Log In Sign Up

Search for any green Service

Find green products from around the world in one place

Window cleaning

Singapore Safety Glass

Tag: Thermal energy

Hydrogen Vehicles Are on the Rise: Here’s What You Need to Know

Posted on by dishanth
Hydrogen Vehicles Are on the Rise: Here’s What You Need to Know

Hydrogen Vehicles Are on the Rise: Here’s What You Need to Know

The automotive industry is rapidly transitioning to alternative energy sources for fuel vehicles, considering the greenhouse gasses (GHGs) emitted every mile driven. Battery-electric cars are on the rise, but are better alternatives on the horizon?

Hydrogen emerged as a viable replacement for fossil fuels and could be the next big thing in the automotive industry. The rise of hydrogen fuel cells is coming sooner than you may think, so here’s what you need to know about these vehicles.

 

Rapid Market Growth

The future of hydrogen power is bright, as investors think it has massive potential for the automotive industry. Experts say the global hydrogen fuel cell vehicle market will have a compound annual growth rate of 43% until 2032, culminating in a $57.9 billion value. Automakers understand the severity of today’s climate crisis and use any means necessary to advance their sustainability goals.

 

Harnessing Hydrogen

Hydrogen is unstable, as it reacts with other atoms to form compounds. So, how can you harness this chemical element to be safe for your vehicle? Scientists typically use these methods for hydrogen fuel production:

  • Thermal: The Department of Energy (DoE) says about 95% of today’s hydrogen comes from repurposed natural gas. Scientists combine steam and hydrocarbon fuels to produce hydrogen fuel, requiring high temperatures and attention to detail.
  • Solar: Using renewable energy to produce clean fuel is smart, so experts have used solar power for hydrogen production. For instance, they can harness hydrogen fuel using bacteria and its natural photosynthetic activity.
  • Biology: Bacteria are also helpful for hydrogen fuel production through biological reactions. You can use microbes to break down biomass and wastewater, and these tiny organisms aren’t energy-intensive, as they harness sunlight for power.

 

Refueling Stations

Hydrogen fuel is already available if you live on the West Coast, as most of the existing stations are in California — primarily in Los Angeles and the Bay Area. You can also enjoy this alternative energy source in the Pacific Ocean at the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute. As hydrogen fuel grows in demand, you’ll see more opportunities to fill up with it.

The DoE says the United States has 59 retail hydrogen-fueling stations, but more projects are on the way. Fleet companies may have private areas for fueling their vehicles, especially as long-haul trucks convert to hydrogen fuel.

 

Can Semi-Trucks Use Hydrogen Fuel?

Battery-electric motors are a concern for larger vehicles like light-duty and long-haul trucks. These machines must be powerful enough to propel heavy machines for long distances, but their weight drains energy quickly. Will hydrogen fuel be a solution? The logistics industry has focused on this alternative fuel source for greener highways.

For instance, in 2025, Kenworth will begin full-scale production of Class 8 T680 hydrogen fuel cell electric trucks in collaboration with Toyota. The heavy-duty truck manufacturer will deliver its first hydrogen-powered vehicles this year and then expand production.

While the fuel source changes, the typical qualities in hydrogen-powered trucks do not. This Kenworth Class 8 T680 truck has a max payload of 82,000 pounds, demonstrating its ability to carry a significant amount of goods.

The truck uses Toyota’s 310kW Dual Motor Assembly, as the Japanese automaker has prioritized hydrogen fuel research in the last decade. It recently released the second-generation Mirai, which mixes hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity.

States like California have imposed strict requirements for long-haul trucks and other vehicles, so hydrogen-powered trucks could be the answer for sustainability and dependable transportation. Kenworth tested hydrogen fuel cell technology at the Port of Los Angeles in 2022 and used its success to build the Class 8 T680 semi-truck. Continued success will likely mean further North American expansion.

 

Powering Outside the Highways

Hydrogen has become a viable option for passenger cars and even long-haul trucks in its early stages. However, highway vehicles are not the only method of transportation using hydrogen power. Last year, North America debuted its first hydrogen train in Quebec, Canada. This machine uses about 50 kg of hydrogen daily and eliminates dependence upon fossil fuels for these trips.

Hydro-Quebec provides energy for the train, enabling it to travel about 90 km between Quebec City and Baie-Saint-Paul. Emissions are less of a worry for the train, as you only see water vapor emerging from its pipes.

