Energy,water and global warming

At the outset it may sound odd but in reality water and energy are two sides of the same coin and both industries have a great impact on global warming.We take for example, power generation industries. Two basic requirements for any power plant are fuel and water. It does not matter what kind of fuel is used whether it is a coal based power plant, liquid fuel based plant like Naphtha, and gas based plants using piped natural gas or LNG. We will consider only power generation involving conversion of thermal energy into electrical energy. Currently more than 80% of power generation in the world is based on thermal power including nuclear plants. All thermal power plants use steam as the prime motive force to drive the turbines, gas turbine is an exception but even, in gas based plants the secondary motive force is steam using waste heat recovery boilers, in combined cycle operations. The quality of water for conversion into steam is of high quality and purer than our drinking water. The second usage of water is for cooling purpose. The water consumption by power plants using once through cooling system is 1 lit/kwhr, and by closed circuit cooling tower, it is 1.7lit/kwhr. Only about 40% power plants in Europe for example use closed circuit cooling towers and the rest use only ‘once through’ cooling systems. The total power generated in 2010 by two largest users US and China, were 3792Twhrs and 3715 Twhrs respectively. The total world power production, in 2008 was 20,262 Twhrs, using following methods. Fossil fuel: Coal 41 %, Oil 5.50%, Gas 21%, Nuclear 13% and Hydro 16%.Renewable: PV solar 0.06%, PV thermal 0.004%, Wind 1.1%, Tide 0.003 %, Geothermal 0.3%, Biomass &others 1.30%. (1Twhrs is = 1,000,000,000 kwhrs)(Ref: Wikipedia). The above statistics gives us an idea on how much water is being used by power generating plants in the world. Availability of fresh water on planet earth, is only 2.5% (96. 5% oceans, 1.70% ground water, 1.7% glaciers and ice caps, and 0.001% in the air, as vapor and clouds).The world’s precious water source is used for power generation, while millions of people do not have water to drink. The cost of bottled drinking water is US$ 0.20 /lit, in countries like, India. This situation is simply unsustainable. The prime cause of this situation is lack of technology to produce clean power without using water. The power technology we use today is based on the principle of electromagnetism invented by Michael Faraday in the year 1839. That is why, renewable energy is becoming critically important at this juncture when the world is at the cross road. Many countries are now opting for seawater desalination to meet their water demand. Desalination again is an energy intensive process. For example, 3-4 kwhrs of power is used to desalinate 1 m3 of water. This power now comes from fossil fuel fired thermal power plants, which are often co-located with desalination plants, so that all the discharge from both the plants can be easily pumped into the sea. Since the world is running out of fresh water, we have to look for attentive source of water. In countries like India, the ground water is being exploited for agricultural purpose and power generation and the ground water is getting depleted. Depleting water resources is a threat to agriculture production especially when countries depend only on monsoon rains. Unabated emission of greenhouse from fossil fuel power plants and transportation causes globe to warm. Draught and water scarcity threatens food security. It is a vicious circle. Recent delay in onset of monsoon rains in India have caused grave concern for Government and the people of India. Shortage of power and water has compounded the problem for farmers and suicide rate among the farmers is increasing at alarming rate in India. “Globally, this seems to be one of the worst summers in recorded history. The global average temperature for May was the second hottest ever since 1880 - the year records were first compiled - US National Climatic Data Centre (NCDC) has said. Only 2010 witnessed a worse May. The NCDC said such a hot May was never recorded in the northern hemisphere. No scientist will pin it on human-induced climate change - it is scientifically untenable to do so - but many affirm that these extreme weather phenomena is along predicted lines of rise in global temperatures For India, the looming possibility of El Nino dulling the monsoon rains in July-August only means things could get worse. There is half a chance that the El Nino phenomenon will pick up intensity and hit the tail of the monsoon. Thirteen of the 20 times El Nino has been recorded, it has dimmed the intensity of the monsoon, causing widespread drought. Already, the northwest region of India has suffered a rainfall deficit worse than the rest of India. But the misery of rising heat is being felt worldwide with "normal weather" systems in disarray. If large areas of the western Himalayas in Uttarakhand have suffered raging forest fires, so has the US - more than 8 lakh hectares have been engulfed in flames. The March-May period for the US has been the hottest ever. Brazil is in the midst of its worst drought in five decades with more than 1,000 towns suffering. Heavy downpours and unheard of hail has hit China and flash floods have ravaged crops in Ethiopia. The Eurasian snow cover extent has been recorded at its smallest ever for the month of May since such records were maintained for the first time in 1967. The cover was 2.67 million sqkm below average in May,theUSNCDCsaid. The southern hemisphere, where winters prevail at the moment, too has been recording extremes like never before. The Australian winter has been exceptionally cold, with the fifth coolest winter minimum temperature in over half a century of record keeping. The Antarctic sea ice extent has gone above the 1979-2000 average. In contrast, the Arctic sea ice recorded a much smaller than average extent for the same period”. (Ref: The Economic Times). The global warming has caused many natural disasters such as recent bush fires in Colorado springs in US destroying more than 300,000 houses and heavy storms in Washington causing power black outs for days together in sweltering heat. No country is immune to global warming and sea level rising. How the consequences of global warming will manifest in different forms affecting human beings and other lives is yet to be seen in years to come. That is why distributed energy systems using Hydrogen as an alternative fuel is an important step towards sustainability. One can generate Hydrogen from water, using renewable energy source like solar or wind, and store them for future usage. The stored Hydrogen can be used to generate power, as and when required, at any remote location, even where there is no grid power. The water is regenerated during this process of power generation using Fuel cell which can be recycled. There is no large consumption of water and there is no greenhouse emission. It is a clean and sustainable solution. The same stored Hydrogen can also be used to fuel their cars in the near future!

