Make or Break
October 25, 2021
Background
The upcoming COP26 meeting in Scotland does not herald a breakthrough in the global cooperative, coordinated action that is absolutely essential to replace nuclear fission, coal, gas and oil with renewable energy, particularly hydrogen, to generate electricity. The probable absence of Presidents Putin and Xi speaks volumes about their apparent unwavering unwillingness to compartmentalize the ongoing confrontation in the South China Sea, the Ukraine, Georgia, and the Black Sea, to name a few, from climate change.
The Danger
Left unresolved, either issue could cause the extinction of humanity. The difference between them is the speed at which they are progressing. Climate change resembles relentless, slow-moving magma; the geopolitical confrontation is like a brewing category 30 hurricane –and our much esteemed world leaders are playing Chicken with it.
The Issues
The Ukraine and Georgia wish to join NATO, a red line for Russia. In effect, without firing a bullet, that would recreate World War II’s Eastern Front as it was just prior to the fall of Sebastopol. Should the Ukraine join NATO, nothing would prevent the U.S. from deploying short-range nuclear-tipped missiles within 300 miles from Moscow. In Georgia’s case, it would allow NATO to target Russia’s southern oilfields, Hitler’s strategic objective in the summer of 1942. For Russia, these events would be of seismic proportions. It’s not our place to predict if, when or how it might react, but chances are it will. In a nutshell, Russia, the immovable object, demands no change to the status quo; conversely, NATO the irresistible force, says it’s not Russia’s business to prevent two sovereign nations from joining NATO. Meanwhile, in Southeast Asia, the main bones of contention are the South China Sea and Taiwan. There the roles are reversed. The irresistible force is China, which is determined to gain unchallenged control of both; the immovable object is Taiwan backed by the U.S. and its allies: they demand no change to the status quo. There are of course other simmering flashpoints such as Iran and Israel, China and India, and Pakistan and India, but with the exception of Iran these do not directly involve the U.S.
The Irony
China, Japan, Europe, Russia, India and the U.S. depend on fossil fuels, mainly coal, to generate most of their electricity. Therefore, for all of them, unrestricted, guaranteed access to these fuels is a matter of national security. Accordingly, unless and until this happy state of affairs is achieved, the geopolitical confrontation, today’s sword of Damocles, will continue to swing over humanity’s heads. And energy is not the only crisis. Water is equally important, from worsening droughts, rapidly depleting aquifers already beyond the tipping point, and disappearing glaciers, to catastrophic floods and rising seas, all exacerbated by climate change.
Making a Difference
Hydrogen is our only hope to address the water/energy crises. The technology already exists, including adequate catalysts, to extract as much as needed from the ocean by electrolysis using renewable forms of energy. Accordingly, any polity with abundant sunlight, geothermal and/or wind and a suitable coastline, could potentially produce more hydrogen than it might consume. The technology also exists, including an advanced turbine capable of burning hydrogen 24/7 directly without fuel cells, to build a global network of hydrogen-powered plants to produce water and electricity. Of course, an effort of this scope and magnitude would require peaceful and coordinated political, technological and financial cooperation. It can be done, it should be done, and now is the time to take action, before it’s too late.
Prospects and Obstacles for Green Hydrogen Production in Russia
January 30, 2021
This study is aimed at: (1) comparing key Russian trends of green hydrogen development with global trends, (2) presenting strategic alternatives for the Russian energy sector development, (3) presenting a case study of the Russian hydrogen energy project «Dyakov Ust-Srednekanskaya HPP» in Magadan region, using the example of a RusHydro company.
Renewable Hydrogen’s Future in Eastern Australia’s Energy Networks
July 1, 2021
The energy transition for a net-zero future will require deep decarbonization that hydrogen is uniquely positioned to facilitate. This techno-economic study considers renewable hydrogen production, transmission and storage for energy networks using the National Electricity Market (NEM) region of Eastern Australia as a case study. Australia is the global leader in the deployment of wind and solar photovoltaics (PV) on a per capita basis, and Australia’s energy networks are planning for energy futures including hydrogen. Therefore, green hydrogen is likely to be cheaper and more widely accessible than blue hydrogen by 2030, and this situation will only improve out to 2050. Australia’s trading partners, such as the European Union (EU), are prioritizing green hydrogen over the long term, which is an opportunity to utilize Australia’s world-class renewable energy resources. A joint study with Germany is building on other international collaborations to assess export opportunities.
