Green Engineering Technical Library

Green Engineering Overview

An introduction to the terminology and trends behind green engineering

Environmental and Emissions Monitoring

Technologies to quantify emissions, air/water quality, and other metrics

Solar - Photovoltaics (PV) and Thermal

Solar testing and research applications

Wind Power Generation

Wind power engineering and development

Renewable Energy

Hydro, wave power, and other renewable technologies

Power Quality

Power quality monitoring and power metering

Optimizing Machinery

Improving the efficiency of industrial equipment and processes

Development and Test of Green Technologies and Cleantech 

Validation and design of emerging greentech

Automotive and Transportation

Hybrid vehicles, emissions testing applications

Energy Storage - Fuel Cells, Batteries, and others

Development and test of fuel cells, battery technologies

Green Engineering Overview

National Instruments enables green engineering with the graphical system design platform, providing measurement, automation, and design tools to measure and understand real-world data, then to correct or fix the problem by designing and developing more efficient products and technologies.

• Green Engineering: Improving the Environment and the Bottom Line - An introduction to the trends, terminology, and technology that is influencing greener product design and engineering development.
• Webcast: Engineering Greener Products and Technologies - A 20 minute video covering the enabling technologies of green engineering including high-speed and high-resolution measurements, domain-specific analysis and signal processing, advanced control, and embedded system development.
• National Instruments Green Engineering Portal - Green engineering is the use of measurement and control techniques to design, develop, and improve products, technologies, and processes for environmental and economic benefits.
• Case Studies: Improving the World with Green Engineering – Five applications including environmental and pollutant emissions, reducing herbicide usage, integrating wind power, and improving the efficiency of engines.
• Green Engineering Industry and Educational Partners – The leading industry and educational programs and organizations that are fostering solutions to today's toughest environmental challenges.

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Environmental and Emissions Monitoring

From monitoring the integrity of soil, water, and air to regulating the amount of chemicals large production facilities emit into the environment, hardware and software tools from National Instruments can be distributed in harsh environments and deliver data-logging, analysis, and measurement capabilities.

• Environmental and Emissions Monitoring - With the increased focus on the effects of climate change on the environment, there has been a global effort to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases that cause them. There is a growing need to measure and monitor the environment.
• Case Study: Environmental Monitoring in the Costa Rican Rain Forest - A wireless monitoring system, measuring the exchange of carbon dioxide (CO2) between the atmosphere and the forest floor.
• Case Study: Monitoring Stack Gas Emissions - A PAC-based system for analyzing and reporting mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants.
• Case Study: Reducing the Emissions and Costs of Turbine-Engine Stimulation - Replacing a diesel engine with a more efficient turbine-based system.
• Case Study: EcoMonitor - Air Quality Continuous Monitoring System - Automated continuous monitoring of exhaust gases produced by boilers and industrial furnaces in a pulp and paper factory.

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Solar - Photovoltaics (PV) and Thermal

Efficiently converting solar energy into solar power or electricity is a major engineering challenge. Two common technologies for solar electricity generation are photovoltaic (sunlight is converted directly to electricity) and solar thermal (the sun heats water and creates steam that is then used to power steam engines).

• Solar Power Engineering and Development - Learn how engineers and researchers use NI technologies to design, prototype, and deploy solar thermal systems or photovoltaic systems for solar power generation.
• Case Study: Thermomax Tests Evacuated Tube Solar Collectors Using NI LabVIEW and FieldPoint - Automated testing of premium-quality equipment for converting solar radiation into thermal energy.
• Case Study: Development of a test facility for photovoltaic-diesel hybrid energy systems - Quantify the potential for performance improvements of photovoltaic-diesel (PV-diesel) hybrid energy systems with LabVIEW.
• Case Study: Development of a LabVIEW-based test facility for standalone PV systems - A data acquisition (DAQ) system for a battery array and a solar array simulator (SAS).
• Case Study: Development of a monitoring system for a PV solar plant - An integrated monitoring system for environmental variables and the photovoltaic (PV) plant electrical output parameters, including the plant I–V curve.
• Case Study: Development of Equipment for Monitoring PV Power Plants, using Virtual Instrumentation - A year-long monitoring project of the performance and the energy quality of a PV power plant interconnected to the local grid under the BIPVS (building integrated photovoltaic systems) concept.

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Wind Power Generation

Wind power has become an important source of renewable energy around the world. Engineers across the wind power industry are using NI technologies to conduct research, from the design and manufacturing of wind turbine blades to online machine condition monitoring for turbines deployed at wind farms.

• Engineering Tools for Wind Power Systems - Learn how engineers and researchers are applying NI LabVIEW software and hardware to monitor vibration on wind turbines, design better control algorithms, and manufacture turbine blades.
• Case Study: Integrating Wind Power with the Grid - As wind power becomes a larger source of generated electricity, it is critical to ensure that wind farms are not damaged during disturbances on the grid.
• Case Study: A LabVIEW Based Instrumentation System for a Wind-Solar Hybrid Power Station - A LabVIEW based real time data acquisition and instrumentation system of a 1.5 kW wind-solar hybrid renewable energy ststion.

