. The Swiss company relies on the WASTE‐SCAN infrared monitoring system from InfraTec for the early fire detection.

In Jülich, DLR solar researchers are testing new components and processes to further develop solar tower power plants. The aim of the research is to achieve higher temperatures and better efficiency in order to reduce the cost of electricity.

For a couple of years the European Union (EU) is upgrading its Schengen treaty borderline by the means of selective personal and technical measures. Numerous projects have improved the general border security significantly by implementing state-of-the-art technologies. This process has not been totally finished, however. Next to the protected Schengen borderlines the EU is also looking beyond. The Ukraine is one of the countries the EU selected to improve the local border protection authorities.