Renewable Hydrogen for remote power supply

PV solar is expanding as a potential renewable energy source for individual houses, and the cost of solar panels are slowly coming down as the volume of production increases. However, the intermittent nature of solar energy is still an issue, especially for off grid and remote locations. Now solar energy is stored using lead acid batteries for such applications and inverters become part of the system. The capacity of the battery bank is designed to meet the electrical demand and to absorb the fluctuation of the energy generated by solar panels and it varies from location to location. This method stores the electrical energy generated by PV solar in the form of DC current and delivers it in the form of AC current. Though this method is the simplest one for remote locations, storing solar power in the form of Hydrogen is more economical and environmentally friendly in the long run. Solar energy can directly be used to generate Hydrogen using solid polymer electrolyzers and stored in cyclinders.The stored Hydrogen can then be used to fuel a stationary Fuel cell to generate power onsite. One can design a system by integrating various components in such a way; the Hydrogen generated by solar energy is used to generate power on site as and when required. By this method one can generate required power throughout the day 24x7 irrespective of the availability of sun. The system integration involves various components supplied by various manufacturers with various specifications and the success of a system depends on the careful design using data acquired over a period of time on a specific location. Many winds to Hydrogen projects also have been tested in locations around the world.NREL (National renewable energy laboratory, USA) has conducted number of tests by integrating various components such as PV solar and wind turbines with Electrolyzers (both PEM electroylzers and alkaline electrolyzers) and Hydrogen IC engines for remote power generation as well as for fuelling vehicles with Hydrogen. Though the cost of this system is still expensive, such integration offers enormous potential as a clean energy source for remote locations without any grid power. When one takes into account the fluctuating oil prices, cost of global warming, cost of power transmissions and losses during long distance power transmission from fossil fuel power plants, Renewable Hydrogen offers the best and sustainable alternative to fossil fuels. Such a system offers complete independence, energy security, reliability and fixed power tariff. System integration of renewable energy sources for Hydrogen production and onsite power generation using Fuel cell or Hydrogen engine is the key to a successful deployment of solar and wind energy for rural electrification and to remote islands. Such system will offer greater return on investment even to supply power to the grid based on power purchase agreements with Government and private companies. Renewable Hydrogen is the only viable solution for clean power of the future and sooner we embrace this integrated solution better for a cleaner future. Government and private companies investing on oil and gas explorations can focus their attention in developing renewable Hydrogen based solutions so that the cost of Hydrogen can become competitive to fossil fuel. Once the cost of Hydrogen reaches parity with cost of fossil fuel then, it will set the beginning of a green revolution in clean energy.