 

What Are the Benefits of Hydrogen-Powered Vehicles?

Hydrogen-powered vehicles are likely the future, as automakers heavily invest in the technologies required for these machines. Driving a hydrogen-powered car delivers these four benefits.

1. Reducing Emissions

Auto manufacturers like Toyota are pushing hydrogen fuel technology because of its eco-friendliness. The only emissions are water vapor and heat, thus making them better for the environment. Turning hydrogen fuel cells mainstream would reduce the amount of GHGs emitted daily, which is crucial to combating climate change.

The transition to hydrogen fuel cells would significantly boost the logistics industry, considering how many long-haul trucks hit the road daily. Research shows medium and heavy-duty vehicles in the U.S. emit over 400 million metric tons of GHGs. Converting trucks worldwide would help the surrounding environment and improve health for each road traveled.

2. Easy Transition

While converting existing trucks to hydrogen fuel cells takes time, the transition might be easier than you think. Logistics companies can keep their current gas transport and storage mechanisms, repurposing them for hydrogen fuel.

Additionally, truck owners wouldn’t have to jump through hoops to let their vehicles take hydrogen power. Retrofitting combustion engines for hydrogen power is more straightforward than with electric motors, especially with heavy trucks.

3. Beating Battery-Powered Vehicles

Battery-electric trucks are best for short drives due to their limited range. However, logistics companies need their vehicles to travel hundreds of miles each trip to keep deliveries on time. Hydrogen-powered trucks allow fleet owners to combine sustainability and efficient travel due to their range.

For instance, the Kenworth T680 hydrogen fuel-powered truck ranges up to 450 miles, depending on the driving conditions. Regardless, it’s more than you’d get from an electric truck. In fact, the Kenworth machine boasts one of the highest ranges for any semi-truck using alternative energy sources.

4. Rapid Refueling

Another significant advantage of hydrogen trucks over battery-electric vehicles is the quick refueling. Fully electric trucks will need to wait for a few hours before they can head back on the road, causing trips to be longer than scheduled. However, hydrogen machines only require a few minutes to fill up, greatly boosting logistics companies. The Kenworth hydrogen fuel cell vehicle lets fleet owners increase uptime and reduce lead times.

Foreshadowing a Bright Future

The automotive industry is pushing for fossil fuel alternatives to help the planet’s transportation sector. While battery-electric technology has existed for over a decade, hydrogen fuel cells are another way for automakers to produce cleaner vehicles.

The future of hydrogen vehicles is bright as researchers continue to improve the technology and bring it into the mainstream.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Source  Happy Eco News

Cement Energy Storage – Two Ways

Posted on by dishanth
Cement Energy Storage – Two Ways

Cement, the binding agent in concrete, is the world’s most widely utilized construction material and may soon be used as cement energy storage. However, emerging research reveals its overlooked potential to serve as a cement energy storage medium in two completely different ways: solid thermal batteries and supercapacitors (when combined with carbon).

Cement Blocks as Thermal Batteries

According to an article in the Journal of Composites Science, scientists have developed a method to produce cement-based blocks that effectively function as thermal batteries. Their technique infuses cement blocks with the ability to soak up renewable electricity when manufactured and then discharge it later on demand as usable heat.

The researchers use chemical alterations during the concrete mixing process to integrate phase change materials into the cement binder matrix. These phase-change materials have the ability to store and release thermal energy.

The resulting cement energy storage blocks contain phase change materials that can absorb electricity when it is most abundant and inexpensive from the grid or renewable sources. The charged blocks can then act as solid thermal batteries, releasing their stored energy as heat when needed for space and water heating systems.

In initial tests, the team achieved energy densities comparable to lithium-ion batteries in their cement energy storage-based blocks. This stored energy is emitted as gentle heat when water is added, with adjustable discharge rates. The blocks can offer long-duration energy storage across daily cycles or entire seasons.

By incorporating waste materials like plastic ash during production, the researchers achieved lower costs than conventional concrete blocks or batteries. Additional waste heat captured during block fabrication can provide self-generated power.

The creators say that scale adoption of such cement energy storage thermal batteries could provide renewable energy storage for buildings while lowering grid demand peaks. The cement blocks offer an alternative to mining metals like lithium, cobalt, and nickel, which are finite and environmentally destructive to extract.

