High Pressure Test System – Simulating Deep Well Conditions
Extreme pressure under the earth affects drilling tools and electronics, so manufacturers of drilling equipment need to test these effects prior to their use in the field to prevent costly accidents. To verify, it is helpful to simulate deep well conditions and subject new tool designs to pressure levels found under the earth’s crust.
Design & Build Fuel Cell Test Systems
Fuel cells are a new clean energy technology that can be used in a wide range of applications, including transportation, material handling, and emergency backup power generation. Many industries today are relying on vehicles powered by Fuel Cell Engines, where hydrogen is used to generate power by a chemical reaction, rather than the typical gasoline-powered combustion engine. This new alternative energy engine produces electricity to drive them, with only water and heat as the waste products – a considerable improvement over the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) produced from traditional gasoline-powered vehicles (and per various scientific studies, did you know that all that additional CO2 emitted over the past 100 yrs has warmed the planet by 50%?).
Enter a new technology looking to replace the traditional gasoline-powered engine – a Fuel Cell.
A prominent Fuel Cell Manufacturing Co was looking for a firm to do final design/build of a new Fuel Cell Test System to test their products under various utility load conditions. The Client was developing Fuel Cell Engines primarily for the material handling and transportation industries for the ever-growing need of Fuel Cell powered equipment and vehicles. As part of their development process, an intensive verification program was planned to ensure their new flagship products can satisfy customer requirements for performance, safety and reliability. The completion of this verification program depended on the Client expanding its current testing infrastructure for larger sized engine products.
For this reason, the Client partnered with Re:Build Optimation to design, fabricate, test, and deliver a fully functional test system to satisfy the program’s requirements.
Turnkey Coating Skid
A manufacturer of nanomaterials for composites had a product that needed to be produced without being touched or disturbed. The company’s product is manufactured continuously on a roll-to-roll web. The end result is a coated wound roll of a delicate powder, which if touched would abrade off and release into the air, becoming a health concern. The manufacturer came to Re:Build Optimation to help solve the issue of how to produce the rolls without damaging the coating.
Catalyst Reactor Test System
Fuel cells are a fast-growing market, and that means there can be quality issues with incoming material, especially with the supply chain disruptions that have been experienced in the last couple years. For one client, using catalyst material that is out of spec can cost them millions of dollars for each unit produced. To help prevent this major disruption and cost, we partnered with the client to create a semi-automated test system that will safely operate at very high temperatures with flammable gas mixtures. The customized test system will be used to ensure the catalyst used in their finished product passes their strict specifications.
Cellulosic Ethanol Fuels The Future (A Comparison To Traditional Ethanol Production)
In today’s world, the demand for sustainable fuel options is higher than ever before. As we face mounting concerns over climate change, rising fuel costs, and dwindling natural resources, the need for renewable energy alternatives is more pressing than ever before.
This is where cellulosic ethanol and chemical engineering come in as game changers. This biofuel is made from non-food plant materials like grasses, wood chips, and agricultural waste. Unlike traditional corn ethanol, cellulosic ethanol doesn’t compete with food production and has a much lower carbon footprint.
Cellulosic ethanol has the potential to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, provide a more reliable and cost-effective fuel supply, and support the growth of rural economies, all the while reducing dependence on foreign oil.
In fact, studies suggest that cellulosic ethanol can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 86% compared to gasoline.
Retrofitted Solvent Coater
New College Institute wanted to train the local workforce in Martinsville, VA. The local economy was primarily textile and furniture manufacturing related, with limited technical positions. Two local film manufacturers, Commonwealth and CP Films, were struggling to have enough qualified resources for their facilities. New College Institute approached Ralph Schultz of Commonwealth to tackle the problem. They determined that a machine was needed to demonstrate the principles of coating and web conveyance (both essential processes in film making), in addition to a classroom setting to teach the principles. Other companies offered solutions that New College Institute couldn’t afford. Schultz then brought in Commonwealth’s longtime supplier, Re:Build Optimation. Re:Build Optimation’s team was able to offer a creative solution that met New College Institute’s budget constraints.
Production Expansion and Solvent Recovery
American Aerogel, a company developing and manufacturing proprietary aerogel insulation products, had been growing rapidly and needed to expand its production capabilities.
Because demand for its product was so high, American Aerogel’s 24/7 operation required new equipment with process improvements to increase production and improve efficiencies.
Because American Aerogel’s products are made with a proprietary one-of-a-kind aerogel called Aerocore, maintaining confidentiality of the products’ chemical makeup and patented manufacturing processes was/is of the utmost importance. Re:Build Optimation continues to honor this confidentiality.
Jet Fuel From Farm Waste
Byogy Renewables, Inc of San Jose, CA is a biofuels organization. The summer Olympics was supposed to be held in Japan in 2020. The theme of the Olympics was to be sustainability. Housing, medals, uniforms and other material were being made from recycled materials. A decision was made that during the Olympics there should be a stadium fly over where the jets were flying on jet fuel made from farm waste. Re:Build Optimation was contacted by an Byogy, American company, who had the contract and rose to the need of the technology and the schedule. We built a system of reactors and stills that converted farm waste to ethanol and then the ethanol to jet fuel. The system designed and built to meet all Japanese mechanical and electrical codes, shipped to Japan and tested. The results were amazingly successful.
Fuel Cell Test Stands
Fuel cells have been around for nearly 200 years, and used commercially for nearly a century. With the growing awareness of the need for more environmentally and energy-efficient power sources, fuel cells are gaining promise as clean energy alternatives in various applications, ranging from transportation and material handling to critical aerospace equipment. This technology uses the chemical energy of hydrogen to cleanly and efficiently generate electricity. As an alternative energy source, hydrogen fuel cells produce only water and heat as waste products – a significant improvement compared to the greenhouse gases produced by traditional fossil fuel combustion-based technologies.
A prominent fuel cell and hydrogen manufacturing company approached Re:Build Optimation Technology to develop test equipment to support their production of hydrogen fuel cells and related equipment such as electrolyzers.
Automated Production Line
Our customer’s patented technology is to adhere a dry food/beverage on a substrate. Their first product is a functional beverage printed on a biodegradable cup. The application is a very efficient way to sell and ship products that previously contained liquid in a liquidless format. The liquid is added at the point of use, this reduces shipping costs and the impact on the environment by requiring less transportation effort to ship the same amount of products. The customer has been producing small batches of their products and selling direct to the consumer. They came to Optimation to ramp up production by having us design and build an Automated Production Line.
