Without doubt, the search for solutions that reduce emissions of passenger transport is one of the points where more efforts are being made. The electrification of urban bus is one of the points where most are working, there are several strategies that we will be reduced to two:
• Vehicles with a large capacity battery: ensure autonomy and recharge while standing. The main problem is the batteries: high cost, weight and volume to the Service.
• Vehicles with fast / ultrafast load at stops start / finish line: they need recharging infrastructure with high power at some stops. In this option, the bus will take the bus a motor that will ensure the service.
The REMOURBAN project, led by CARTIF, will work to integrate in Valladolid line 7 a demonstrator based on the second option.
The main objective of the project is to demonstrate a pilot fleet of innovative public transport vehicles (buses) that combine outstanding performance with low-energy consumption. This will be achieved by introducing hybrid buses with a newly developed plug-in technology, which makes it possible to electrify a major part of the city bus lines.
The project will demonstrate that this technology can contribute to reducing harmful emissions from European city public transport systems.
The project will demonstrate:
• A new plug-in technology for hybrid buses: the complete vehicle will be optimised to ensure high standards of drivability, performance, durability and safety;
• A fast charging service for the buses: a reliable and efficient solution for charging is of crucial importance for the future use of plug-in technology. An effective service must take account of the location of the charging system, as well as safety, time efficiency, environmental and spatial considerations.
• The new hybrid plug-in technology and charging service will be demonstrated on an existing public bus route: The ultimate goal of the project is to test both of these important factors in city traffic.
Expected results:
• Reduced CO2 emissions: reduced fuel consumption, combined with electricity generated from renewable sources, will reduce CO2-emissions, compared to standard diesel vehicles;
• Improved energy efficiency: less energy consumption than standard diesel buses;
• Reducing emissions of hazardous substances: a substantial reduction in diesel consumption, combined with more favorable driving conditions, will result in a reduction in emissions of NOx, PM, HC and CO;
• Less noise: in electrical operation will radically reduce the noise of the buses, especially in sensitive areas;
• Zero-emission areas: in selected areas, the buses will run on electricity only, making these “zero emission” areas.
We all know the great efforts made by the authorities in reducing road accidents, however, there are uncontrollable factors. This is the case of adverse weather conditions, including icing on the road surface.
To address this problem, each community uses its own winter maintenance works, defining the riskiest areas and periods of the year, and coordinating the means to combat the ice with tons of chemical deicers (salt, brine, etc.). The main consequence of this process is the significant environmental impact.
What would happen if we proposed roads heating with underfloor heating? The Answer is unanimous: “It is not feasible, the cost is very high .. !! “. But if we say, ” It could save lives on the road and reduce the use of chemical deicers,” things change. Therefore, the challenge ahead is to define specific heating solutions in the most dangerous areas of roads, where the possibility of saving lives is higher, and in fragile ecosystem areas where the use of chemical deicers are more harmful.
Heating the road with underfloor heating is not a new solution, if we surf the Internet and examine the issue in depth, we will see that similar solutions already exist in large bridges and airports. The high cost is not an impediment to its implementation. In general, these solutions are very expensive, both in its development phase and operational phase. Its goal is to melt the ice using large amounts of energy.
Therefore, the challenge ahead is to get an affordable and energy efficient system. This can only be achieved if the problem is approached from different ways (or points of view).
To begin with, the key point is to prevent ice formation, thus drastically reducing the amount of energy required to melt. But how is their formation avoided? A rational solution could be developing intelligent predictive algorithms that warn of icing risk in the short time. These techniques must be based on a good monitoring system. This system will know the weather conditions on the road and temperature conditions inside the asphalt, generally by sensors embedded in the asphalt mix. This monitoring must focus on the real parameters that influence the formation of ice on the road surface.
Another important point to study in depth is the asphalt mixes used in – road building, focusing on both, the binder and the mixture.
Binders that minimize the impact of low temperatures in the performance of the mixtures, ensuring good behavior and suitable fluxing properties are sought. For this purpose polymer modified bitumenand rubber improved bitumens are used. Mix parameters as the gaps will be another factor to consider in the design of these facilities
The next factor to choose is the energy source to heat the system fluid. The energy requirements to prevent icing are less than those required to melt. This makes geothermal energy a strong candidate.
