Siemens 2008 Annual Report Download - page 23

At a glance – Our innovators and innovations 17
Frank Hannemann
Erlangen, Germany
Klaus Streubel and Stefan Illek
Regensburg, Germany
An invention with driving force
Just optimizing train bogies – ve millimeters shorter here, a few hundred grams lighter there –
was not enough for Martin Teichmann, a Siemens researcher from Graz, Austria. Looking for a
greater challenge, Teichman developed a completely new traction concept for powering the vehicles
used in metro and regional rail systems. The Syntegra bogie is far smaller than conventional drive
systems and weighs about two metric tons less. Equipped with this unique system, a four-car sub-
way train can transport about 200 more passengers without consuming any additional energy.
Fewer CO2 emissions from turbines
Siemens engineer Frank Hannemann has rened the so-called integrated gasication combined
cycle (IGCC) process for low-CO2 fossil power generation. Today’s IGCC power plants convert fossil
fuels into a synthesis gas from which CO2 can be separated for subsequent underground storage.
All that remains is hydrogen, which burns without producing any harmful substances. The conver-
sion process, while ecofriendly, reduces efciency. With Hannemann’s innovation, syngas is com-
busted in the turbine not with air, but with oxygen diluted with CO2. The exhaust gas contains only
steam and CO2, and part of the CO2 is fed back into the turbine. The advantage of this innovative
process is that all the energy of the synthesis gas is used in the turbine, increasing overall energy
efciency.
Tiny, ultra-bright lighting sources
In December 2007, OSRAM researchers Klaus Streubel and Stefan Illek, together with a colleague
from the Fraunhofer Institute, received a very special honor. Germany’s President Horst Köhler pre-
sented the team with the 2007 German Future Prize for their research on high-efciency, long-life
light emitting diodes (LEDs). The prizewinners are pioneers in thin-lm technology. This promising
eld is not only the key to producing extremely bright LED chips spanning the entire visible spec-
trum; it also enables LEDs to be packed tightly together in order to create large illuminating sur-
faces. The extremely small, highly versatile LEDs can be used in mini-projectors and rear-projection
televisions, for example, as well as for general lighting purposes.