AirQon Journal 2022: get an update about Breda's AirQon Project

We are in the midst of a global context marked, first of all, by economic uncertainty. We can cite as examples the economic cooling due to the pandemic, followed by a post-covid demand shock recently experienced, or how we are currently threatened by inflation and the risk of economic recession in the main economies of the world. Furthermore, there is a trending scarcity of certain raw materials and components, such as chips and semiconductors.

At the same time, another important factor is environmental awareness –fortunately, widely spread throughout the world– in favour of air quality in our communities as well as responsible use of natural resources. All this leads to a straight commitment towards reducing direct emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases; minimizing the carbon footprint in economic activities of any kind and nature; and orientating production towards recycling, reutilization and reduction of necessary resources for manufacturing.

Finally, and closely related to the previous factors, we find tensions in the energy sector. Not only in terms of prices, a fundamental factor which has experienced an increase of around 50% in the period 2008-2022 according to Eurostat, but also in terms of environmental impact (leading to the closure of coal power plants, reopening or new construction of nuclear power plants, etc.), involving as well potential situations of scarcity, unavailability and unreliability of power supply in areas such as Central Europe. All this demonstrates, in the end, how a sustainable balance must be sought for the energies to move our world, their associated costs and their environmental impact.

United Nations synthesizes very clearly this trend with the Sustainable Development Goals for 2030, covering all areas of human activity, from transport to industry, energy, homes, and even any other aspect more closely related to the development of communities, such as availability of food, education or health resources.

Obviously, the events sector is not left out of this context, in the same way as cities, whose urban communities concentrate 55% of the world's population according to World Bank, and transportation activities, which represent more than 20% of global CO₂ emissions according to the International Energy Agency. Having this framework, AirQon is based on the pillars of commitment to decarbonization, promotion of green energy sources and design of efficient solutions in the use of resources.

Events are traditionally linked to the use of diesel generators. Whether they are large or small events, located in the city with a distribution network available nearby or in the countryside in the middle of nowhere… Diesel generators are a constant. But an event in full swing does not have the same energy requirements as in its first days of set up, or the day when everything is finally dismantled. Therefore, the operation regime of these generators is not always the same, neither their performance –in fact, it is worse the further it operates from its nominal capacity– nor, consequently, their emissions and fuel consumption. Above all this, a fact draws attention: the lack of regulatory requirements in diesel generator emissions.

Making a simple parallelism, vehicles have different EURO regulations to limit their pollutants and promote technical development to significantly reduce the level of emissions year by year. However, for diesel generators, this absence of limits may lead to being laxer when it comes to sizing what is needed for a given event, for instance. Or being less strict in maintenance actions, or less demanding in investing, renovating or improving this equipment. In short, if there are no clear requirements, the cheapest generators are likely to be chosen, no matter what their pollution implications are.

It is therefore a must to foster alternative power solutions to those based on fossil fuels, which have a direct impact with their local emissions on the communities where the events are held. Moreover, electrification of transport, the evolution of energy storage solutions, a greater availability of distributed renewable generation solutions and the use of the local electricity network are factors that make feasible today to materialize competitive, sustainable and greener solutions like the one developed within the AirQon Project.

Decarbonization of transport is one of the greatest technical revolutions that we are experiencing in recent years. In little more than a decade, the electric vehicle has evolved from being a concept solution to become another option in the portfolio of car manufacturers, and a fully integrated actor in our cities.

The generalization of the electric car can be understood under the influence of various factors. Firstly, leasing plans are increasingly widespread models. They acted as an excellent lever to widen the electric vehicle market in countries such as Belgium and the Netherlands, where these plans cover, respectively, 95% and 80% of electric vehicles.

In the Netherlands, electric cars represent 1.5% of the 8 million nationwide registered cars. Indeed, in this country, the relevance of leasing plans is not only limited to electric vehicles, since 60% of petrol-based cars are linked to these plans as well. The increasing success of leasing plans lies in the recent difficulties for direct purchase of vehicles due to supply chain problems, shortage of certain components, etc., which ultimately leads to certain unavailability of stock. In addition to this, inflation makes it difficult for families to make high investments such as the direct purchase of a car. Furthermore, cultural aspects are present when choosing between owning or not a vehicle, as in the case of housing options.

Secondly, in the Netherlands private companies have been the first movers to switch to electric mobility, encouraged by strong tax incentives. At the same time, company cars become an opportunity to extend electric mobility, in the sense that using an electric vehicle for work purposes may lead a person to be interested in this technology for personal use. Even electric cars are used by companies as an additional incentive for their employees, or as a factor for talent attraction, in addition to the positive image projected as a sustainable, efficient, modern corporation.