Finally, it is necessary to define the characteristics and distribution of the tubes, the sizing of the installation, the thicknesses of the mixtures and many other factors to be included in the drafting stage of the construction project of a road. All under the tight restrictions imposed by the constructive factors and requirements of driving comfort.
In CARTIF we work in these research areas in order to achieve this goal in collaboration with Eiffage, Euroestudios, Cepsa and the University of Oviedo. So far the results are very encouraging.
Construction and Demolition Waste (C&D Waste or CDW) includes all the waste from the construction of new buildings, demolition of old ones and small refurbishment works. The generation and management of CDW is a serious environmental problem. Neglect or mismanagement produce negative impacts and can cause water, ground and air pollution, contributing to climate change and affecting ecosystems and human health.
Current regulations on CDW management determines the need for an ex-ante estimation of the debris type and volume a project will generate. The level of detail and accuracy should be adequate to allow an effective planning to carry out the management of this waste.
Concern about the amount of CDW generated and its environmental impact is growing. For this reason, governments and public authorities are reviewing their policies on how these wastes should be managed. In order to improve this management, it is necessary to know the composition and magnitude that should be dealt with, as well as some estimating method of waste generated in a project, in a region or a country.
Despite all the problems that CDW may cause, and difficulties on their treatment, when waste is properly managed become resources, or products that contribute to saving raw materials, conservation of natural resources, avoid climate change and thus to sustainable development, in accordance with the principles of the circular economy.
How to estimate the waste generated by construction and demolition activities varies significantly from place to place, as explained below.
America In the United States, USEPA (US Environmental Protection Agency) estimates the amount of CDW generated in a specific region only from the built-up area, but regardless of whether the building is residential or not, or whether the works are new construction, refurbishment or demolition, which influences the type and amount of produced waste.
Another interesting case is Brazil, because it is an emerging country but CDW legislation is very similar to the European one, particularly the Portuguese. In this country, the civil construction sector is an important waste generator and national laws require manufacturers to take responsibility for the waste generated in their work and planning their management. A very important part of this effort is waste estimate to be generated, differentiating by waste type (brick, wood, glass, etc.) as each need a suitable deposit space and will be treated differently.
Asia The situation in Asia varies greatly from one country to another. Except for Korea and Japan, lack of knowledge and awareness of efficient building practices results in natural resources overuse and generation of large amounts of CDW that is rarely recycled. Approximately 40% of the total generated waste comes from construction and demolition activities. This waste is difficult to manage because it is heavy and bulky and can not be incinerated or used for composting.
Europe The European Union, in the EWC (European Waste Catalogue) provides a classification of the CDW by category. According to statistics, there are huge differences in recycling and recovery rates between EU countries, between less than 10% and over 90%. In Spain, recycling rate is around 65% of generated CDW. Construction companies benefit from the reduced amount of generated waste by reducing landfilling associated costs and reducing raw materials purchasing budget.
CDW Management in Spain Most of not recycled waste, at best, goes to landfills, taking up large discharge spaces and causing faster filling. In Spain, CDW estimation is usually done based on the floor area. To estimate each type of waste amount, a widespread criterion is 20 cm tall mixed waste per m2 built, according to use, with a standard density from 0.50 t/m3 to 1.50 t/m3. In order to obtain the weight by waste type, data based on studies about the composition of the CDW going to landfill could be used.
Summarizing, research in this field has focused in two ways: “hard” methods, measuring waste produced directly on site or through the weight of the trucks leaving the work, and “soft” methods, through questionnaires, interviews and surveys of experts and workers. When dealing with waste generation rates forecast, two approaches have been found. First is sorting waste into different categories, e.g. those established by the EWC. The second is managing waste as a whole and estimating the total volume.
A realistic approach to the problem undertakes to manage the project as a large number of interrelated and different task types (project units), in which each of these works affects differently in waste generation. Similarly, if forecasting models are developed based only on available historical data, without the necessary preliminary analysis and processing, a significant error could be introduced, as this information can come from heterogeneous and unevaluated sources.
