1, E-fuels for aviation. NGO Transport and Environment says that there are now 25 industrial scale projects in Europe seeking to manufacture synthetic fuels for airplanes. If all are built, they will provide about 1.7 million tonnes of aviation kerosene, or about 4% of total current needs. This comfortably meets the EU quotas for 2030. But Transport and Environment warns that none of these proposed plants have received formal go-ahead from their investors. That’s probably somewhat harsh because projects such as Infinium’s in France with Engie will almost certainly go into construction. Nevertheless the NGO is right to note that synthetic fuels plants, alongside many other hydrogen production projects, are not moving ahead as fast as hoped.
2, Carbon negative cement. Conventional Portland cement is made using fossil fuels to heat limestone sufficiently to drive off large amounts of CO2, leaving calcium oxide. This process is responsible for about 9% of world emissions including both the burning of the fossil fuels for heat and the emissions from the breakdown of the limestone. Multiple new businesses around the world are working on replacements for cement. The alternatives usually use raw materials such as steel slag which are processed at low temperatures. Very limited amounts of carbon dioxide are emitted. A very new Bahamas company makes a cement substitute that goes further by absorbing atmospheric CO2 in the production process, making its product potentially carbon-negative. Germany’s TopWerk, one of the world’s leading cement equipment manufacturers, endorsed the product this week saying ‘The company’s carbon negative binder is one of the most exciting innovations we have witnessed in our industry for decades. It is the most advanced alternative binder solution in the market and the only credibly carbon negative solution that has the potential to scale globally’.
3, Artificial spider silk. The filaments of a spider’s web are surprisingly strong, equalling steel for each unit of weight. Until now, attempts to replicate the spider’s silk have failed. Many used corrosive chemicals and energy-intense chemical reactions. Now researchers in Japan have successfully used ‘biomimicry’ to copy the spider’s own processes for making silk. An article in The Engineer magazine summarised the success by saying that the researcher’s tiny machine was ‘able to recreate the complex molecular structure of silk by mimicking chemical and physical changes that naturally occur in a spider’s silk gland.’ This invention is a long way from commercialisation but offers a potential replacement for textile fibres including silk but also polyester.
4, Underground hydrogen storage. If hydrogen is to be used in large quantities, the world will need huge amounts of underground storage. Other storage sites are not available in large enough volumes. Government have been slow to recognise the importance of early construction of storage caverns and the European gas transmission industry has banded together to push for faster action on storage. The new group calculates that only 9 terawatt hours of hydrogen storage is likely to be available in Europe by 2030 but that 45 terawatt hours is needed. I think the gas transmission participants have exaggerated the investment cost of the required new caverns, giving a figure of up to €36 billion, but there’s no doubt that major funds will need to be committed, largely in advance of hydrogen electrolyser capacity.
5, Solar panel prices. A French PV engineering firm publishes a regular estimate of solar panel prices. The latest figures show the decline continuing, with the average price falling by almost half over the past year. The cheapest panels are now selling for about 9 Euro cents a watt. The site predicts further falls over the coming months. (Thanks to Raymond Betz)
6, Sodium ion batteries. A very useful article looked at sodium ion batteries in the wake of the first shipments of a Chinese car using this new type of cell. Sodium ion uses cheaper raw materials than lithium ion, works better in the cold, is safer and charges more rapidly. What’s not to like? Principally that this chemistry will have a lower ratio of stored electricity to weight. The new batteries are said to contain about 120 watt hours per kilogramme, or less than half what a new Chinese Tesla battery offers. Forecasts are that the sodium energy density may increase to 200 watt hours per kilogramme within a few years, but analyst Rob West says that lithium ion phosphate batteries will increase by a similar percentage. One further clear advantage of sodium is that it is abundant in China, meaning the country will be less reliant on imports of lithium. I think we can expect that most smaller and cheaper cars, particularly those made in China, will switch to sodium over the next few years.
7, Nuclear delays. Constructor EdF said that the new EPR power station at Hinkley Point on the south west coast of England will be delayed further. Cost inflation means the plant will require funding of up to £46bn in current money. Both construction time and the final bill will therefore be at least twice what was predicted at the start of the project. This power station will eventually offer about 8% of the electricity consumed today in the UK. The problems with the EPR design - ‘a cathedral within a cathedral’ in one expert’s view – are now well known. However it is not all bad news. The World Nuclear Association forecasts completion of 16 new nuclear power stations around the globe this year. The striking fact is that these sites use 10 very different designs. Standardisation on a single model (which definitely wouldn’t be the EPR) may be necessary to get costs down to reasonable levels. But the obvious candidate is a Chinese design and no Western country is going to pursue this option.
8, Microgrids. The ultimate purpose of large-scale microgrids is to be able to disconnect from the electricity distribution network either to save money or to be able to offer supply even when the wider grid is unavailable. One potential route is for town and cities to take over much of the distribution of electricity in their areas, but leaving a residual connection to the outside network. The university town of Ann Arbor in Michigan, home to about 125,000 people, intends to build a series of microgrids that will operate alongside the existing infrastructure, but not replace it. A home might have two meters, one for electricity bought from the Ann Arbor publicly-owned venture and another for power consumed from the private utility that currently supplies all customers. This is a complicated scheme facing significant engineering challenges but the aim is to increase the rate of decarbonisation of Ann Arbor electricity sources by giving a route to market for a large number of newly installed solar and other low carbon power sources. If implemented this proposal would be the first of its type in the US (and perhaps in the world?). My sense is that the Ann Arbor transition will prove difficult and expensive but that the lessons learnt will be extremely valuable for other communities around the world seeking their own rapid decarbonisation.
9, Electric truck charging. WattEV, a new business in California that operates its own electric heavy trucks and runs charging stations said that it would install one megawatt chargers at two locations. That’s twenty times the conventional ‘rapid’ charging rate. No vehicles on the road can yet charge at this speed but manufacturers are expected to develop trucks soon that can absorb this power. Tesla trucks will already accept 750 kilowatts. WattEV promises to develop 25 hectares of solar near to the two charging stations along with 5.5 megawatt hours of battery to reduce the strains on the local grid from the truck charging.
10, Lithium and geothermal energy. The very hot underground brines in some parts of the world can be used to make electricity and to extract lithium at the same time. One of the best worldwide sources is likely to be the Salton Sea in southern California. Last Friday saw the groundbreaking ceremony for the first joint production plant. The Australian company Controlled Thermal says that its eventual seven wells will generate 350 megawatts of electricity as well as 175,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide a year. This is equivalent to just under one third of current world requirements for the metal. (Lithium hydroxide is about six times the weight of lithium metal). Joint production of power and lithium is also moving ahead in the Upper Rhine valley in Germany. Vulcan, another Australian company, received local permission in December to build the infrastructure necessary to extract heat and metal. The company says that this single site will meet about 4% of current global needs for lithium at a competitive cost. It’s been a long journey already for these businesses, and there are many technical challenges still to overcome, but geothermal brines may eventually provide a large fraction of world lithium needs. (This depends on the success of the sodium ion batteries in Note 6). Developers in Cornwall, England, where there are also substantial resources of rich lithium in geothermal brines, will be watching carefully.
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My new book - Possible - will be published on 22nd March. It can already be ordered on Amazon UK and I’ll provide links to other retailers when they go online. The book looks at how the world will overcome the remaining obstacles on the road to full decarbonisation.
It is good to read of so many advances in how we are finding ways out of the climate crisis.