BILLERICA, Mass., Oct 19, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Bruker Energy & Supercon Technologies, Inc. (BEST), a subsidiary of Bruker Corporation, today announced that it has entered into a sponsored research agreement with the Center for Advanced Power Systems at Florida State University (FSU-CAPS) in Tallahassee, Florida. Financial terms of the agreement, which has a one-year initial period of performance, were not disclosed.
The collaboration agreement is focused on the continued development of BEST's shielded iron core inductive superconducting fault current limiter (iSFCL), with Dr. Michael "Mischa" Steurer, Dr. Sastri Pamidi, and Dr. Chris Edrington serving as the principal FSU-CAPS investigators, and with Drs. Alexander Usoskin and Klaus Schlenga as the BEST technical collaboration managers. FSU-CAPS will work with the BEST development teams (i) to investigate the alternating current (AC) loss characteristics of high temperature superconductor (HTS) tapes made by BEST, (ii) to model and minimize any AC losses in iSFCL relevant geometries and components, and (iii) to study a low-iron iSFCL concept which differs significantly from concepts of traditional saturated iron core SFCLs.
Fault current limiters are devices that protect electrical equipment and distribution infrastructure from damaging power surges caused by fault currents that may arise from short circuits, power generation disturbances or lightning strikes. BEST has been developing a proprietary iSFCL for energy infrastructure applications, including the smart grid, based on its intellectual property, design expertise and its high-performance, second-generation (2G) HTS tapes, in cooperation with Areva T&D in Regensburg, Germany. BEST and AREVA T&D had announced their successful test of the primary functional unit of the BEST iSFCL in November 2009.
Dr. Klaus Schlenga, Chief Technology Officer of BEST, said: "FSU-CAPS is very experienced in the integration of novel high power equipment, such as advanced superconducting devices, power electronics, and novel rotating machines into power systems. FSU-CAPS has established a unique test and demonstration facility with one of the largest real-time digital power systems simulators integrated with high-powered 5 Megawatt classAC and DC test beds for hardware in the loop simulation. The collaboration between FSU-CAPS and BEST is expected to result in advances in iSFCL technology with minimized AC losses and a utility-friendly implementation of a new generation of power conditioning systems."
FSU-CAPS' Dr. Michael Steurer stated: "We strongly believe that innovative FCL technologies such as the iSFCL will have significant benefits for development of a smarter electric power grid." His colleague Dr. Sastri Pamidi further commented: "The iSFCL is a novel concept based on the shielded core type FCL that uses 2G superconducting material with a strong potential for short recovery times under load, compared to other types of superconducting FCLs."
About Bruker Energy & Supercon Technologies:
BEST has operations in Germany, the UK and the United States, and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bruker Corporation (NASDAQ: BRKR). For more information: http://www.bruker-est.com or http://www.bruker.com.
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SOURCE: Bruker Corporation
BEST Contact:
Bruker Energy & Supercon Technologies, Inc.
Tom Rosa, +1 978-901-7550
Senior Vice President and CFO
tom.rosa@bruker-est.com
or
CAPS Contact:
Florida State University - Center for Advanced Power Systems - CAPS
Dr. Michael "Mischa" Steurer, +1 850-644-1629
Leader Power Systems Research Group
http://www.caps.fsu.edu
Steurer@caps.fsu.edu