Have you ever wondered how it is decided when a road or a tunnel should be repaired? The most common is that an operator notes damages down in his notebook while he goes walking, and then, these annotations are used to determine the state of the infrastructure. Operators often walk on the hard shoulder, while traffic circulates normally around them, with the corresponding threat to themselves and to users of the road. This task is really monotonous and repetitive, resulting in eyestrain that difficult to obtain an acceptable degree of reliability in the inspection. Furthermore, although the visual inspection adapts well to new situations when it is performed by human operators, it has a high degree of subjectivity, which causes that two different operators, or the same operator on different times, could provide different results.
The implementation of new technologies to perform these inspections can reduce the risks described, get objective results, increase the speed of inspection and make these data digitally available. In brief, working conditions of operators and the quality of the results are improved.
Among the different variables that are required to be measured in road infrastructure it can be found surface deterioration. To measure this deterioration is necessary to analyse the visual appearance of the surface. The technology that allows us to obtain this information, as you can imagine, are the cameras. But we must keep in mind that these surfaces have some quirks that do not allow us to obtain the desired results using conventional cameras.
Such surfaces are defined by having a limited width and indeterminate length but much greater than its width, so they could be considered continuous surfaces. The images of these surfaces should be taken in motion and as fast as possible in order to make the acquisition efficiently. To do this, although it would be possible to use area-scan cameras, it is much better to use linear camera. A linear camera builds the images capturing them line by line, and therefore a continuous image in the forward direction is constructed. The camera consists of a linear sensor, which is usually between 512 and 12,000 pixels. For capturing the object, it has to move relative to the camera, or the camera must move relative to the object.
The main advantage of using linear cameras is that it is only necessary to illuminate a thin line of the object to be inspected. As a result, the amount of energy required is reduced drastically and it is easier to illuminate homogeneously the area to be inspected. The lighting of a line is done primarily through LED light sources that focus light through optical in a desired line width. To achieve this, the lighting system must be at the proper distance from the object to be inspected and must be aligned with the camera sensor accurately. Laser illumination sources are also very effective, with the advantage that concentrate the light at any distance. Finally, incremental encoders are used to synchronize the acquisition of each image with the displacement of the surface to be inspected relative to the camera. Incremental encoders generate a pulse each time the inspection vehicle moves forward a certain distance, indicating the camera the exact moment for acquiring the line image.
Having the images of the surface to be inspected available is itself extremely useful for the infrastructure manager. However, what really gives added value to the inspection system is the automatic interpretation of images. You must remember that the ultimate goal is to detect damages on the surface and classify them by its type. Often, it is difficult to automatically differentiate defects from areas without deterioration and, moreover, defects of the same type have a very uneven visual appearance.
In order to process the images successfully, complex image processing techniques have been developed characterizing anomalies in the space-frequency domain.
CARTIF has collaborated with companies from the construction industry to address the inspection of this type of surfaces in several research projects. In one of them, it has been developed an inspection vehicle for detecting road surface deterioration. Furthermore, it has also been developed a platform for inspecting the surface of tunnels. Similar techniques also have been applied to the inspection of industrial products that fall within the definition of continuous surfaces, such as coils of cold rolled steel.
In all cases, the results of the inspection are displayed to the end user, so that appropriate decisions can be taken and, most importantly, it can be determined when the infrastructure has to be repaired.
3D printing is here to stay. When a new technology is so widespread that no longer catches the attention it is that its implementation is complete. More and more people have a plastic 3D printer at home and many of us know someone who has bought one or it has been built by pieces. It was only a matter of time before this technology would give the jump to other sectors. Although the construction sector usually adopts this type of technological developments rather late, in this case there are already several projects trying to bring the additive manufacturing (as is also known 3D printing) to construction.
What is wanted, among other things, it is to face the new architectural designs that are increasingly complex, industrialize certain construction processes which, today, are almost artisanal and improve sustainability using recycled materials for printing.
Such systems pose major challenges such as the development of new building materials that allow their proper implementation. Usually, the addition of other materials or compounds that improve the properties (or achieve the desired properties) in setting times, strength and insulation is used.
One of the first projects in relation to additive manufacturing in construction is called “Contour Crafting“, led by Dr. Behrokh Khoshnevis of the University of Southern California. And now there are many research centresand universities focused on these issues as AMRG University of Loughborough considered a world reference or IAAC in Spain.
They have also appeared commercial developments such as the case of a Chinese company that manufactured homes, offices and entire buildings using these techniques. The specific case of this company seems to respond to marketing strategies (which seems to be taking effect) because a good position in these technologies can open important markets.