Lithium batteries and Electric cars

All forms of renewable energy sources are intermittent by nature and therefore storage becomes essential. Energy is used mainly for power generation and transportation and the growth of these two industries are closely linked with development of energy storage technologies and devices. Electrical energy is conventionally stored using storage batteries. Batteries are electrochemical devices in which electrical energy is stored in the form of chemical energy, which is then converted into electrical energy at the time of usage. Batteries are key components in cars such as Hybrid electric vehicles, Plug-in Hybrid electrical vehicles and Electrical vehicles - all store energy for vehicle propulsion. Hybrid vehicle rely on internal combustion engine as the primary source of energy and use a battery to store excess energy generated during vehicle braking or produced by engine. The stored energy provides power to an electric motor that provides acceleration or provides limited power to the propulsion. Plug-in hybrid incorporates higher capacity battery than Hybrid eclectic vehicles, which are charged externally and used as a primary source of power for longer duration and at higher speed than it is required for Hybrid electric vehicles. In Electric cars, battery is the sole power source. All electric vehicles require rechargeable batteries with capacity to quickly store and discharge electric energy over multiple cycles. There are wide range of batteries and chemistries available in the market. The most common NiMH (Nickel Metal Hydride) used Cathode materials called AB5; A is typically a rare earth material containing lanthanum, cerium, neodymium and praseodymium; while B is a combination of nickel, cobalt, manganese and/or aluminum. Current generation Hybrid vehicles use several Kg of rare earth materials. Lithium ion battery offers better energy density, cold weather performance, abuse tolerance and discharge rates compared to NiMH batteries. With increasing usage of electrical vehicles the demand for lithium ion batteries and Lithium is likely to go up substantially in the coming years. It is estimated that a battery capable of providing 100miles range will contain 3.4 to 12.7 Kgs of Lithium depending upon the lithium-ion chemistry and the battery range. Lithium -ion batteries are also used in renewable energy industries such as solar and wind but Lead-acid batteries are now used widely due to lower cost. The lithium for Cathode and electrolyte is produced from Lithium Carbonate which is now produced using naturally occurring brines by solar evaporation with subsequent chemical precipitation. The naturally occurring brine such as in Atacama in Chile is now the main source of commercial Lithium. The brine is a mixture of various chlorides including Lithium chloride, which is allowed to evaporate by solar heat over a period of 18-20 months. The concentrated lithium chloride is then transferred to a production unit where it is chemically reacted with Sodium carbonate to precipitate Lithium Carbonate. Chile is the largest producers of Lithium carbonate. Though Lithium ion batteries are likely to dominate electric vehicle markets in the future, the supply of Lithium remains limited. Alternative sources of Lithium are natural ores such as Spodumene.Many companies around the world, including couple of companies in Australia are in the process of extracting Lithium from such ores. Manufacturers produce battery cells from anode, cathode and electrolyte materials. All lithium-ion batteries use some form of lithium in the cathode and electrolyte materials, while anodes are generally graphite based and contain no lithium. These cells are connected in series inside a battery housing to form a complete battery pack. Despite lithium’s importance for batteries, it represents a relatively small fraction of the cost of both the battery cell and the final battery cost. “Various programs seek to recover and recycle lithium-ion batteries. These include prominently placed recycling drop-off locations in retail establishments for consumer electronics batteries, as well as recent efforts to promote recycling of EV and PHEV batteries as these vehicles enter the market in larger numbers (Hamilton 2009). Current recycling programs focus more on preventing improper disposal of hazardous battery materials and recovering battery materials that are more valuable than lithium. However, if lithium recovery becomes more cost effective, recycling programs and design features provide a mechanism to enable larger scale lithium recycling. Another potential application for lithium batteries that have reached the end of their useful life for vehicle applications is in stationery applications such as grid storage. The supply chain for many types of batteries involves multiple, geographically distributed steps and it overlaps with the production supply chains of other potential critical materials, such as cobalt, which are also used in battery production. Lithium titanate batteries use a lithium titanium oxide anode and have been mentioned as a potential candidate for automotive use (Gains 2010), despite being limited by a low cell voltage compared to other lithium-ion battery chemistries.” (Ref: Centre for Transportation, Argonne National Laboratory) Usage of power for extraction of Lithium from naturally occurring brines is lower compared to extraction from mineral sources because bulk of the heat for evaporation of brine is supplied by solar heat. However Lithium ion batteries can serve only as a storage medium and the real power has to be generated either by burning fossil fuel or from using renewable energy sources. Governments around the world should make usage of renewable power mandatory for users of Electrical vehicles. Otherwise introduction of Lithium ion battery without such regulation will only enhance carbon emission from fossil fuels.

