OPTOmism Student Blog

Optical Sensors for enhanced Environmental Monitoring

I was surpised to hear that Ocean Optics actually started as a green company, developed  to take the pH of sea water.  The need for spectroscopy to do this molded the company into an optical sensing company.

This presentation went through many Green applications of Ocean Optics’ Sensors, so I thought I’d highlight the ones that really stood out to me:

Hazard material monitoring

A spectrometer that stays on a bus and takes measurments as the bus makes its rounds.  This effectively makes a google earth of chemical concentrations in the city environment.

Volcano Monitoring
– Investigating the pigments of coral reefs for creation of false corals
– Determination of chlorophyll levels in plants for plant health
– Optimizing lighting in green houses based on plant needs and health

Advantages and Performance of Ultra Low Power Photonic Links in Consumer Applications

This turned out to be an interesting talk but rather complicated. The main points were:

• Long haul transmissions have already won over all other existing modes.
• The growth rate of data is doubling every 12 to 18 months.
• Use of optics and photonics is the solution.
• Optical transceiver concept was explained in detail, and it was interesting to learn that the critical piece in transceivers is the lens design which impacts on the lens alignment tolerance.
• Focused on desktop based applications.

Carbon Footprint for a Typical Electronic Product

Main points;

• Supply Chain management for carbon footprints is here and companies need to pay maximum attention.
• Accounting for all the green house gases resulting from the life cycle of a product no longer a trivial fact since consumers are driving companies to pay significant attention to whats happening to the climate. If companies are reluctant to adapt, then consumers are voting with their wallet and feet, thereby making purchases from those producers who they feel are environment conscious.
• Why do companies need to perform carbon footprints? Well, apart from the pressure from market forces, companies have to contend with directives from the law in places such as Europe, and soon in the US where legislation on product carbon footprints is about to come to fruition.
• More information on subject matter can be found on www.ghgprotocol.org
• Integrated circuits contributed more to the carbon footprint than any other electronics.

Improving Efficiency of Power Generation and Distribution with Photonic Sensing

Initially I asked myself why it is that sensors would be needed, and once this talk commenced, the speaker was quick to answer this question by showcasing the economic efficiency and environmental protections attained by having regulatory photonic power sensors. In the power industry, the old thinking was just to put as much copper and steel on the transmission lines in order to guarantee the security of power delivery, at constant levels. But in a world where China and India; the world’s largest economies, are growing at a rate that is unprecendented thereby leading to skyrocketing oil pirces, this security of power generation and delivery can no longer be guarantteed. Companies and countries are investing in all types of power generation and distribution topologies, and the most visible is the solar industry, where I was surprised to learn that solar energy only accounts for 1% of the of the power generate in the world.

Siemens has been working on efficient smart grids that use photonic sensors to monitor  current climate and efficiency issues affecting the world at large. These photonic sensors allow for online monitoring in stations or power grids that are located in unreachable places. I also learned that because of the large currents transmitted in transmission lines, sensors have to made in such a manner that they do not crash or blow. In addition, I was impressed to learn that Siemens has developed high temperature sensors to monitor gas burners that produce electricity, with six cables instead of thermocouples. The speaker showed how the power sensors that Siemens has developed can be used across the board, that is, in nuclear stations, regular power stations, solar stations, and even wind turbines; where blade monitoring has led to the maximization of power generation. I have to say that the speaker definitely made the issue of power generation and distribution very interesting, and appealing.

This talk was definitely centered on all things green, and I was impressed by how the presenter stuck to his title of “Green display, Display Green” theme.  The speaker described the green processess’ that need to be embedded in all the manufacturing processess’, stage by stage. AUO’s committment to going green was described using their five principles namely; green revolution, green DNA, green innovation, green production, and green display.

It was amazing to learn that most companies are self regulating when it comes to going green because the legislation is lagging in some areas.  AUO’s has also embraced smart packaging and LCD recycling, whose end product are ceramic pots, tiles for use on regular roads, and even wall decorations.

Most companies, inlcuding the speaker’s,  are using USBGC (U.S. Green Building Council) rules for regulating sustainability within their workforce and processess’. It was also noted that AUO produces halogen-free products.

