Copper use in current and future applications

Small devices, such as electric toothbrushes, can nowadays be charged without wired connections. Intel, the computer chip manufacturer, is attempting to take this theory one step further. The company has been working on technology that transmits power through wireless transmission, to operate a speaker.

To achieve this, two flat copper coils are used in the technology, each tuned to resonate at a particular frequency. The electromagnetic energy is released from one to the other. If successful, Intel sees the technology as useful for delivering power to laptop computers but it might also grow to replace some ‘fallible’ wires that connect laptop screens through a hinge. Reportedly, the wireless transmission shows efficiency of 90% at distances of up to a meter.

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An interesting overview article on copper, freely downloadable from the website of the Australian copper centre.

Measured by weight, copper is the third most important metal used by man. The annual value of its 2007 output was on a par with the GDP of e.g. Ukraine. Copper is also one of the oldest metals, its employment going back 7000 years. For millennia, it was predominantly employed for decorative purposes, coinage and in warfare. Technical breakthroughs in antiquity, like smelting and alloying, expanded its production and enhanced its utility. Copper’s true heyday occurred after 1850, with the usage of electricity. In the period since then, volumes increased 300-fold, while costs and prices declined. With impressive progress in the technology of its production and consumption, the red metal has been able to hold its own, despite the emergence over history of formidable substitutes like iron, aluminum, plastics and optic fiber.

Worldwide, Copper is used in a wide range of electric motors. In regard to energy efficiency, a relatively small gain in electric motor system efficiency can result in a significant reduction in electricity consumption. In the attached PDF, the merits of motor energy efficiency are documented. Of total global electricity generated, it is estimated that 30-40% is consumed by industrial electric motors. This matter has buoyed interest in energy efficiency, in this field. Improving system efficiency may normally involve installing an inverter drive to enable variable speed control of the motor.

A new International standard, IEC 60034-30:2008, defines new energy efficiency classes for electric motors. The scope of the standard is intended to cover the majority of industrial motors worldwide, as shown in this article: Link

energy-efficient-motor-systems.pdf

Electric motors may contain a significant amount of copper. Reportedly, Direct Current (DC) motors are now growing more popular because of their unique performance advantages over Alternating Current (AC) motors. This popularity is in a wide range of applications from high speed automation to electric motorbikes. The attached article reports on a selection of recent developments in DC motors and drives.

Please click on the link

• Graphene Replaces Copper in Integrated Circuit Interconnects

  Researchers have now experimentally demonstrated the potential for another graphene application: replacing copper for interconnects in future generations of integrated circuits.

  tags: substitution, graphene

• FT.com - Chinalco set to quit $19.5bn Rio deal

  Chinalco is set to walk away from a $19.5bn deal with Rio Tinto following weeks of wrangling over the terms of the transaction, in a dramatic U-turn that sent shares in the Anglo-Australian miner sharply lower.

  tags: trends, copper, rio, chinalco

• CII for reduction in custom duty to save copper (recycling) industry

  The units in Jammu are becoming unviable and unless immediate steps are not taken, 150 such units, which were providing employment to over 10,000 people, may be closed down, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), J&K, Chairman Sanjay Puri told reporters here.

  tags: trends, copper, recycling, india

• Will Grid Parity Change Everything For The Solar Industry?

  However, even when true grid parity arrives, it’s unlikely to generate an abrupt rise in solar system installations due to the high upfront costs and the long-term return of investing in a rooftop photovoltaic system, according to iSuppli Corp. In fact, growth is set to moderate during the years when grid parity arrives for various regions of the world as the industry enters a more mature phase.

  tags: solar, grid, parity

• China to promote energy efficient appliances

  China is planning to promote energy efficient appliances such as air conditioners in a bid to save 75 TW hours of power a year, according to report from Reuters.

  tags: trends, copper, china, airconditioning

• One litre of biodiesel costs 14,000 litres of water | Resources & Recycling

  Biofuels carry a heavy water footprint, although the size of that print varies widely from crop to crop, according to new research from the Netherlands’ University of Twente.

  tags: water, availability, biofuel

• Global Carbon Dioxide Emissions Projected to Increase 39% by 2030

  In the absence of specific policies to limit greenhouse gas emissions, the world’s energy use is expected to increase by 44% between 2006 and 2030, causing a 39% increase in global carbon dioxide emissions, according to DOE’s Energy Information Administration (EIA).

  tags: carbon

• Utilities with the Most Solar Power are Still Adding the Most

  Although the use of solar power is gaining a more diverse following among U.S. electric utilities, the utilities that installed the most solar power in the past continue to lead the nation in installing new solar power capacity.

  tags: solar, utility

• 3-year aluminum plant delay in China

  CHINA will not approve new aluminum plants or expansion projects for the next three years as part of a plan to revitalize the nonferrous metals industry.

  The government also aims to create three to five major nonferrous metals companies by 2011, with the top 10 domestic players controlling 90 percent of copper production, 70 percent of aluminum, 60 percent of lead and 60 percent of zinc in their respective markets, the State Council, China’s Cabinet, said yesterday. A draft of the nonferrous sector rejuvenation plan was unveiled in February when it was approved.

  tags: trends, copper, china

• Doe Run halts production at La Oroya copper/lead/zinc smelter

  Doe Run Peru, the country’s fourth largest metals exporter, said on Tuesday it will halt all operations at its sprawling La Oroya smelter on Wednesday because financial and environmental setbacks have prevented it from buying concentrates.

