The jewel in the crown
“Dynamic positioning” has been hailed as “the jewel in the crown” and Norway’s greatest engineering feat since World War II. But what is it?
Energy and environment
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Recycling aluminium, one can at a time
Producing pure aluminium from ore accounts for as much as 1 per cent of all greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. Recycling is the best way to reduce that carbon footprint – but manufacturers and recycling companies will have to plan carefully to avoid problems with impurities that accumulate in recycled aluminium over time.
Clay can be used for carbon capture
Ordinary clay can be as good as more advanced materials for capturing carbon dioxide.
Carving up the global carbon pie in a new way
When negotiators come to Paris this December to discuss a binding and universal agreement on controlling climate change, they have to know how much each country contributes to the greenhouse gas emissions problem. A new method offers the best hope yet for accurately accounting for these emissions by providing the right incentives and assigning fair responsibilities.
Green light for the world’s first intelligent oil pipelines
Electronics installed in Norwegian oil pipelines have been tested both at sea and in transport vessel reeling simulations. All that now remains is to install them offshore.
Predicting a safe lifetime for risers
More than 90 percent of Brazil’s petroleum reserves are found in deep water or ultra-deep water areas offshore. Researchers at SINTEF’s Brazil office are using advanced modelling and testing, including neural networks, to improve the lifespan and safety of a key component used to exploit these deep water reserves.
A Third Industrial Revolution for Norway
Norway’s wealth and prosperity over the last four decades has been built on oil, but Jeremy Rifkin, a futurist and social and economic thinker, says it’s time for the country to change. The Third Industrial Revolution is coming, and Norway needs to abandon fossil fuels and move towards a greener future that relies on renewable energy, shared transport and ultra-efficient housing.
When almost clean isn’t clean enough
The solar cell industry is headed into clean-room labs to better understand and improve the materials that they are working with.
Extreme weather in the Arctic causes problems for people, wildlife
The last week of January 2012 brought wild weather to the Norwegian arctic island archipelago of Svalbard and its largest town, Longyearbyen. A new cross-disciplinary study provides a comprehensive look at the effects of this extreme weather event on everything from town infrastructure to the natural environment.
Low-carbon electricity future is clean and feasible
The countries of the world wrapped up preliminary climate talks in Lima, Peru this weekend with an agreement on how the UN’s 194 countries will tackle climate change. The agreement comes in advance of major negotiations scheduled for Paris next year to designed to curb the world’s production of greenhouse gases. In a publication from earlier this year, researchers at NTNU’s Industrial Ecology Programme report that the low-carbon future that would result from curbing greenhouse gas emissions is both feasible from a practical standpoint, and will also substantially reduce air pollution.
Turning humble seaweed to biofuel
A Norwegian research group has been able to achieve bio-oil yields of 79% from a common kelp. Other researchers working with the same species have yields closer to 20%. The secret is to heat the kelp very quickly and bring it to the right temperature within seconds.
Hope for the climate, hope for clean air
Climate talks in New York this week have offered a glimmer of hope that the world’s political leaders finally understand the need to act to curb global warming. An NTNU researcher says that these actions will have a beneficial side effect: cleaner air in some of the most polluted places on the planet.
The Towing Tank turns 75
NTH, Norway’s first technical university and one of the main predecessors to NTNU, SINTEF and MARINTEK, opened in Trondheim in 1910. Just three years later its scientists began to think very big – 170 metres big.
Capturing false hormones
They damage our ability to reproduce, and they pollute the natural environment. Yet chemicals known as hormone mimics can be found in consumer goods. Eventually they end up in our water. But we now have a way of capturing them.
Monitoring neighbourhood electricity consumption
With more and more Norwegian households owning one or even two electric cars requiring charging overnight, how will we manage without sacrificing our hot morning shower and fresh bread for breakfast?
Urgent changes needed in the pre-fabricated housing
Norwegian houses can no longer have the same design in western as in eastern Norway. Building designs must adapt to local climate variations, say researchers.
The secret life of the sea trout
Armed with special acoustic tags, a team of researchers is following 50 individual fish for as long as seven months to learn more about their life – and death — in Norwegian fjords.
‘Likes’ provide humanitarian support
According to a Norwegian study, ‘likes’ on Facebook are providing a new type of humanitarian support and social responsibility.
What do we do when a well blows out?
Oil and gas companies are worried about gas discharges at the sea bed. Recent field experiments can now quantify the volumes of gas reaching the sea surface and how they spread in the atmosphere.
Celebrity ice
Not since the Titanic has a block of ice been quite so famous. In early June, Discovery Channel Canada came to NTNU’s Structural Impact Laboratory (SIMLab) to watch ice researchers from NTNU’s Sustainable Arctic Marine and Coastal Technology programme use a giant machine to simulate what happens when a ship slams into an iceberg.
“Super bacteria” cleaning up after oil spills
Researchers in Trondheim have achieved surprising results by exploiting nature’s own ability to clean up after oil spills.
Lopwood and brushwood make high-grade charcoal
When the forestry machines have finished extracting timber, what is left are tops and branches – waste which cannot be used. However, according to researchers, it is possible to turn these heaps of lopwood into high-quality charcoal.
No danger from magnetic fields in electric cars
Many people are concerned that electric cars produce dangerous magnetic fields. New research shows that this is not the case.
Ancient microbes with industrial potential
Microorganisms that live in the depths of an oil reservoir can withstand such extreme conditions they can be used in harsh chemical processes.