Partner for universities

HPE realised early on that working closely together with universities and research institutes both reinforces research and also furthers the training of highly qualified staff. We are involved in lecturing/teaching both constructively, supportively and in a partnership-based way. This is done, for instance, by our top engineers acting as guest lecturers and carrying through joint projects.

Joint projects – Only together can great things be achieved
Hitachi Power Europe has been dedicated for some time now to linking its own R&D projects with university research. As a result, we support university developments and research initiatives in various joint projects, projects in which other manufacturers and plant operators are also involved. Joint projects with universities mainly involve material examinations and process refinements. In association with other companies, Hitachi Power Europe is also working on new processes and technologies to cut back CO2 emissions as far as possible.

Material development
In material development we develop materials for the next, even lower-emission generation of power plants. Joint work involves intelligently dividing up the work between university and company. Various university institutes and research establishments provide HPE with their basic know-how and test resources and, in return, HPE brings in its empirical findings and an evaluation of the business aspects. In these projects, HPE handles application-related work packages which require additional findings from the practical world of industry.

Raising efficiencies in generating electricity from the next generation of power plants
Another joint project is concerned with the technical refinement of processes to reduce the moisture content of lignite The aim is to raise the transformation efficiency of lignite-fired power plants to the level of the most up-to-date coal-fired plants. Following the joint development of processes for drying lignite on a commercial-scale, Hitachi Power Europe then internally develops the required firing technologies.

Reducing CO2 emissions from process-integrated capture
For some considerable time now, companies such as Hitachi Power Europe, together with power producers and universities, have been committed to developing new processes and technologies to reduce CO2 emissions as far as possible. The aim behind publicly and industrially sponsored projects is to provide environmentally-friendly energy by means of process-integrated CO2 capture.