Two student projects at the OST – Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences have been selected as the winners of the 19th innovation awards by Futur, the foundation for the support of technology companies in Rapperswil (Förderung und Unterstützung Technologieorientierter Unternehmungen Rapperswil). The foundation has been running these innovation awards for students at the OST – Rapperswil-Jona campus since the autumn semester of 2008, presenting the honor to recognize and promote particularly innovative concepts with real market potential.
This year, the main award worth 10,000 Swiss francs will support the pressurized air cable for electrical energy transmission called Hivoduct. It was developed by students under Prof. Dr. Michael Schueller at the IET Institute for Energy Technology. “We have created a solution for the urgently needed expansion of power grids and energy intensive industries that reduces losses, can be laid out of sight and is easy to install,” said Prof. Schueller in a university press release. The Hivoduct cable has reportedly been installed in a pilot project in Seefeld, Zurich, and in a high-current system in Germany. SBB also plans to use it in a transformer station.
The recognition award worth 6,000 francs has been presented to the catalyst SelfCat, which can regenerate itself. It was developed by a team of the Advanced Materials and Processes group under Prof. Dr. Andre Heel. The project lead Prof. Heel explains it simply needs to be briefly aired at a high temperature to return the catalyst to its original state. It can be adapted for countless processes and therefore plays an important role in exhaust gas purification and in the production of sustainable synthetic fuels.
