Sweden: First Buffer Tank receives P-Mark Certificate
The buffer tank Ecoscience by Swedish tank manufacturer Fueltech Sweden AB is the first tank to receive the P-Mark certification. After one year of testing and paper work, the P-labelling of the 520 litre tank with fresh-water station and external solar loading module was approved at the beginning of November 2010. P-Mark is a quality mark developed by SP, the Swedish National Testing and Research Institute. To receive the label, a product must fulfil requirements in four different categories: efficiency, safety, documentation and manufacturing quality.
Photo: Fueltech Sweden
Ecoscience is the new brand name of a series of solar thermal solutions marketed by Austrian company Salzburger Aluminium AG, which is the parent company of Fueltech Sweden AB. “We launched a set of highly integrated solar thermal systems in February this year,” Fritz Wintersteller, Head of the Business Development responsible for Ecoscience, explains. The special feature of the system developed by Fueltech: One central controller regulating the solar circuit, as well as the back-up boiler. If larger water volumes are necessary, the tanks can be extended by adding one or several other buffer tanks.
Ecoscience tanks incorporate an aluminium reservoir, the core business of the Salzburger Aluminium AG. “We produce between 1 and 1.5 million aluminium fuel tanks and air pressure vessels for trucks per year,” says Wintersteller. He does not see any corrosion problems, because the tanks are filled with heating water, and neither fresh water, nor air is getting in contact with the aluminium walls: “We use a high-quality aluminium alloy, and all the stainless steel heat exchangers are mounted outside the tank”.
Involved in the development of the tank’s insulation was SCA Packaging Group. An EPP (Expanded polypropylene) foam is used together with a reflective foil at the outside of the tank. The Ecoscience models are delivered completely insulated. Sales in Sweden have already begun. The first commercial demonstration projects in Austria and Belgium have now also been installed.
More information:
http://www.ecoscience.se/de/home.html