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Renewable Energy

Renewable energy is an area of significant investment and importance for future generations. The engineers and scientists who are solving these challenges today are using National Instruments technologies to develop and deliver tomorrow’s solutions for a sustainable environment.

• Renewable Energy - Learn how NI technology is helping improve the viability of existing technologies and helping researchers find alternatives.
• Case Study: Development of an integrated data-acquisition system for renewable energy sources systems monitoring - A DAQ system for monitoring both meteorological (e.g. temperature, humidity etc.) and electrical parameters (photovoltaic voltage and current etc.).
• Case Study: Novel Control of a Permanent Magnet Linear Generator for Ocean Wave Energy Applications - Control of a three-phase active rectifier used with a permanent magnet linear generator (PMLG).

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Power Quality

Power quality analysis requires high-speed, waveform data acquisition and analysis software capable of measuring root-mean-square (RMS), power factor, frequency analysis, and harmonic analysis in phase over multiple channels.

• Power Quality Monitoring - An introduction to the technologies and analysis to understand electrical power consumption and waste.
• Power Quality Monitoring and Power Metering Tutorial - Understanding the basics of power generation and transmission including three-phase power analysis and quantifying power disturbances.
• Electrical Power Measurement - Transducers and Sensors Guide - A brief introduction to current and voltage sensors.
• Case Study: Real-Time Monitoring and Analysis System for Power Quality - Monitoring, analyzing, and simulating the power quality of commercial and industrial facilities.

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Optimizing Machinery

A large percentage of equipment and technology used in today's industrial facilities, manufacturing plants, and a wide range of other areas was originally designed and implemented decades ago. Lately, there has been an ever-increasing emphasis on machine and automation efficiency, performance, and quality control.

• Optimizing the Efficiency of Existing Systems - Learn about recent advancements in PC-based measurement and control technologies that have provided rugged and cost-effective systems to complement and integrate with existing automation systems and machines.
• Case Study: Improving the Efficiency of Large Internal Combustion Engines - Validating new, more efficient controllers for engines with a LabVIEW and PXI-based engine simulator.
• Case Study: Green Engineering Applied at Nucor Steel - Learn how automation systems helped increase the safety and efficiency of a steel mill.

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Development and Test of Green Technologies and Cleantech

Never has the need for test and validation been greater. As the pace of green and environmental innovation has increased, so has the pressure to get new, differentiated products to market quickly. For applications ranging from composting to automated plastics sorting for recycling, learn how the wide variety of NI tools can solve the most challenging applications.

• Development and Test of Environmentally Friendly Products and Technologies - Learn about commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components for implementing high-performance measurements, control, and automation.
• Case Study: NI Machine Vision Provides a Cost-Effective Plastic Sorting System for Recycling - An automated sorting system for clear transparent PETE plastic performed at a fast rate of 40 parts per second.
• Case Study: Controlling Composting with LabVIEW - Monitoring, reporting and controlling the temperature of a five-step sludge composting process.
• Case Study: Using NI FieldPoint and LabVIEW Real-Time to Perform Closed-System Experiments at the Prototype Laboratory Biosphere - Performing data acquisition from a wide range of sensors, archiving, retrieval and graphical presentation of the results, and the ability to remotely control HVAC and other critical mechanical systems in real time.

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Automotive and Transportation

From CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) regulations to zero emissions development to hybrid vehicle research, engineers in the automotive industry are working diligently to reduce fuel consumption and increase the eco-friendliness of modern automobiles.

• EcoCAR and ChallengeX – University engineering student competitions focused on green technologies for automotive propulsion, fuels, materials, and emissions-control.
• Case Study: Virginia Tech Wins Challenge X 2006 Hybrid Vehicle Competition with Design Based on NI CompactRIO - A competition to reduce total energy consumption and emissions in a crossover vehicle while maintaining or exceeding vehicle utility and performance.
• Case Study: Emissions Testing Fuel Handling System - Control system for fuel dispensing during Federal (EPA) emissions tests for the DaimlerChrysler Proving Grounds.
• Automotive Fuel Cell Test Technologies and Partners - Learn about test systems that can provide flexible data acquisition, monitoring, and control to precisely handle fuel cell operation and experiments.

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Energy Storage - Fuel Cells and Batteries

With recent innovations, fuel cells are becoming potential power sources for automobiles, residences, portable electronics, and other electrical power applications. The research and commercialization of fuel cells is a challenging electrical test application requiring new combinations of measurements that are not addressed by fundamental instrumentation.

• Energy Storage Systems Overview - Energy storage systems (ESSs) and renewable energy sources are critical technologies that combine to create power generation and transportation. ESSs also need to be renewable..
• Fuel Cell Testing Tutorial - Techniques and tools for research, design, validation, and production testing of fuel cells, including proton exchange membrane (PEM), phosphoric acid fuel cells (PAFCs), and solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs).
• Fuel Cell Testing with the NI PXI-4070 FlexDMM - An overview of fuel cell testing and measurement system requirements.
• Example Program: Advanced Measurements Fuel Cell Test LabVIEW Demo - A LabVIEW demo for fuel cell testing, monitoring, and control.

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