In any case, there are many interesting initiatives such as WASP, an Italian project for sustainable buildings in disadvantaged areas, the construction of a steel bridge in Amsterdam, or NASA contest for construction of buildings on the moon or Mars using these techniques, the winner of which proposed the use of ice as raw material.
In the light of these developments it is easy to see that the additive manufacturing construction offers some advantages hard to match with other methods such as complexity in designs that can be obtained, the accuracy and repeatability of certain construction procedures. It is undeniable that industrialization is increasingly integrated into many building processes and 3D printing sure to have your niche in the construction sector.
As always with new technologies, certain optimistic sectors are saying that the additive manufacturing will be the majority system used in all industries but certainly there are currently no universal manufacturing technologies (beyond certain methods such as mass production). The current manufacturing processesare highly specialized and uses the most appropriate technologies in each case it seems complicated than a single technology is able to replace almost all existing. Therefore, and being realistic, we must find the most suitable application field for 3D printing in construction.
In this regard, CARTIF participates in a major national research project related to 3D printing in construction. This project focuses on the application of 3D printing technologies in construction in those areas where it is considered that can be especially useful: the manufacture of prefabricated modules and rehabilitation of facades. It does not seek a universal technology to serve in all areas of construction, but to reach the market with a product that offers a viable alternative to other existing technologies (i.e. realistic and sustainable applications). And without forgetting that all progress made in this field (whether by R & D or marketing strategies) will impact in the future, for the benefit of the whole society because what it is pursued, is to build better, faster, cheaper and in a more sustainable way.
Have you ever thought on the importance of the monuments close to you?. Do you happen to know they really are a source of employment and local development?. Here you are a few lines to explain it, and also to make you understand how the applied RTD is effectively contributing to the study, protection, conservation, refurbishment and reuse of cultural heritage.
Since 1999, with the Florence Conference, and later with the World Bank and the UNESCO reports, cultural heritage is considered a rightful source of socio-economic development for the countries. It is really a form of capital that the economist David Throsby noted as ‘cultural capital’, i.e. an asset with specific key features (the economic value is added to the cultural value -primordial, symbolic, intangible-).
Europe is the region that counts with the most important and the richest cultural heritage all over the world. This contributes to attract millions of tourists every year. Obviously it helps to create jobs and enhances the quality of life of European citizens while reinforcing a common shared identity.
The European Union Treaty (Article 167) specifies that safeguarding cultural heritage (moveable and immoveable) must be treated as a priority for the EU and is the legal basis for protection initiatives including research on cultural heritage. Besides, UNESCO expressly states that “the protection of cultural heritage, as an expression of living culture, contributes to the development of societies and the building of peace”.
The protection and preservation of important monuments and sites is more pressing than ever as cultural heritage is exposed to pollution, climate change and socio-economic pressures. According to specialists in the field, the activities oriented to ensure the sustainability of heritage are proving to have a major impact boosting the local economy and attracting foreign capital (because of related cultural tourism).
The following figures emerging from the EVoCH Platform within CARTIF is a founding member, will take you on the way of we are talking about:
The recognition of the importance of the mentioned aspects leads cultural heritage to be considered into specific RTD proposals in the current EU Research and Innovation programme (Horizon 2020). In fact, since 1986 the EU has been supporting research for the preservation of tangible cultural heritage to develop ‘state of the art’ methodologies, tools and products.
During the last years, a few successful results of technology transfer are giving evidence that the most effective and practical way of supporting and developing innovative services, is a collaboration between applied research organizations and enterprises to make these fit ICT tools into their daily work. In CARTIF, we have been working in this field more than 15 years. Some of our projects, INCEPTION, COST Action i2MHB, SHBUILDINGS, RENERPATH or 3D Virtual Restoration of Historical Paintings, have developed the most innovative technologies.
A researcher installs a sensor in Palencia´s cathedral
This means that new technological solutions are really the basis to meet actual demands on the five internationally recognised levels of intervention on cultural heritage: study, protection, conservation, restoration and dissemination. Only in this way, reliable, fast, easy-to-use and affordable tools will be available to shift the very traditional procedures of those levels to the 21st century we are living in.
Consequently stable and high-quality associated skilled jobs will be created, directly related to an intrinsic and non-transferable resource such cultural heritage is by itself.