Using Hydrogen to Generate Electricity in Japan
June 12, 2020
Japan is facing a severe challenge regarding its heavy dependence on fossil fuels: currently they account for 89% of total energy consumption. After the Great East Earthquake, energy security and vulnerability have become critical issues facing the Japanese energy system. The integration of renewable energy sources to meet specific regional energy demand is a promising scenario to overcome these challenges. To this aim, this paper proposes a novel hydrogen-based hybrid renewable energy system (HRES), in which hydrogen fuel can be produced using solar electrolysis and supercritical water gasification (SCWG) of biomass feedstock. The hydrogen would function as an energy storage medium by storing renewable energy until a fuel cell converts it to electricity.
Review of Potential Liquid-Organic Hydrogen Carrier (LOHC) Systems
November 19, 2020
The depletion of fossil fuels and rising global warming challenges encourage to find safe and viable energy storage and delivery technologies. Hydrogen is a clean, efficient energy carrier in various mobile fuel-cell applications and owned no adverse effects on the environment and human health. However, hydrogen storage is considered a bottleneck problem for the progress of the hydrogen economy. Liquid-organic hydrogen carriers (LOHCs) are organic substances in liquid or semi-solid states that store hydrogen by catalytic hydrogenation and dehydrogenation processes over multiple cycles and may support a future hydrogen economy. Remarkably, hydrogen storage in LOHC systems has attracted dramatically more attention than conventional storage systems, such as high-pressure compression, liquefaction, and absorption/adsorption techniques. Potential LOHC media must provide fully reversible hydrogen storage via catalytic processes, thermal stability, low melting points, favorable hydrogenation thermodynamics and kinetics, large-scale availability, and compatibility with current fuel energy infrastructure to practically employ these molecules in various applications. In this review, the authors present various considerable aspects for the development of ideal LOHC systems. They highlight the recent progress of LOHC candidates and their catalytic approach, as well as briefly discuss the theoretical insights for understanding the reaction mechanism.
Operation of Solar-Storage-Hydrogen-Charging System by Value Stream Analysis
April 24, 2020
The topology of the clean energy system is a flexible structure with PV, wind power, hydrogen storage, and battery storage. Thus, the construction and operation of the clean energy system should pay more attention to the temporal and spatial variations. This paper discussed a solar-storage-hydrogen-charging demonstration to accommodate the diverse temporal and spatial features of the clean energy system. The present study developed a Modelica library to support the cooperative control of this clean energy system based on value stream analysis. The result shows that the sold electricity profit of the electric storage system can reach 2.3 times than the electricity purchase cost. Though the hydrogen charging demand in the demonstration is small compared with the electric load demand, the hydrogen charging profit can be 1.7 times of the energy cost.
Hydrogen Production from Offshore Wind Parks
June 16, 2021
Hydrogen has the potential to be combined with offshore wind energy to aid in overcoming disadvantages such as the high installation cost of electrical transmission systems and transmission losses. This paper aims to outline and discuss the main features of the integration of hydrogen solutions in offshore wind power and to offer a literature review of the current state of hydrogen production from offshore wind. The paper provides a summary of the technologies involved in hydrogen production along with an analysis of two possible hydrogen producing systems from offshore wind energy.
Assessment of Energy Storage from Photovoltaic Installations Using Hydrogen or Batteries
August 4, 2020
This paper presents a series of economic efficiency studies comparing three different investment variants: without energy storage, with energy stored in batteries and hydrogen installation with a PEM fuel cell stack for a location in Poland.
Storing Energy as Hydrogen
November 19, 2020
Extensive research on photovoltaics (PV) cooperating with energy storage systems are conducted all over the world. For example, in reference [27] the authors show a PV installation connected with a hydrogen production system. Paper demonstrates that with a proper design of the system proposed by the authors it can operate correctly charging the batteries, supplying the electrolyzer, and occasionally producing excess electricity. The paper [28] presents a self-sufficient solution for residential buildings with photovoltaic and battery storage systems. Model presented by the authors included hybrid PV and hydrogen fuel cell installation with a battery energy storage unit for system optimization. In reference [29] a study of optimum design, size, and economic analysis of photovoltaic installations with a battery system and a standalone photovoltaic with battery and hydrogen production are shown. In another reference [30] authors proposed the photovoltaic-hydrogen-fuel cell installation as a solution for reactive power control and optimization solution which can help improve the quality of supplied power. Another PV-H2 installation is presented by the authors in [31]. The research shows two solutions—with and without batteries’ subsystem, as well as two different locations to find the best balance between the efficiency and sizes of the installations. Photovoltaic systems are also frequently connected with wind installations in hybrid units for hydrogen production [32,33]. Review of recent trends in optimization techniques for PV-wind hybrid energy systems are presented in [34]. Solutions for systems containing photovoltaic installations with Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) electrolyzers for hydrogen production are presented in [35,36,37].