Research & Development
Research and Development is in Turboden DNA. The research on ORC technology brought on at Politecnico University in Milan, Italy's most important technical university, provided the background for Turboden's establishment and earlier projects. Today, Turboden invests in Research and Development quite 8% of its annual turnover, and owns 16 patents.
Turboden Research & Development Features
Turboden R&D includes:
- an internal Research and Development Center based in Milan, working on fluid dynamics and thermodynamics to continuously improve the performance of Turboden units;
- a strong connection with the academic research. In 2008 Turboden has activated research contracts with universities and research centres for approx. 300.000 Euros;
- Turboden engineers attend and contribute to academic congresses on Renewable Energy Technology with presentations and scientific papers. You can find some of them in the download section;
- a research-friendly atmosphere. Contributions and ideas by employees, most of them engineers, are encouraged by the management and help greatly to improve Turboden plants' design and manufacturing;
Research Projects
Turboden participates in important and innovative research projects, followed by a specifically dedicated office, such as:
- The LOW-BIN project, a EU-funded project which intends to complement and advance geothermal binary plants technology by developing a binary unit for power generation from low-temperature geothermal fluid (65-90 °C) with improved overall energy efficiency (ca. 3,9 mil. Euros). More information can be found on the Low-Bin website.
- Organic Rankine Cycle Turbogenerator - product enhancement (funded by Italian Government for 2.5 mil. Euro). Innovation of the unit componentry, in partnership with the Italian company TCVVV.
- HR Project (internal funding) pilot project aimed at making energetic audits of Italian companies. The audit identifies the Heat Recovery potential using ORC units. In partnership with FIRE (Italian Federation for Rational use of Energy), Associazione Industriale Bresciana, CSMT (Multi-Sector Service and Technological Centre) and Gruppo Impresa.
- The "SOLAR" project, funded by the Italian government for 15.7 million Euros, a public-private lab for developing innovative technologies in the spread generation of electric power from thermodynamical solar energy, in cooperation with University of Salento, CNR, Istituto di microelettronica e microsistemi of Catania, Politecnico of Bari, University of Catania and private companies.
- Innova: financed by the Brescia Province with an amount of 150.000 Euros, it includes the project, development and testing of an innovative heat exchanger for heat recovery from biofuel-powered engines.