Enabling Emerging Solid State Lighting Applications: Driver IC Solutions for LED Backlight Large LCD Panels and LED Street Lamps

This talk showcased the differences between regular and LED driven backlights using ICs, and the speaker described in detail the relevant topologies that help achieve very notable increases in illumination, for example, slim edgelit and direct backlight topologies that are applicable to notebooks and LCD televisions. It was also noted that efficient topologies were of a series-parallel nature, and that the drivers were of the utmost importance.

A detailed description of how the mSilica drivers work to improve backlight performance in LCD televisions was given, and it turns out that the driver is the most important piece of the equation. I noted that the trends and evolution of the electrical design are significant when it comes to cost reduction of the overall product. In addition, Mr. Dhayagude pointed out though that a significant problem that is faced when using LEDs is that of temperature derating.

Green TVs and the Gadgets Connected to Them

This talk focused on energy efficiency without loss of the users ability or experience. Apparently leaving our TV’s and their set top boxes turned on at all times,  leads to a lot of power being used. One would really not think that this is the case, but apparently even that little Tivo box that we use is not optimized for sustainability purposes, when it comes to power. The beloved Tivo box consumes about 30 to 40 watts per day, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Most consumers view the colored LED indicator when the box is turned off, and they assume that that unit is simply not using any power, which is not true. The same applies to most LCD televisions, but it was noted that a lot of  LCD television manufacturers are changing their sets, and the speaker noted that Panasonic, is one of the manufacturer that has reduced the power consumption of its LCD sets to one third of the power previously needed to run them.

This is a signifant achievement because if this method is adapted by all television manufacturers across the board, the US has the potential of cutting its powerbill by $1 billion and prevent about 10 millions tons of CO2 per year from contaminating our atmosphere. Other notable culpits of huge power consumption included the very well known video game consoles, for example, XBox, Playstation, and Wii, whose power consumption while in sleep mode was almost the same as when they’re in active mode. At the end of this talk, I was convinced that the wisest course of action is to simply unplug those units that are not in use to do my bit for energy consumption as well as reduce my powerbill. With exception of the refrigerator, of course.

ICT (Information and Communication Technology) Networking Energy Footprint and Future Advancements

Main points;

• Smart Next Generation Network (NGN) efficiences were defined.
• The telecom network’s energy footprint is about 2 to 3 GW which is quite alarming.
• The access part of the telecom network dominates when it comes to energy consumption.
• Solution to unnecessary energy consumption is through the evolution of the telecom architecture via the elimination of unnecessary layers and minimization of underutilized equipment.
• Speaker claimed that up to 30 % of energy saving footprints will come from “smart” NGN efficiences.
• ICT networking energy is aroub 1 to 2 % due to access ports and datacenters.

Fiber-Optic Current and Voltage Sensors for Electric Power Transmission and Distribution

The key word for this whole talk was smart grids and their provision of reliability, efficiency, and safety of the grid as a whole. The following point were noted:

• that smart grids integrate renewable and distributed power systems.
• that proposed sensors should be concerntrated on optical sensors, that is, mainly in the electro-winding of metals such as aluminium, copper,  magnesium, etc (aluminium smelter).
• proposed sensors should be located in high voltage substations where the primary focus is safety, cost, and performance.
• speaker spoke about the digital optical instrument transformer (DOIT) that ABB manufactures, which help in the reduction of the environmental impact by using fiber-optics sensors as opposed to other sensors out there in the market.
• sub-station cummunications systems were described from station, bay, and process level.

The proposed sensors though have faced considerable issues, amongst them, customer acceptance, long-term reliability, and maintenance aspects (due to the conservative nature of the power industry).

All-Silicon Carbide Hybrid Wireless-Wired Optics Extreme Temperature Sensor for Greener Next-Generation Gas Turbines

The following points were noted as being central to this talk:

• the Tokyo electric zero emission high efficiency power plant.
• that monitoring high temperatures using old monitoring methods that use thermocouple technology have outlived their usefulness (method is 40 years old).
• proposed new method uses a two set solution, that is, a wireless and wired solution which is applicable even in hot environments such as jet engines.
• the proposed method used SiC (silicon carbide) and this element proved to be very effective.

All in all, the speaker managed to explain simply a rather difficult topic in such a way that anyone who is not knowledgeable in the subject matter could grasp the essentials.