Changing winds and storing technologies

Wind energy is one of the fastest growing renewable energy sources in the world and in 2011 the global market grew by 6% with 40.5 GW new powers brought online, according to Global Wind Report. However storage of intermittent renewable energy is a critical contributing factor in renewable energy development. A study was conducted by University of California on behalf of California Energy Commission on the economic and environmental impact of four energy storage technologies and the ways to improve the energy efficiency of wind energy. When there is a strong wind there is no demand for power, and when there is a high demand for power there is no wind. This anomalous supply demand gap demands a reliable way of storing wind power during high wind velocity periods. They examined four energy storage technologies namely 1.lead acid batteries, 2. Zinc Bromine flow batteries, 3.Hydrogen electrolyzer and Fuel cell storage system and 4.Hydrogen option to fuel Hydrogen cars with Hydrogen. By using NREL (national Renewable Energy laboratory) computer simulation model HOMER for high wind penetration of 18% in California, they concluded that Hydrogen storage is the most cost effective than other battery storage technologies and using Hydrogen to fuel Hydrogen cars is economically attractive than converting Hydrogen into Electricity. The environmental impact of using Hydrogen is benign compared to batteries with their emissions. “The key findings of this experiments are as follows: Energy storage systems deployed in the context of greater wind power development were not particularly well utilized (based on the availability of “excess” off-peak electricity from wind power), especially in the 2010 time frame (which assumed 10% wind penetration statewide), but were better utilized–up to 1,600 hours of operation per year in some cases–with the greater (20%) wind penetration levels assumed for 2020. The levelized costs of electricity from these energy storage systems ranged from a low of $0.41 per kWh—or near the marginal cost of generation during peak demand times—to many dollars per kWh (in cases where the storage was not well utilized). This suggests that in order for these systems to be economically attractive, it may be necessary to optimize their output to coincide with peak demand periods, and to identify additional, value streams from their use (e.g., transmission and distribution system optimization, provision of power quality and grid ancillary services, etc.). At low levels of wind penetration (1%–2%), the electrolyzer/fuel cell system was either inoperable or uneconomical (i.e., either no electricity was supplied by the energy storage system or the electricity provided carried a high cost per MWh). In the 2010 scenarios, the flow battery system delivered the lowest cost per energy stored and delivered. At higher levels of wind penetration, the hydrogen storage systems became more economical such that with the wind penetration levels in 2020 (18% from Southern California), the hydrogen systems delivered the least costly energy storage. Projected decreases in capital costs and maintenance requirements along with a more durable fuel cell allowed the electrolyzer/fuel cell to gain a significant cost advantage over the battery systems in 2020. Sizing the electrolyzer/fuel cell system to match the flow battery system’s relatively high instantaneous power output was found to increase the competitiveness of this system in low energy storage scenarios (2010 and Northern California in 2020), but in scenarios with higher levels of energy storage (Southern California in 2020), the electrolyzer/fuel cell system sized to match the flow battery output became less competitive. The hydrogen production case was more economical than the electrolyzer/fuel cell case with the same amount of electricity consumed (i.e., hydrogen production delivered greater revenue from hydrogen sales than the electrolyzer/fuel cell avoided the cost of electricity, once the process efficiencies are considered). Furthermore, the hydrogen production system with a higher-capacity power converter and electrolyzer (sized to match the flow battery converter) was more cost-effective than the lower-capacity system that was sized to match the output of the solid-state battery. This is due to economies of scale found to produce lower-cost hydrogen in all cases. In general, the energy storage systems themselves are fairly benign from an environmental perspective, with the exception of emissions from the manufacture of certain components (such as nickel, lead, cadmium, and vanadium for batteries). This is particularly true outside of the U.S., where battery plant emissions are less tightly controlled and potential contamination from improper disposal of these and other materials is more likely. The overall value proposition for energy storage systems used in conjunction with intermittent renewable energy systems depends on diverse factors: The interaction of generation and storage system characteristics and grid and energy resource conditions at a particular location The potential use of energy storage for multiple purposes in addition to improving the dependability of intermittent renewable (e.g., peak/off-peak power price arbitrage, helping to optimize the transmission and distribution infrastructure, load-leveling the grid in general, helping to mitigate power quality issues, etc.) The degree of future progress in improving forecasting techniques and reducing prediction errors for intermittent. Electricity market design and rules for compensating renewable energy systems for their output”. Hydrogen storage and Hydrogen cars hold the key for future renewable energy industries and Governments and industries should focus on these two key segments.

