RECENT technical advances and headline projects show how companies with market leadership in high voltage direct current (HVDC) and Ultra HVDC (UHVDC) are pushing the envelope of what these technologies can do.

Since Sweden’s ASEA (now part of Swiss multinational ABB) installed the world’s first commercial HVDC link, under the Baltic Sea to the Swedish island of Gotland in 1954, it has become the technology of choice for transmitting current over very long distances on land or subsea.…

THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) long term budget for 2014-2020 (called the multiannual financial framework (MFF) in Brussels’ famously complex jargon) is currently in limbo following a vote by the European Parliament last month (March) to reject the deal. The political deadlock is not likely to last, nor are the actual figures, agreed by EU heads of government in February, likely to be much changed, though.

A EUROPEAN Union (EU) research project has developed new means of rearranging molecules helping pharma companies manufacture more effective medicines for less money. The four-year Euro EUR3.6 million EUMET project has, claimed a European Commission report “made the process of synthesising compounds simpler, more efficient and greener.”…

A SLOW revolution in the use of biomass for firing or co-firing power generation is picking up pace this year as a number of competing technologies for the production of ‘biocoal’ move more convincingly towards full commercialisation.

Biocoal produced through torrefaction – in which dry biomass such as wood, paper, food waste and even sewerage waste is slow-heated anoxically (to avoid combustion) at 200C to 300C to reduce moisture and drive off low-energy volatile chemicals – offers slightly degraded fuel with lower emissions and carbon footprints (it is carbon neutral) than traditional biomass and, certainly, than coal.…

CHINA’S demonstrable skills in clothing and textile manufacture has yet to yield dividends in the technical textiles field, with the country still relying heavily on imports, especially for high-end products such as carbon fibre, high temperature fibre and medical textiles.

In 2011, China spent USD3.4 billion importing  technical textiles, including woven and unwoven lines, mainly from the US and Japan – up 22.7% from USD2.77 billion during 2010, according to Beijing-based China Nonwovens and Industrial Textiles Associations (CNITA).…

TRANSLITERATION and translation have become inescapable challenges for financial institutions and other companies striving to comply with international sanctions.

Precise identification of a sanctions target named in a foreign language is often difficult, but is essential for efficient screening of transactions that should be controlled or blocked in line with blacklists issued by national authorities (and the European Union (EU)), and those based on the comprehensive list issued by the United Nations (UN) Security Council.…

SCIENTISTS at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, have developed a novel way to make packaged food, including any meat product, safer for consumers and to extend shelf-life by exploiting the germicidal power of ozone, a form of oxygen.

Dr Declan Diver and Dr Hugh Potts of the university’s School of Physics and Astronomy have prototyped a revolutionary system to rapidly, safely and temporarily turn some naturally occurring oxygen inside sealed food packaging into ozone, testing it on poultry products.…

SCIENTISTS in Scotland have developed a novel way to make packaged personal care products safer by exploiting the germicidal power of ozone, a form of oxygen. Researchers at Glasgow University say the electrical ‘plasma’ method safely turns some natural oxygen inside sealed packaging into ozone, which sterilises microbes on contents then reverts spontaneously to oxygen.…

TWO property fraudsters who rooked Allied Irish Banks (AIB) and Bank of Scotland (BoS) for hundreds of millions of pounds in loans were jailed for a total of 12 years in London on January 17, in a case exposing lax lending oversight during the 2003-2008 boom years.…

IN the economic gloom that pervades most of Europe today, it is good to hear some success stories and Germany’s information technology and telecommunications sector is one: German exports from this sector amounted to Euro EUR22.2 billion for January-September 2012, an increase of 3.5% on the same period in 2011, according to the industry federation Bitkom.…