KuzSTU's young engineers have proposed effective solutions for the industry

In the XIII International Engineering CASE-IN Championship, 23 teams presented solutions in the areas of "Project Engineering" and "Electric Power Industry". These industries are the foundation for the sustainable development of industry: energy projects ensure the stability of electricity supply even in the most remote regions, and engineering solutions help to prevent and eliminate the consequences of environmental accidents.

Project engineering

PJSC SIBUR Holding, a manufacturer of petrochemical products, invited the teams to develop projects for mobile quick–deploy oil spill response systems, including those using supersorbents, materials with high sorption capacity capable of absorbing petroleum products without absorbing water and operating in extreme conditions from -40°C to +50°C.

The students' decisions were evaluated by representatives of KAO Azot, Auditstroyproekt LLC, and KuzSTU teachers. According to the director of the Construction Institute Andrey Pokatilov, this year the participants prepared particularly mature and detailed presentations of ideas, demonstrating a new level of approach to engineering challenges.

The NFFL team (Stepan Afonin, Ulyana Feoktistova, Mikhail Goncharov, Nikita Rusakov) became the winner in this direction for the second year in a row. Their mobile complex, housed in a 20-foot container based on the KAMAZ-6350, stores supersorbents created by electrospinning and sol-gel technologies. These materials increase the absorption efficiency of petroleum products by 55%.

The complex includes variable modules, including a reconnaissance drone. After the oil spill signal, he quickly examines the accident area, determining the extent of contamination. Based on these data, the optimal type of sorbent and an action plan are selected. The complex automatically supplies sorbents, installs booms, collects petroleum products with vacuum installations, after which the waste is recycled or disposed of.

"A comprehensive solution based on supersorbents and mobile fast-turning complexes can significantly speed up the elimination of spills: their elimination time is reduced by 40%. Localization of supersorbent production in Russia – in the Tyumen region – reduces logistical costs, and the integration of unmanned systems accelerates primary exploration and optimizes the operation of the entire complex. The project is planned to be implemented by 2030," the winners explained.

The second place was taken by the "Experts" team (Gleb Aredakov, Sergey Shchur, Alexandra Bortnikova, Kirill Miroshkin). Fourth-year students of the Construction Institute have developed three complexes, the most effective of which was the mobile complex "Siberia 3". It is capable of eliminating up to 20 m3 of spills, and its deployment rate is 4 minutes.

The complex uses the Megasorb sorbent with 98.5% oil absorption and 99% oil extraction. Unlike analogues, it allows not only to collect pollution, but also to process oil for reuse. The payback period of the mobile complex will be 2.5 years, and the repeated use of sorbents will reduce the cost of purchasing materials.

The Vishenki team (Andrey Gordeev, Alexander Romanov, Vladislav Sozygashev, Anastasia Evtiheeva) became the bronze medalists. The students developed three types of filled containers to quickly eliminate an oil spill. The differences between the containers are in the composition of sorbents: magnetic liquid (MF) based on industrial iron–containing waste, aerogel made of graphene and Teflon, as well as PRO-OIL sorbent mats made of hydrophobic fibers.

The most effective, according to the team, will be a container with MF. It has not only an in-line oil purification method that does not require stand-alone equipment, but also a cheaper production method. With proper use, the sorbent can be used up to 25 times. The solution will require investments of up to 16 billion rubles per enterprise with a five-year planning horizon, but will significantly reduce current losses from spills, estimated at 15.5 billion dollars annually.

Electric power industry

The partner of the direction was the company PJSC ROSSETI is one of the largest electric grid companies in the world in terms of length of lines and transformer capacity. The teams needed to develop technical solutions for the construction of high-voltage lines between large-scale generation and energy-deficient regions. The expert commission at the qualifying stage included specialists from the branch of PJSC ROSSETI Siberia – Kuzbassenergo-RES, JSC Novo-Kemerovo TPP and Kemerovo RDU.

The decision of the Kuzbass Express team (Anastasia Ustyuzhanina, Andrey Vorobyov, Maxim Bastrygin, Yaroslav Avdeev) was recognized as the best. – champions of the last season of the Autumn Cup CASE-IN. The team proposed to build a high-voltage direct current line (HPT) between the Novovoronezh NPP and the Moscow-1 substation.

Unlike traditional AC lines, LPT requires the installation of specialized converters, but it has several advantages: it is more cost-effective on long routes, occupies less space, reduces environmental impact and allows the integration of renewable energy sources.

The innovative part of the solution was the introduction of a digital twin, a virtual copy of the power system, whose status is monitored in real time. The technology automatically detects anomalies, such as damage to insulators, and switches scheduled maintenance to "actual condition" repairs.

According to the team members, LPT provides power transmission of up to 1,000 MW, reduces electricity losses from 6-8% to 2-3%, and saves up to 150 million kWh per year. In addition, the solution is consistent with the strategy of innovative development of the energy system and can help strengthen the international position of PJSC ROSSETI.

The decision of the team "Volk@.ru " (Danila Kirkin, Vadim Mikhno, Tatiana Shubkina) the experts awarded the second place. Like the winners of the direction, the silver medalists analyzed the options for transferring power from the Novovoronezh NPP to the Moscow region and compared the efficiency of AC and DC lines.

According to their calculations, DC technologies provide lower energy losses and are economically advantageous for long-distance transmission. Additionally, the team reviewed the projected increase in energy consumption in Moscow and proposed implementing automated control systems, developing distributed generation, and taking measures to reduce operating costs to reduce the power shortage.

The ARA team rounded out the top three (Angelina Lilyaeva, Ruslan Khaidarov, Anastasia Lepikhina). In the Moscow region, students identified an annual increase in energy consumption of 1.81% and a shortage of 1,200 MW capacity in winter. To make up for the shortage, future power engineers proposed transferring 1.5 GW of power from the Kursk and Novovoronezh nuclear power plants with minimal losses.

The team considered direct current transmission with a linear switching converter and a full bridge circuit to be the optimal solution, which proved to be better in terms of controllability, reliability and environmental friendliness. This option will save 65.86 billion rubles over 50 years, reduce losses by 60 MW and increase the network's resilience to accidents. In addition, the project can contribute to the development of domestic technologies, including the production of IGBT transistor modules for high-power and voltage control.

The next stage of the CASE-IN engineering championship includes the teams that took the first place in the qualifying stage of their field. The full-time final will be held in Moscow at the end of May. The participants will finalize their solutions and present them to the expert community.

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