This novel approach redirects one of cement’s existing useful properties – its high thermal mass – towards storing renewable energy rather than fossil fuels traditionally used for heat in cement kilns. It points to one-way cement could aid sustainable energy transitions through material innovation.

 

Conductive Cement-Carbon Composites

Researchers at MIT have also demonstrated cement energy storage’s potential as an energy storage medium by transforming it into a highly efficient supercapacitor. Their method infuses cement with carbon-based additives to create cement-derived composites with enhanced conductive properties.

The MIT team found that the resulting material attained supercapacitor-like behaviors by mixing cement with inexpensive carbon black additives. This was due to carbon black creating a conductive surface area network throughout the composite.

With just 3% carbon black content by volume, cement’s conductivity spiked to levels comparable to powerful supercapacitors. The team states that a cement block around 45 cubic meters in size could potentially store up to 10 kilowatt-hours of energy – equal to an average home’s daily usage.

While still experimental, the researchers say these carbon-infused cement energy storage composites could enable integrated energy storage in concrete structures. Walls, foundations, or roadways made with such cement mixtures might capture solar, wind, or waste energy onsite for later usage.

The carbon provides the charge-storing capacity, while ubiquitous cement allows for scalable, inexpensive production since these composites do not rely on scarce materials like lithium or cobalt. Combined, they offer unique advantages as sustainable energy storage solutions.

 

Conclusion

Together, these two emerging techniques demonstrate that one of the planet’s most abundant building materials – cement – can potentially provide flexible, large-scale energy storage as demands grow.

While still in the early stages, both research trajectories showcase cement’s latent abilities to store energy through novel manufacturing processes and composite ingredients. With further advancement, cement energy storaget-based batteries and supercapacitors may offer new tools for enabling greater renewable energy integration across infrastructure. The present global ubiquity of concrete construction means cement-derived energy storage could be rapidly deployable once perfected. Unlocking the hidden attributes of cement through materials science and engineering may yield key innovations to support grids in an electrified, renewable future.

 

 

 

 

Source   Happy Eco News

Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage for Renewables

Posted on by dishanth
Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage for Renewables

It’s Not All About Energy Generation

When the topic of decarbonization comes up, oftentimes, we think of transportation or energy generation. These issues are important, as vehicle emissions are a major problem, as well as emissions from fossil fuel power generation. However, while important, these issues only partially show the roadblocks to moving towards a green future.

Another component that needs to be addressed in the conversation is energy storage and efficiency in renewable energy.

Wind and solar energy are important and rapidly developing technologies but are dependent on weather conditions that vary from month to month and from year to year. In colder months, when houses need to heat, that is when significantly less sunlight is present, thus driving down the available energy to heat them.

This is why energy storage is crucial to the conversation regarding renewable energy, but other solutions might mitigate this problem if properly implemented. This is how aquifer thermal energy storage (ATES) could help assist in cooling and heating buildings, reducing the reliance on other renewable energy sources.

How About Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage?

Energy storage is a difficult topic to address, as the technologies required to implement large-scale grid energy storage require, ironically, a lot of energy. This isn’t helped by the fact that hydrogen energy storage systems right now lose a significant amount of the energy stored.

This is why reducing the grid energy demand is important to implement renewable energy systems successfully. Aquifer thermal energy storage is an interesting form of renewable energy specific to the heating and cooling of buildings because it ties in directly with the seasons that affect solar energy so much.

It works by utilizing two wells connected to the same groundwater reservoir. Cold groundwater is pumped up to cool the building during the summer, then stored. The same process happens in winter but in reverse. Warm groundwater is pumped up into the building, then stored.

Aquifer thermal energy storage systems can also store excess heat from industrial operations, similar to the geothermal systems being deployed in decommissioned oil wells. This process can help bridge the gap between the seasonal availability of renewable energy while at the same time decarbonizing the heating and cooling sector.

This system is also useful because it can make energy infrastructure more resilient by reducing the demand currently placed upon it by heating and cooling. According to a study in Science Direct, Aquifer thermal energy storage systems could reduce reliance on fossil fuels for energy by up to 40%.

New Tech can Help but not Solve Inherent Limits

The importance of renewable energy in the transition to a greener world cannot be understated. However, it is also important to recognize that there are limitations to the technology currently available.

Going forward, there are certainly ways that renewable energy, specifically solar, can become more efficient; the issue of seasonal availability will always be there. This is why alternative methods of addressing needs like heating and cooling are as important.