Global warming - a race against time

Governments and industries seek comfort from the fact that Global Warming is not directly linked with greenhouse gas emissions and there is no concrete scientific proof yet linking these two, and think they can carry on the business as usual. Few scientists in the scientific communities also have backed such sentiments. Alternative technologies such as renewable energy technologies are expensive and cannot compete with fossil fuel based power plants in near terms. Advanced renewable technologies require rare earth materials such as Lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, neodymium, cobalt and lithium that are used in electric vehicle batteries; Neodymium, praseodymium and dysprosium that are used in magnets for electric vehicles and wind turbines. Lanthanum, cerium, europium, terbium and yttrium that are used in Phosphors for energy-efficient lighting; Indium, gallium and tellurium that are used in solar cells. The supply of these materials are limited or confined to few countries such as China. These new material also require additional energy to mine, process and extract such rare earth materials using only fossil fuel generated power. Transport vehicles such as Hybrid or Electrical cars require substantial amount of rare earth material such as Lithium for Battery production. The cost of Lithium batteries according to Centre for Transportation, Argonne National Laboratory is: High energy 35 kwh battery costs $706/kwh or $ 24,723. High Power battery 100 10A-h cell costs $2,486. The cost and maintenance of such vehicles are expensive compared to gasoline cars. The looming financial crisis, unemployment and political instability in many parts of the world have overshadowed the problem of greenhouse house and global warming. Governments in power are trying to postpone the issue of global warming as long as possible because they are unpopular among their public, who are increasingly wary of high energy cost and their household budgets. Industrialized countries such as US, China, India and Australia have projected their production and utilization of their coal, oil and gas usage in the future, which are steadily on the rise. Australia’s mining and resources industries are booming with increasing production of Coal, Coal seam Methane gas, LNG, Iron ore, Copper, Nickel and Gold. Increasing demand by growing economies such as India and China have propelled the production of coal and LNG and other minerals in Australia. The booming mining and shipping industries of Australia have prompted UNESCO to warn Australia about the impending danger of ‘Great Barrier reef’ being destroyed by its busy shipping activities. The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef ecosystem. The only living organic collective visible from space, it is considered one of the seven natural wonders of the world, and is a World Heritage listed area. It boosts the Queensland’s image of sun, swimming and tropical islands, and around 2 million people visit the reef every year, generating more than $2 billion in direct tourism revenue in the area. The mining boom brings revenue but it also brings natural disasters and destruction of its natural wonders. The net effect will be destruction of Nature and displacement of people at the cost of mining revenue. But how long such a boom will last, and if the economies of China and India starts slowing down then, what happens to all the investments and the damage caused? The above developments paint a grim picture on global warming. The world has witnessed natural disasters causing huge human and financial losses. The natural disasters have costed an economic loss of nearly 13 to 30 billion dollars in the past two years in Australia alone. Yet, people and Governments want a ‘concrete proof’ that man made greenhouse gases cause global warming and trigger natural disasters. Well, we can carry on such conversation indefinitely till we reach a point of no return. “Wisdom comes from experience; but experience comes from foolishness”.

Carbon capture or Carbon recycle?

