"Australia’s electricity grid has always relied on coal-fired power for stability, but with more renewables coming into the mix, that needs to change, finds a new report by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA)."“The future grid will be as much a digital communication system as it is an energy management system, with electronics and software providing grid security and stability. Planners need to put in place the right framework now so that we can move beyond an inertia-based grid in the future and to avoid significant investment becoming stranded along the way.”REPORT > https://ieefa.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Australias-Opportunity-To-Plan-
A Western Australian pilot project, thought to be a world-first, is taking biogas from sewage and splitting it into graphite and hydrogen.The hydrogen can be used for industrial applications and the graphite for carbon black, activated carbon and battery anode applications. Both also tend to be higher-value commodities than the biogas.The process uses an iron ore catalyst, creating an alternate hydrogen pathway to the traditional approaches of steam methane reforming and electrolysis.Construction has been on-going for the demonstration project, with production of the first 100 tonnes of hydrogen hopefully due by the end of 2021. https://arena.gov.au/news/world-first-project-to-turn-biogas-from-sewage-into-hydrogen-and-g
Hydrogen
is a dream fuel because it does not generate carbon dioxide when burned.An article in the Economist describes how a research team based in Germany has found an ingenious
way to store and carry hydrogen energy by creating a chemical compound called
hydrogen goop.
At
Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials in
Germany, Dr Marcus Vogt and his team created a magnesium hydride-based “power
paste” that stores hydrogen in a chemical form and ready for release on demand.
Supplying
hydrogen as a paste is a way to get around its storage limitation and
challenges.https://climateadaptationplatform.com/hydrogen-goop-stable-way-of-conveying-hydrogen-energy/
Power outages can cripple businesses and back-up generators are often diesel fuelled, expensive, noisy and dirty. Enter the 220- 250kw fuel-flexible "linear generator". Mainspring's generators can run on natural gas, propane, biogas or hydrogen, and are designed to ramp up and down to fill gaps in power supplies, either on their own or as part of a microgrid with renewable energy & battery storage. The simple (compression) design, with no flame/spark or spinning elements, also means it should be lower cost, lower maintenance and lower emissions to other traditional generators.https://www.mainspringenergy.com/
German companies and researchers, led by MAN Energy Solutions, are working on a medium speed engine that can burn both diesel and ammonia. Ammonia is made from hydrogen through the Haber-Bosch at industrial scale and is a better energy carrier than hydrogen due to its high stability and energy density. An ammonia engine makes it possible to direct use of ammonia as power fuels by the transport sector for higher energy efficiency without converting it back to hydrogen. https://www.offshore-energy.biz/man-energy-kicks-off-ammoniamot-project/