The issue of energy storage is also important because bridging the gap between availability and need is necessary for making renewable energy a viable alternative to our current fossil fuel energy generation system.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Source Happy Eco News

 

European Investment Bank supports thermal, gravity energy storage projects

Posted on by dishanth
European Investment Bank supports thermal, gravity energy storage projects

The EU’s European Investment Bank has pledged support for a long-duration thermal energy storage project and a gravity-based energy storage demonstration project.

They have been selected among 15 projects defined as large-scale — each requiring capital costs of more than €7.5 million (US$8.5 million) — through EU Innovation Fund grants for Project Development Assistance (PDA), administered by the bank.

A total of 311 applications were received for clean energy or decarbonisation projects after the call for submissions opened last summer.

Of these, seven were selected to receive direct funding from a €1.1 billion budget and include hydrogen, carbon capture and storage, advanced solar cell manufacturing and other technologies.

The 15 among which the two energy storage projects were selected will receive PDA, technical assistance for various stages of their development.

The other 13 projects cover technologies including wind propulsion for cruise ships, hydrogen fuel cells for marine vessels, green methanol production, greenhouse gas (GHG) and carbon capture and storage, bioethanol, power-to-liquid for aviation fuels and other areas.

There is also an electric vehicle (EV) battery project, which will use ultra-pure electrolyte salt to improve lithium-ion batteries and a project to develop and upscale the synthesis of curved graphene and electrode production technologies.

 

Thermal energy storage project Sun2Store

Sun2Store, a 100MW/1,000MWh thermal energy storage project in Spain was selected for a PDA agreement. Using technology developed by US startup Malta Inc, the project will enable 10-hour duration storage of energy.

Malta Inc has developed a technology it calls ‘pumped heat’ electricity storage, which could provide up to 200 hours of storage, although the company is largely targeting 10 – 12 hour applications. It converts electricity to heat, which is then stored in molten salt. Simultaneously, the system produces cold energy stored in special vats of an anti-freeze-like cooling liquid.

The hot and cold energy are then converted back into electricity as required, using a temperature difference-driven heat engine. The company has raised funds from investors including Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures and is one of the founding members of the international Long Duration Energy Storage Council.

It has deals in place with equipment manufacturers Bechtel and Siemens Energy for co-development and supply of key components.

Funds have been granted to Malta Inc’s European affiliate company, Malta Iberia Pumped Heat Electricity Storage (Malta Iberia). The EIB will provide technical assistance to Malta Iberia, including an independent technology assessment, which will verify the storage facility’s key technical parameters.

Malta Inc recently announced plans for a similar-sized project in Canada.

 

Gravity storage project GraviSTORE

Scotland-headquartered startup Gravitricity was the other energy storage system industry recipient of a PDA agreement through the Innovation Fund.

The EIB will support Gravitricity’s plans to build a full scale 4-8MW project in a former mine shaft.

Located in mainland Europe, the project follows a 250kW demonstrator which operated in Scotland’s capital city Edinburgh throughout the summer and for which specialists appointed by the EIB have begun evaluating test results.

The results of the Edinburgh demonstrator are to be combined with a review of local revenue streams to produce a commercial risk assessment that will inform detailed design and development activities.

“We already have a high level of confidence in our technology and its ability to store energy effectively. What these studies will bring is increased understanding and confidence in how a full-scale project will play into a specific energy market,” said Chris Yendell, project development manager at Gravitricity.

Gravitricity’s energy storage solution works by raising weights in a deep shaft, with disused mine shafts currently being targeted by the firm, and releasing them when energy is required. Its proposed single weight full scale system could deliver up to 2MWh of energy storage, with future multi-weight systems having the potential for a capacity of 25MWh or more.

Alongside the test evaluations, the EIB has now also committed 120 days of consultancy time to advance the full scale project.

In October, Gravitricity engineers visited the recently mothballed Staříč mine in the Moravian Silesian Region of Czechia to investigate its potential for the project. The Gravitricity team is to head to mainland Europe later in January to further evaluate their shortlist, with a final selection decision expected within the next few months.

The firm is also exploring opportunities for a purpose-built prototype shaft at a brownfield location in the UK, where gravity storage could be combined with hydrogen and inter-seasonal heat storage.

Gravitricity story by Alice Grundy.

 

 

Source Energy Storage News