Regional industry benefits from FHV research

The Josef Ressel Center for Intelligent Thermal Energy Systems has both advanced the development of innovative technologies and further strengthened the FHV's position as a reliable partner for applied research in close cooperation with industry," emphasized research director and head of the Josef Ressel Center Markus Preißinger on the occasion of the results presentation as part of the final event. From 2020 to 2025, an interdisciplinary, eight-person team of scientists worked on the four research areas of expert systems and intelligent report management, predictive maintenance and control, optimized operational management and system design, as well as different types of machine learning.

Application-oriented cutting-edge research

Josef Ressel Centers (JRZ) are support centers at universities of applied sciences that are financed by the federal government and its partners. “This Josef Ressel Center at the FHV is an example of application-oriented, cutting-edge research in Vorarlberg. Not only were innovative technologies developed here, but new standards were also set for the connection between research and practice. This project shows that Vorarlberg is a region in which cutting-edge research is directly translated into sustainable and economically relevant solutions,” said Economics Councilor Marco Tittler.

Use optimization potential

The research results made it clear that industry benefits as a partner from FHV research. The transfer of scientific findings into practice has been successful in the form of innovations. The corporate partners involved included DieffenbacherEnergy GmbH, Gantner Instruments GmbH, Netzer MSR GmbH, Rupp AG and Weiderwärmepumpen GmbH. “We are now not only realigning our refrigeration system, but also optimizing it comprehensively – with a view to cold, heat and the entire energy balance. We use the optimization potential to shape the future positively by deriving valuable insights for other projects,” summarized Stefan Walter, Chief Operating Officer at Rupp AG.

Innovations made in Vorarlberg

The team from the Josef Ressel Center at the FHV, together with the corporate partners, provided important impulses for innovations made in Vorarlberg. With a flexible data acquisition and real-time data platform, Gantner Instruments GmbH provided the Josef Ressel Center for Intelligent Thermal Energy Systems with reliable and high-quality data for analysis and subsequent system optimization. “In intensive exchange with the team, we received valuable feedback for the further optimization of our analysis functions and the real-time digital twins,” gave project manager and VP Energy at Gantner Instruments, Jürgen Sutterlüti, an insight.

By storing previously unused operational data with different technologies as part of research, it is now available for use by Vorarlberg companies and the research community for further optimization approaches. Companies benefit from this in the form of energy and cost savings. Specifically, the JRZ for Intelligent Thermal Energy Systems presented the following results:

• Prediction method for thermal power plants: DieffenbacherEnergy uses the developed prediction methods to optimize the operational management of its power plants and uses a cloud system from Gantner Instruments.
• Optimization of cooling systems in the food industry: By implementing model predictive control and using cloud data analytics, Rupp AG increased the energy and cost efficiency of cooling systems.
• Heat pump systems of the future: In collaboration with Weider Heat Pumps, the data was continuously analyzed in a cloud environment in order to identify and correct faulty operating states at an early stage. This increased the reliability and efficiency of heat pump systems.
• Energy-efficient control of ventilation systems: By combining machine learning and expert knowledge, the researchers developed intelligent control strategies. This minimized the energy requirements of Netzer MSR ventilation systems.
• Three current doctoral theses on the following topics: Utilizing the flexibilities of heat pump systems for demand side management (Christian Baumann), modeling and optimization of thermal energy systems with a focus on increasing energy efficiency and reducing operating costs in industrial plants (Philipp Wohlgenannt), analysis and improvement of predictive Maintenance models for monitoring thermal power plants (Gleb Prokhorskii)

The Josef Ressel Center not only enabled the direct transfer of scientific findings into practice, but also promoted the exchange between research and teaching. “The students who completed their master’s thesis in the Sustainable Energy Systems course as part of the project are providing new impetus in thermal energy technology as urgently needed specialists. “Three doctoral students will soon be completing their work on the topic and will strengthen the reputation of the FHV Energy Research Center in the scientific community,” Preißinger concluded.