Research for Energy-Efficient Cooking; Electricity Savings of up to 25 Percent

That is where the partners of the “InduKOCH” technology cooperation, sponsored by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), come in. The German acronym InduKOCH stands for innovative circuit concepts and components to increase energy efficiency in cooking by using induction cookers. E.G.O., the supplier to manufacturers of household appliances, the University of Bremen’s Institute for Electrical Drives, Power Electronics and Devices (IALB) and the semiconductor supplier Infineon Technologies plan to engage in a joint research program running until mid-2013 to explore ways of reducing the component costs for induction hobs and cookers.

Under the project management of Infineon, the research partners seek to develop cost-efficient systems with optimized power electronics components that significantly reduce the power loss of induction cookers. To this end, Infineon is working on the advancement of power semiconductors, so-called IGBTs (Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor). In the induction cooker IGBTs switch the high-frequency currents of the induction coils which induce the cooking heat in the vessels. Using these new power components, E.G.O. will remodel the electronic and mechanical inner workings of induction cookers and provide induction cookers with new circuit concepts that will reduce their manufacturing cost and energy consumption. The IALB will conduct research into the modeling and simulation of the high-frequency switching operations to reduce parasitic energy loss.

The BMBF is funding the InduKOCH project as part of the German Federal Government’s high-tech strategy and under the auspices of the Information and Communication Technology 2020 (IKT 2020) program for three years to the tune of about Euro 1.2 million.