Florian Neubauer, a graduate engineer from the Giessen -Friedberg University of Applied Sciences, has received a prestigious award for his diploma thesis. Mainova AG awarded the 26-year-old from Taunusstein its "Climate Partner Prize," which comes with a €5,000 prize.
The young engineer completed his studies in Building Services Engineering at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Microtechnology, Energy and Heat Engineering (MMEW) at the Giessen -Friedberg University of Applied Sciences in 2006. In his diploma thesis, supervised by Prof. Dr. Fritz Richarts, he examined natural gas pressure regulating systems from a thermodynamic and energy economic perspective. Because natural gas is transported over long distances at high pressure, which must be reduced before reaching the consumer, gas pressure regulating systems are required. The energy released during the gas expansion can be utilized by employing a special turbine. Its advantage lies in the fact that it generates electricity without requiring any additional primary energy input. Since the natural gas cools down considerably during this process, it must be preheated to prevent the system from freezing. As a diploma student, Florian Neubauer investigated both the technical and economic aspects of such systems and evaluated various preheating methods. He also incorporated ecological criteria and identified ways to significantly reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Because his work, in the opinion of the expert jury, demonstrated the highest level of innovation among all submissions, he was awarded the highest level of the annual "Climate Partner" award. The award winner quickly found employment. Florian Neubauer now works at Netzdienste Rhein-Main in the planning and management of district heating projects.
The third prize, a further award of €1000 from Mainova AG, went to a graduate engineer who studied at the Department Mechanical and Electrical Engineering (MMEW) at the University of Applied Sciences Giessen -Friedberg. Andreas Wirths, a graduate student at the Institute of Thermodynamics at the Technical University of Dresden, had designed a storage technology for the further development of renewable energies.