  The plant, hobbled by financial woes since March, processes lead, zinc and copper. Its work permits could be canceled if it does not meet an October deadline for an environmental cleanup.

  tags: trends, copper, moning

• Buy an S.U.V., Save the Planet - Freakonomics Blog

  To give our brains a break, we might adopt a better way to look at fuel efficiency, aided by the manipulation of a mathematical tool in use in the Indus Valley almost 5,000 years ago — the unglamorous fraction.

  The trick is one that even fourth-graders can master: invert the fraction. Let’s consider not miles per gallon but gallons per mile (or, to make the numbers prettier, gallons per hundred miles). By this metric, we get an unclouded picture: the Prius uses 2.17 gallons per hundred miles, the RAV4 uses 4.17, and the Range Rover uses 7.14.

  Thanks to the mileage mirage, our efforts as a society may be somewhat misplaced. There are plenty of policy ideas afoot to get people into state-of-the-art, fuel-efficient cars, but a lot less interest in simply getting people out of the worst gas guzzlers into moderately more efficient alternatives, even within the same fuel-hungry class.

  tags: MPG, hybrid

• Volvo and Vattenfall join forces on plug-in hybrids

  Volvo will manufacture the cars and Vattenfall will develop the charging systems to supply the cars with electricity. In theory, Volvo’s hybrid vehicles will plug directly into a regular household socket.

  tags: plug-in, volvo, vattenfall, energy, efficiency

• Top 7 Issues for an Electric Car Conversion

  “The Chevy Volt is going to cost about $40,000, but a conversion costs about $15,000,” said Moore. “Until the car companies can get the prices under control, people will want conversions. It’s going to be like that for quite a while.” Moore sees dramatic interest in conversions from all across the country. His customer list includes people from Texas to New Jersey.

  tags: hybrid, conversion

• European Stainless Steel Market May Have Bottomed Out

  An air of optimism has been apparent in European stainless markets in may 2009, especially for coil products, despite there being no sign of an upturn in underlying demand. After many months of plummeting transaction values, basis prices have increased, with alloy surcharges to follow suit in June 2009. Perhaps, for those whose business is buying and selling stainless steel, this is reason enough to smile.

  There are numerous factors to suggest that the bottom of the current cycle has been reached. Producers’ capacities and inventories have been cut to reflect current activity levels. As a result, delivery leadtimes are growing and some items may soon be in short supply. Furthermore, recently published indices in both the UK and Germany showed improved confidence levels among business professionals.

  tags: stainless, steel

• Heat Recovery - Energy Solutions

  * Micro-channel aluminium condensers, that reduce refrigerant charge while increasing the effectiveness of heat exchange;

  tags: energy, efficiency, cooling

• Will the Chevy Volt Survive Bankruptcy?

  President Barack Obama gave little direct indication about the future of the Volt in his press conference this morning about GM’s bankruptcy.

  tags: hybrid

• When will water use enter power generation debate?

  Perhaps Ontario doesn’t have to worry as much because it sits along Lake Ontario and Lake Erie, but I’m surprised that in other jurisdictions there hasn’t been more discussion related to the water requirements of thermoelectric power plants.

  tags: water, availability, energy

• Copper production rises in Iran

  Copper production rises in Iran
  Tehran, June 1, IRNA – The Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization (IMIDRO) reported on Monday that the production level of copper has increased in Iran in recent years.

  tags: trends, copper, mining, iran

• IBM: Firms want to be responsible, but lack proper data

  The IBM survey found that only 30 per cent of respondents’ firms are collecting data frequently enough to make strategic decisions that address inefficiencies across eight major categories: carbon dioxide, water, waste, energy, sustainable procurement, labor standards, product composition and product lifecycle. Twenty-four percent collect this information monthly, while another 32 per cent do so no more than quarterly.

  tags: efficiency

• A first for solar firms: PV performance insurance

  Photovoltaics firm Signet Solar has inked what might be a first in the renewables industry (PDF): a 25-year insurance plan that covers the performance warranty of Signet’s solar modules.

  Implemented by insurance provider Munich Re, the plan is designed to protect against the risk of performance deterioration in Signet’s photovoltaics. Signet guarantees that its modules will perform to at least 90 per cent capacity in the first 10 years and to at least 80 per cent in the remaining 15 years.

  tags: photovoltaics

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Three copper alloy tubes for air conditioners are expected to be certified as Japanese Industrial Standards this July. The copper alloy tubes increase strength by adding trace elements such as tin and cobalt. With the level of copper use lowered, the final cost of these products is reduced.

KHRT, HRS35LT and MA5J are the tags given to the new standards. Currently, Kobelco & Materials Copper Tube, Ltd., reportedly the largest manufacturer of copper alloy tubes in Japan, produces around 200 tonnes of the tubes per month. This standardization will eliminate its exclusive production system, and increase adoption by other copper tube manufacturers. The volume of these 3 tubes is likely to increase at least two fold.

4 June 2009
Japan Metal Daily

Following the introduction of copper metallization for logic device manufacturing, Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) copper barrier-seed, and copper electrochemical deposition (ECD), are now being used for the production of DRAM and Flash memory chips. The memory chip transition from aluminium metallization to copper interconnects is being driven by the technological challenges associated with device scaling, and the need to reduce memory chip manufacturing cost.

“As memory technology transitions to copper interconnects, the 3x/2xnm device dimensions are placing stringent technical and cost requirements on the Ta(N) barrier layer,” said Dr. Wai-Fan Yau, general manager for Novellus’ Integrated Metals Business Unit. “The new IONX XL barrier film meets these advanced technical demands and also provides a significant reduction in consumable costs.” Novellus Systems, Inc is a provider of advanced process equipment for the global semiconductor industry.

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