Category: English

Translation. Region: Russian Federation –

Source: Novosibirsk State University –

An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.

For the first time in Russia, a ready-made air handling unit with a recuperator offering absolute frost resistance—it can withstand temperatures down to -90°C—has been introduced. The unit can be used in both individual construction projects and large industrial facilities. It reduces peak and overall building energy consumption for temperature maintenance by 70% year-round, significantly reducing costs not only during building operation but also during the design phase. The control electronics for this unit were developed by students and graduates of the NSU Faculty of Information Technology (FIT).

To reduce heat loss during ventilation, recuperators are used—heat exchangers that operate by transferring thermal energy from exhaust air to supply air supplied to the room. This process heats or cools the supply air, saving energy on heating and cooling the air. However, in freezing temperatures, existing recuperators freeze over, significantly increasing the energy costs of heating the supply air. This led to the idea of creating an innovative recuperator that combines the features of two main types of such devices—plate and rotary.

"All recuperators freeze—it's a matter of physics. But unlike others, our recuperator—a heat exchanger—is designed so that, rotating at a specific speed—approximately one revolution per hour—it moves frozen areas from the cold zone to the warm zone, where they thaw naturally," said Vladimir Fedorov, founder of the developer, Giplar, and a graduate of the Physics Department at NSU.

Novosibirsk developers have created the world's first recuperator with continuous self-defrosting without compromising efficiency. It is used to produce air handling units with a consistently high recuperation efficiency of 70%, and their efficiency is unaffected by freezing temperatures (down to -90°C) or the humidity of ventilated spaces. This reduces peak and overall energy consumption of buildings for temperature maintenance by 70% year-round.

The next step was to develop control electronics to ensure the coordinated operation of all the system's components. None of the ready-made solutions available on the market were suitable, as the recuperator was unique, so a custom control module had to be developed. This task was tackled by graduates and students of the NSU Faculty of Information Technology, led by Ilya Epishin.

"Our electronics control the heat exchanger's operation: our task was to monitor the inlet and outlet temperatures, control the power of the supply and exhaust fans, rotate the heat exchanger rotor at a specific time, and provide feedback on its position to detect any issues that may arise during rotation or during operation; and monitor the filter status using a set of sensors. We also implemented several operating modes, one of which is "Breeze," which allows us to configure the heat exchanger so that, at temperatures close to the dew point (when water vapor condenses into liquid), the air in the room is cooled using the laws of physics, rather than the air conditioner," explained Ilya Epishin.

FIT students, under the guidance of Ilya Epishin, developed a control board, wrote code for the microcontroller, programmed the board and display, and developed the interface, which required some knowledge of industrial design. They used the open-source LVGL library.

"The unique feature of the control electronics is its modular architecture, meaning it can be expanded with any number of modules, increasing its functionality, and adding an additional board. The architecture is based on a pass-through bus with a desi-chain mechanism, which enables the integration of various modules in our design. This year, my student Matvey Potapov, who also actively participated in this project, will be defending his thesis on this topic. This approach allows the controller to automatically detect an additional module when connecting it, and if the code supports it, new functions become available to the user or the system's operating logic changes automatically. It's somewhat reminiscent of plug-and-play on a computer, but applied to industrial automation. This fits well with the system itself—the heat exchanger is also modular, and for larger spaces, devices can be assembled from several modules, increasing the air volume that can be passed through it and allowing for cost-effective use in industrial facilities," Ilya explained.

The introduction of such air handling units will allow for a wider geographic reach, for example, in regions of the Far North, where recuperators are not used due to severe frosts. However, reducing heating costs is a pressing issue in these areas. This will also reduce building costs even at the design stage, when the innovative air handling units used allow for lower energy consumption requirements.

Please note: This information is raw content obtained directly from the source. It represents an accurate account of the source's assertions and does not necessarily reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

Translation. Region: Russian Federation –

Source: Novosibirsk State University –

An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.

On October 23–24, 2025, Novosibirsk State University, the NSU Advanced Engineering School (AES), and organizations of the Novosibirsk Scientific Center hosted a delegation from the Gazprom Neft Department of Technological Development, led by Bogdan Kostyuk, a graduate of the NSU Physics Department.

The visit took place as part of the development of cooperation between NSU, institutes of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and Gazprom Neft in the area of scientific and technical research and engineering solutions for the oil and gas industry.

The purpose of the visit is to become familiar with the scientific areas and research infrastructure of Akademgorodok, as well as to identify priority topics for joint projects.

The program included meetings and presentations at NSU, where representatives from the university and SB RAS institutes presented developments in materials science, raw material processing, digital modeling, chemical technologies, and engineering systems monitoring.