Furthermore, the AirQon solution, where electric vehicles become a source of energy, materialize a dual purpose for cars: they operate as a powering tool –literally, and whether for personal or professional use, by means of individual private owners, company fleet cars, car sharing, carpooling or leasing plans or any other formula– and as a mean of transport. Indeed, in a certain way, the electric vehicle could be considered as a facilitator of energy distribution and demand electrification, thanks to these applications for vehicle-to-load, vehicle-to-grid, vehicle-to-home, etc. This significantly contributes, therefore, to the generalization of electricity as an efficient energy driver, together with the progressive growing of electricity grids.

Thirdly, and last but not least, there is a change in the mindset of end users. Mobility, supported by the aforementioned factors, has definitely become a service. For instance, the presence of electric scooters sharing services has increased rapidly to the point that, in practice, they can be found in any medium-sized city, together with bikepooling and car sharing services, plus an increase in the use of public transport. So, in conclusion, end users opt for versatility, in the sense that they can move with total intermodality, choosing the most convenient means at all times, with total flexibility –for example, by downloading and using an app-based mobility service in a couple of minutes. In this context, the possibility of using electric cars, whether privately owned or not, as power sources significantly multiplies their potential. The future of the electric vehicle is nothing but an opportunity for a disruptive, cutting‑edge solution like AirQon.

Diesel generators are the main source of environmental pollution in events. The main categories of air quality pollutants emitted by them are fine dust (also known as PM2.5), soot (masses of impure carbon particles resulting from the incomplete combustion of hydrocarbons), and ultrafine dust (also known as Ultrafine Particles, UFP). In addition to this, noise levels are assessed as another impacting effect of diesel-powered engines.

A specific living lab measurement campaign was carried out in AirQon to assess the emissions of two of the most common configurations of diesel generators used in events: 100 kVA capacity diesel generators, which correspond to medium-sized power sources, and 15 kVA capacity diesel generators, which are small-sized ones. Events are normally powered by using those capacities, or an aggregation of several units of those sizes.

The measurement campaign took place outdoors on the premises of the Utrecht University, in an open space located far from strong polluting sources such as highways or industries. Data acquisition was performed over 10 days in October 2020 by locating backpack kits at different distances from the diesel generators, which are the pollutant emitting sources: 3 meters, 10 meters and 25 meters. In the case of 3-meter distance, it represents the effect typically perceived by staff that works in the event itself. 10 meters is the distance for people located nearby diesel generators, as in the case of a food court powered by this kind of generators. And last, but not least, 25-meter distance reflects the effect perceived by any attendee to an event, not directly exposed to the emitting sources, as in the case of anyone in the dance areas or other similar open spaces.

Moreover, measurements were made considering favourable or not wind conditions, while diesel generators were connected and in operation. In addition to this, background conditions were also measured having them disconnected to determine airborne pollutants and clearly evidence the direct impact due to diesel generators and their emissions.

Throughout the whole test period, the presence of UFP due to the 15 kVA generator goes from 8,000 particles per cubic centimeter of air in the baseline scenario to 16,500 measured at 25 meters, 18,800 at 10 meters or 120,300 at 3 meters. However, the 100 kVA generator leads to lower values: from a baseline of 7,200 particles per cubic centimeter of air, to 13,000, 8,000 and 12,000 at 25 meters, 10,000 meters and 3 meters, respectively. Therefore, in both cases emissions measured at a distance of 25 meters are twice the value of those measured in the baseline scenario, which evidences the magnitude of the local impact of diesel-powered solutions.

The impact due to PM2.5 is lower. In the case of the 15 kVA generator, from 10 microgram per cubic meter of air in the baseline scenario, emissions raised to 12 microgram per cubic meter of air measured at 25 meters, 13 at 10 meters or 26 at 3 meters. In the case of the 100 kVA generator, emissions remained as well in the same order of magnitude: 21 microgram per cubic meter of air in the baseline scenario, 24 at 25 meters, 23 at 10 meters and 22 at 3 meters.

Soot concentration measurements showed a strong impact caused by the diesel generators. In the case of the 15 kVA generator, it went from a baseline of 0.4 microgram per cubic meter of air to 9.9 at a distance of 3 meters, which means multiplying it by 20. At 10 meters, the values were 8 times higher, reaching 2.9 microgram per cubic meter of air. And finally, the values doubled to 0.7 microgram per cubic meter of air at 25 meters. In the case of the 100 kVA generator, the values at 25 meters were three times higher than in the baseline scenario, going from 0.5 to 1.7 microgram per cubic meter of air.

