ColdTech - Sustainable Cold Climate Technology

ColdTech is a 7-year project under the NORDSATSING program contributing to sustainable development of northern Norway. It is led by Norut Narvik with main consortium partner UiT Campus Narvik. ColdTech aims to ensure that skills required to tackle the particular challenges of Arctic technology are at the forefront of the respective disciplines and available in the North. ColdTech is active in education and works together with local, national, and international companies and research partners to identify challenges, develop practical solutions, and to drive the field forward though state-of-the-art research. ColdTech provides opportunities to conduct proof-of-concept studies to seed larger spin-off activities. ColdTech focuses on the areas of Winterization, Ice Forces, Atmospheric Icing, and their Applications. Apart from supporting research, publication, and attendance at international conferences, new research connections with the National Research Council (NRC) Canada and the Cryospheric Environment Laboratory, Snow and Ice Research Center in Japan have been forged in the areas of ice mechanics, atmospheric icing and winterization. ColdTech initiated an international network on safe and sustainable operations in seasonally sea ice-covered waters (OpSIce), bringing together practitioners from maritime operations with international researchers. Ph.D. activities on frost in ground have led to the development of procedures and full-scale tests of winter concreting of power mast foundations jointly with Statnett, HeatWork, and local contractors. This work has further inspired the development of the network "Concrete and Construction in Cold Climate" under the lead of VISINOR Rehab AS and including northern Norwegian contractors and ColdTech R&D partners. Work on ice loads on hydropower dams has been conducted jointly with Statkraft and NVE to improve the predictability of ice loads in Norway and the establishment of a spin-off company to marked load reducing technology (Ice Mate AS). Ph.D. research at UiT Campus Narvik on atmospheric icing detection has led to a patent application. Three field expeditions into the Barents Sea were performed onboard KV Svalbard to measure ice properties, ship performance in ice, and test de-icing strategies. Work on oil spills in ice-covered waters has expanded beyond ColdTech through several projects, including PETROMAKS2 MOSIDEO (lead: Norut Narvik), Horizon 2020 GRACE (lead: SYKE, Finland), and SFI CIRFA (lead: UiT).

Arctic technology is not confined to a single activity, but extents many of mans activities. In general terms cold climate technology covers most aspects of construction, operations and living in the arctic region. These aspects can be further detailed in to disciplines as material technology, structural engineering, environmental engineering, transportation and logistics, petroleum technology, energy and civil engineering. Cold climate technology is technology developed particularly to reduce disadvantage s, and to utilize advantages, with cold climate (arctic climate). It will be of vital importance to enhance the co-operation between industrial partners, the research and education systems. This project will be carried out in close relationship with the project VRI Nordland-infrastructure in cold climate (Norwegian Research Council programme for regional R&D and Innovation). A consortium partner in the project will be DNV, who has a strong focus on Arctic and has several relevant ongoing cold climate te chnology research projects including scientific research on winterization, ice loads/loads on ships and floating vessels, atmospheric icing, risk and environmental aspects including field experiments. A similar coordination with both the Canadian Hydrauli cs Centre in Ottawa, StatoilHydro and NTNU/SINTEF will be carried out with projects on arctic material technology, atmospheric icing and ice mechanics. The project is divided into four research tasks (RT) which are 1) weather protection design and perfo rmance, 2) ice mechanics and ice forces, 3) atmospheric icing and sensors 4) applied arctic technology, and one implementation activity. Nytt prosjektsammendrag per 16.10.2014 Based on the success of ColdTech, little structural adjustments are needed during the extension phase. However, the NORDSATSING program office decided to integrate RT5 (leader: Norut Alta) into a new program focusing on social sciences as per 1 July 2014. The departure of the ColdTech consortium partner from Finnmark and the associated social science component presents the most dramatic structural change in ColdTech. Priorities of NORDSATSING have shifted from Research to activities leading to Innovation and Value Creation. This shift in focus is reflected by scope and priorities defined within individual work packages. Emphasis will be placed on establishing a solid ColdTech legacy that will allow for sustainable development of cold climate technology in Narvik. In order to further facilitate the transition beyond ColdTech, cooperation with ColdTech user partners will be strengthened and the connection with regional industry increased. Since ColdTech research projects are ongoing, exchange will be maintained with experts at ColdTech partner companies to maximize relevance of research efforts. In addition, the network of user partners in the region will be systematically extended during the coming years through active interaction with recently established industry clusters, and participation in the ColdTech-initiated international research network (OpSIce) will have led to new international research programs. Following up on visibility gained in the national media already, ColdTech will continue to actively engage with journalists to build awareness of innovation and technological research performed in Narvik. Initially, ColdTech covered the 5-year period from 6 October 2009 to 15 October 2014. ColdTech enters the extended phase in 2014 and will operate until 30 June 2017. However, the majority of ColdTech work will close by the end of 2016. Based on the success of ColdTech, little structural adjustments are needed during the extension phase. However, the NORDSATSING program office decided to integrate RT5 (leader: Norut Alta) into a new program focusing on social sciences as per 1 July 2014. The departure of the ColdTech consortium partner from Finnmark and the associated social science component presents the most dramatic structural change in ColdTech. Priorities of NORDSATSING have shifted from Research to activities leading to Innovation and Value Creation. This shift in focus is reflected by scope and priorities defined within individual work packages. Emphasis will be placed on establishing a solid ColdTech legacy that will allow for sustainable development of cold climate technology in Narvik. In order to further facilitate the transition beyond ColdTech, cooperation with ColdTech user partners will be strengthened and the connection with regional industry increased. Since ColdTech research projects are ongoing, exchange will be maintained with experts at ColdTech partner companies to maximize relevance of research efforts. In addition, the network of user partners in the region will be systematically extended during the coming years through active interaction with recently established industry clusters, and participation in the ColdTech-initiated international research network (OpSIce) will have led to new intern