The delegation also visited several institutes of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, including the Lavrentyev Institute of Hydrodynamics, the Khristianovich Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, the Boreskov Institute of Catalysis, the PISh competence centers, and other organizations, where laboratory complexes and current applied projects were demonstrated.

Following the visit, the parties confirmed their interest in developing scientific and technical partnerships and jointly exploring specific areas of cooperation in the fields of engineering, materials, and technological solutions for the fuel and energy sector.

Novosibirsk State University is a member of Gazprom Neft's "University League," a system for collaboration between the company and higher education institutions to exchange scientific and educational information in a single-window format. This ecosystem facilitates the creation of new faculties, graduate programs, and laboratories, and encourages the launch of joint research and grant programs. The League comprises 49 Russian universities, as well as partner educational institutions from China and India.

Please note: This information is raw content obtained directly from the source. It represents an accurate account of the source's assertions and does not necessarily reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

Translation. Region: Russian Federation –

Source: Novosibirsk State University –

An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.

The 4th School of Young Scientists on Synchrotron Research Methods in Materials Science is taking place at Novosibirsk State University from November 13-15. The project is supported by the Federal Scientific and Technical Program for the Development of Synchrotron and Neutron Research. The event was organized by the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Boreskov Institute of Catalysis, the Siberian Ring Photon Source (SKIF) Collective Use Center, and Novosibirsk State University. Over 100 young researchers from Novosibirsk, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kaliningrad, Koltsovo, Ufa, Tomsk, Barnaul, Dolgoprudny, Kemerovo, Krasnoyarsk, Yekaterinburg, and Troitsk participated in the school.

NSU Rector and RAS Academician Mikhail Fedoruk welcomed the School participants. He noted that this is the second year in a row that the event has been held at NSU, but this year, the School participants will be hosted in a new classroom building, which opened on September 1st.

"The school's program is becoming more extensive year after year, and the geography of its participants is expanding. I'm confident that with the commissioning of SKIF, the intensity and richness of the events at future schools will only increase. The current school's program offers unique content, including master classes from leading experts in synchrotron radiation research, as well as lectures from leading scientists," said Mykhailo Fedoruk.

The work of the School opened with a lecture by the chief researcher of the SKIF Center for Use, Associate Professor of the Department of Solid State Chemistry of the Faculty of Natural Sciences of NSU and the Department of Physical Methods for Solid State Research of the Faculty of Physics of NSU, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences Jan Zubavichus, “Source of synchrotron radiation of the SKIF Center for Use: stages of commissioning and implementation of the Scientific Program,” in which he highlighted the main milestones of the construction of SKIF, introduced its design, instrumentation and technical equipment, visually presented the general scheme of the megascience installation with first-stage stations and spoke in detail about each, especially focusing on station 1-7 “Basic methods of synchrotron diagnostics”, intended for educational, research and innovation activities, as well as to increase the efficiency of the educational process and solve research problems for NSU students using the capabilities of a modern synchrotron radiation source. At this experimental station, it is planned to jointly implement several research methods: powder and single-crystal X-ray diffraction, X-ray absorption spectroscopy and X-ray fluorescence analysis. This research complex will allow solving a wide range of scientific problems for various fields of science, including physics, biology, chemistry, geology, archeology and medicine and will become a main element in the practical training of scientific and technical personnel for synchrotron research. In their research, NSU students will be able to use equipment from other stations, in particular, a wide range of high-temperature cells for conducting in situ/operando experiments, unique superconducting undulators developed by the BINP SB RAS for generating superbright beams with a high degree of spatial coherence in the energy range 3-12 keV, as well as a unique electromagnetic undulator with switchable polarization developed by the BINP SB RAS. It is possible to generate X-ray beams with a circular cross-section; the station also has unique optical elements for focusing X-ray beams to submicron sizes developed by IKBFU. Kant and IPM RAS and unique ultrafast X-ray detectors for monitoring fast development processes at the Institute of Nuclear Physics SB RAS. The areas of research for which the station is designed are wide and varied: functional chemical technologies and materials, catalysis, geology, ecology, structural materials and materials for energy, structural biology, pharmaceuticals.

Completion of this experimental station is scheduled for December of this year. At that time, work on the Generation 4 synchrotron radiation source will be completed, and the integrated commissioning phase and design parameter acquisition will begin.