Background conditions must be carefully considered. On the one hand, UFP are low in the background air and remain fairly stable throughout the tests. On the other hand, PM2.5 are highly present as background concentrations in the air, with high variability, and are often transported over long distances, so, in this case, the direct impact due to diesel generators is not as evident as for UFP.

This emission assessment is being complemented with on-site measurement campaigns during events, as in the case of Breda Barst. The goal will be to compare the data obtained in every edition, taking into account the green powering solutions adopted –for instance, the AirQon solution, battery packs or fixed distribution grid supply points–, but also any other initiative oriented to a more efficient energy planning –for example, changes in diesel generator sizing, or to combine them with batteries for peak shaving purposes–, so the impact of all these could be conveniently evaluated.

AirQon, despite being originally oriented to events or festivals, can be suitable for supplying electricity to other relevant activities in terms of urban and environmental impact. This is the case of the construction branch, which brought an interesting opportunity for scaling up the AirQon solution, especially during the significant decrease in the number of events in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Construction sites normally get connected to the electricity distribution network to feed their energy demands, but sometimes the electricity network may not be accessible, or technical requirements make it unfeasible: potential risk of impact in monuments and interference with other nearby urban infrastructures such as water or gas are examples of this. This is the ideal scenario where off-grid solutions like AirQon meet the requirements in a greener way. Furthermore, AirQon fits well with construction works in those sites where there is no hosting capacity available on the grid.

The maximum power delivered by the AirQon solution, 15 kW, and the battery capacity of a standard electric car, around 40 or 62 kWh, are enough for commuting and powering small machinery in a normal workday. Thanks to this, the AirQon solution has been used to power some small machinery, such as hammer drills, in construction works. Furthermore, AirQon is used as an off-grid power source for on-field technical offices that can be found in any construction sites, that need supply for lighting, air conditioning systems, laptops, etc. All this can be perfectly powered with the energy coming from crews’ electric vehicles.

Moreover, AirQon applied to this sector has been incorporated to an all-in-one energy solution which consists of a large container equipped with solar photovoltaic panels on the top, wind generators, and batteries to store the energy not being consumed immediately. This equipment works as a power source plus and energy buffer, equipped as well with an AirQon device for the bidirectional connection of electric vehicles.

This sustainable container can be placed in the base station of the contractor or in principal construction sites. Apart from providing power to on-site energy demands, the AirQon solution can charge the vehicle plugged in. After this, the car, already charged with renewable energy, could be used to go to another construction site and to power there any small machinery as previously indicated. In addition to this, the presence of AirQon allows to use the battery of the car as an additional buffer capacity for the global all-in-one system.

This application is interesting for construction companies also thanks to the added value of applying the AirQon solution here. On the one hand, they let them use their electric vehicle fleet for much more than just mobility purposes, and this helps them, at the same time, to become more efficient and decarbonized. On the other hand, they can improve the perception of their customers by developing a more sustainable business model. This means that sustainable construction can pay attention not only to the use of materials or the energy consumption of a building once finished, to name some examples, but also to consider greener solutions to be used from the beginning, from the early phases of the construction works.

Based on this development, a startup called Electure has been founded. Starting from a first Minimum Viable Product, 5 more containers have been built, fully modular, including batteries, renewable generation such as solar photovoltaic panels, a module to connect to the electricity distribution network if available, plus a biofuel generator or even hydrogen-powered generation.

In conclusion, construction sites are on the same page as events. There is a firm demand from public administrations to reduce their CO₂ emissions, but about going full-electric, going only battery powered, etc., there is not a categoric response. But for sure the solution must be driven by flexibility and versatility. Furthermore, centralizing the power source in a construction site, eventually, may lead to have a risky, inefficient working site full of wires. On the contrary, having a total dispersion of power sources is not the best option at all. Energy must be decentralized, available wherever it is needed, with complementarity between on-grid and off-grid solutions, and adapting to the progress of construction. And, undoubtedly, AirQon has demonstrated to be a perfect solution to meet all these requirements.

AirQon continues to gain popularity and acceptance, participating in events of any nature and serving as well in construction sites.

Diesel generators are the main source of environmental pollution in events, but they tend to be oversized, no matter the real energy requirements along the preparation and dismantling works. The further they operate from their nominal capacity, the worse the performance and emissions will be.

AirQon has been successfully incorporated to an all-in-one energy solution, gathering solar photovoltaic and wind generation and batteries to store the energy not being consumed immediately. This equipment can operate as a power source plus an energy buffer, equipped with an AirQon device for the bidirectional connection of electric vehicles.

Increasing electric vehicle sale shares, generalization of ‘mobility as a service’ models and technology evolution are drivers that pave the path for this crowd-powered solution. The future of the electric vehicle is an opportunity for AirQon.