Universidade Federal do Paraná

Today we stayed in Curitiba and spent the day at Universidade Federal do Paraná (UFPR). During our time at the university, we visited the hydraulic laboratory, laboratory of energy production, and the high voltage lab. Lactec is a private company within the university that does a lot with research and development and they are focused on innovation. One of the companies that Lactec does work for is Tractebel Energia, which we visited last week. 

The first place we visited at the university was the hydraulics lab. This lab focuses on creating scaled models of some dams that are used for hydropower in Brazil.  We couldn't take any pictures in this lab because of the contracts that they have with the companies that they are working for. The lab currently had 3 different hydropower plants that they were modeling. These models aren't tiny, they take up a room the size of a warehouse. The models need to built because this type of stuff can't be modeled with computer programs. Some of the things that they were studying were the effects that the water from the dam will have on erosion at the site. There was one dam near a national forest and the lab was using their model to see what kind of affect the dam would have on that. All of the model pieces are handmade and someone glues rocks to the ground of various sizes to mimic what exists at the dam site in real life. The models are also used to test the safety of the dams and to see if the equipment can be made smaller to save on materials and to lessen the amount of land needed for the dam's structure.

The second area we visited was the lab of energy production. They are focusing on using microalgae to generate biodiesel. Micoalgae are unicellular algae with great photosynthetic capability and rapid growth due to their simple structure. This would be a very sustainable way to produce this type of energy. The USA imports more than 60% of its petroleum and are the largest consumers of energy in the world.  This lab uses photobioreactors to produce biodiesel with algae. This is a photo of their system. The algae is constantly moving throughout the system so that everything can obtain some sunlight which is needed for the algae system to function properly.  Otherwise, the stuff in the tubes in the middle would remain in the dark all the time.  Once the algae is ready to be collected, it has to be dried out which takes a lot of time. Only 6% of the algae biomass will become biodiesel, the leftover mass can be used in other ways such as composite material, or feed stock for fish.

We ended up having lunch at the university cafeteria. It made me feel like I was back in high school. As Lauren pointed out, I'm about 10 years older than the youngest college kid there. Isn't that crazy to think about?!?

The last area that we visited was the high voltage lab. I don't really know a lot about electrical or mechanical engineering, but the lab looked really cool.  They do a lot of testing to make sure that equipment in the field, such as transformers, will operate safely and be able to withstand power surges and high voltage.