Each day of the school begins with plenary lectures from leading experts in the field of synchrotron radiation. Alexander Trigub, PhD (NRC Kurchatov Institute, Moscow), spoke about the study of local atomic and electronic structure using X-ray absorption spectroscopy; Ivan Bataev, Doctor of Engineering (Novosibirsk State Technical University), discussed the use of synchrotron radiation in specialized materials analysis; and Konstantin Kuper, PhD (National Research Center of Nuclear Physics, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences), discussed X-ray microscopy and tomography using synchrotron radiation.

On the final day of the school, there will be lectures by Evgeny Sterkhov, PhD (Chemistry), (N.A. Vatonin Institute of Metallurgy, Kyrgyz Republic, Russian Academy of Sciences, Yekaterinburg), on the analysis of the symmetry of modes of distorted structures of layered perovskites, and Igor Chernykh, PhD (Physics and Mathematics), (Institute of Computational Mathematics and Mathematical Geophysics, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences), on how artificial intelligence can help in chemistry and materials science.

The plenary lectures will be followed by presentations by young scientists – students and postgraduates from Novosibirsk State University, Boreskov Institute of Catalysis SB RAS, International Tomography Center SB RAS, Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics SB RAS, Voevodsky Institute of Chemical Kinetics and Combustion SB RAS, A.V. Nikolaev Institute of Inorganic Chemistry SB RAS, A.V. Rzhanov Institute of Semiconductor Physics SB RAS, M.A. Lavrentiev Institute of Hydrodynamics SB RAS, SKIF Collective Use Center, Tomsk Polytechnic University, Federal Research Center for Coal and Coal Chemistry SB RAS (Kemerovo), V.V. Engelhardt Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow), and others. This year, a representative of the Republic of Belarus, Ivan Grekov, from the Scientific and Practical Center for Materials Science of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus (Minsk), is participating in the school.

"We consider presentations by young researchers an important part of our school, whose goal is not only to provide young researchers with the opportunity to attend lectures by recognized experts in the field but also to present the results of their research. Therefore, the speakers include not only graduate students but also fourth-year undergraduates. For many of them, this is their first experience of publicly speaking to the scientific community, and this is crucial, as the ability to present their research results to an audience is a crucial skill for every scientist. Some young researchers, on the other hand, are presenting reports on their work over the past year, as this school is a logical continuation of the previous one. However, the program of each school differs from previous ones, so new topics are added and the lineup of speakers is updated," explained Sergei Tsybulya, Head of the Department of Physical Methods for Solid State Research at the Faculty of Physics, Chief Researcher of the Catalyst Research Department at the Boreskov Institute of Catalysis, and Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences.

As part of the School, young scientists will present approximately 40 oral and more than 20 poster presentations.

Master classes are an important part of the School, and young scientists are particularly interested in them. While at previous Schools they were held in parallel, this year the organizers decided to hold them sequentially: participants expressed a strong desire to attend several master classes at once, or even all of them, as part of the School's program. This year's School will feature four master classes: "Refining Structural Models Using Powder Diffraction Data in the GSAS-II Software Package," "Creating Models of One-Dimensional Disordered Crystals and Calculating X-ray Diffraction Patterns Based on Them Using the XD1DD Software," "Processing X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy Data," and "Determining Parameters of the Local Atomic Environment from EXAFS Spectra." During the master classes, young researchers are taught, using practical examples and specific software, how to solve problems they will encounter in their work using synchrotron radiation methods.

The SKIF Center for Collective Use will be operational at the end of next year. It will be able to accommodate 2,000 scientific groups annually, so developing a user community is particularly important for us. This community should be comprised of researchers who understand how to use synchrotron radiation and how to use it to solve various interdisciplinary problems. I am confident that virtually every scientific and educational organization would be interested in collaborating with the SKIF Center for Collective Use, so it is crucial to provide the scientific community with the fullest possible information about its capabilities and to train specialists capable of using them. This school fully meets these goals. We value our ongoing and effective collaboration with NSU in organizing and developing the school's program and believe that this work has become increasingly important.

The school's program offers a balanced combination of theoretical knowledge and practical training. It is relevant and modern. The lecture program is very well-designed, covering various synchrotron research methods and the basics of synchrotron physics. Master classes on key X-ray synchrotron methods, using specialized data processing software, are offered in NSU computer labs. These classes are taught by world-class specialists, leading Russian experts in the relevant fields. This is crucial for preparing the SKIF Center for Collective Use's user community, said Jan Zubavichus.

The school is a satellite event of the International Conference "SKIF Center for Collective Use Users Congress: Advanced Research Using Synchrotron Radiation," which will be held from November 17 to 21 at the Boiling Point Center in Novosibirsk Academpark.

Please note: This information is raw content obtained directly from the source. It represents an accurate account of the source's assertions and does not necessarily reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.