We live in a carbon constrained world where carbon emission is considered as the biggest challenge of the twenty first century. We unearthed fossil fuel which Nature buried for millions of years and burnt them for our advantage to generate power and to run our cars. Scientists pointed out that the unabated emission of greenhouse will cause the globe to warm with dire consequences.This came as an ‘inconvenient truth’ to industries and Governments around the world. However, economic consequences of stopping fossil fuels outweiged the impact of global warming. Governments were in a precarious situation and were unable to take a concrete policy decision. Popular Governments were not willing to risk their power by taking ethical decisions and opted for popular decision to maintain their growth. Then the financial crisis became an issue, which has nothing to do with greenhouse emission or global warming. Yet, the economic and industrial growth stumbled in many developed countries and unemployment skyrocketed. Governments are caught in a situation where they need to take a balanced view between an ethical decision and economic decisison.The overwhelming evidence of global warming and their consequences are slowly felt by countries around the world by natural disasters of various sizes and intensities. Some scientists suggested that there was nothing wrong using fossil fuels; we could continue with greenhouse emission without risking the economic growth by capturing the carbon and burying them underground. Carbon sequestration and clean coal technologies became popular and more funds were allocated to them than renewable energy development.Countires like India and China were not in a hurry to discontinue fossil fuels but continued to make massive investments on coal fired power plants. They neither try to capture carbon nor bury them, but continue to emit carbon claiming that it is their turn of economic growth and right to emit carbon emission. The chief of UN panel on climate change headed by an Indian has no say in the matter.Politicians push scientists into the background whenever the truth is inconvenient to them. How feasible in the carbon sequestration technology and what is the cost? Even if we can come up with a successful technology of capturing carbon and burying them underground, there will be a cost involved. This cost will invariably be passed on to the consumer which will eventually increase the cost of energy. Constraining carbon emission without incurring a cost can only be a dream. Capturing carbon emission is nothing new; Carbon dioxide is absorbed by solvents like MEA (Monoethanolamine) in many chemical industries. The absorbed carbon dioxide can be stripped free of solvent and the solvent can be recycled. This carbon dioxide can be treated with Ammonia to get Urea, a Fertilizer. But the source of Hydrogen can come only from renewable energy sources. That is why ‘Renewable Hydrogen ‘is the key to solve global warming problem. We can produce Urea from “captured Carbon” and ‘Renewable Hydrogen’ so that we can reduce a substantial quantity of greenhouse emission. Carbon recycling is a sustainable solution than Carbon capturing and burying. Countries like India who depend upon import of Urea for their agriculture production should immediately make Carbon recycling into Urea production mandatory. It is a win situation for everybody in the world.

Will Bioethanol and Hydrogen replace Gasoline?

Many universities, research and development institutions and industries are studying various biological processes to produce Hydrogen using different sources of organic materials such as Starch, Glucose, Bioethanol and cellulosic materials. However many of these technologies are at “proof of concept’ stages. Moreover these processes depend upon location and availability of specific raw materials in these locations. For example, Brazil has been very successful in the production of Bioethanol form sugar cane molasses and using it as the fuel for cars. Brazil has also successfully utilized Bioethanol as a substitute for Naphtha as a feedstock for the production of Ethylne, a precursor for several plastics such as PVC and Polyethylene and Glycols. Bioethanol is a classic example of biological process than can successfully substitute Gasoline. Many industrial raw materials are also derived from Sugar cane and Corn Starch. The main issue in substituting Gasoline with bio-chemicals is political in many countries. India has been producing industrial alcohol from sugarcane molasses for number of years but they are not be able successfully substitute Gasoline with Alcohol.They have to fix the price of Alcohol in relation to the price of Gasoline or Naptha.This pricing mechanism is critical. We have been using coal as the raw material for several decades not only to generate power but also to produce host of organic chemicals and fertilizers such as Urea, coal tar chemicals such as dyes and pharmaceuticals. These industries later switched over to oil and Gas. Now the world is facing depletion of fossil fuels at a faster rate. Greenhouse emission and global warming threats are looming large. There is a clear sign that the energy prices will sharply increase in the near future. Renewable energy projects are at early stages and their initial costs and cost of productions are much higher compared to fossil fuel based power generation. However biological processes and biofuels offer a glimpse of hope to get over the energy crisis and also to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. Production of Biohydrogen using bio-organic materials such as starch, glucose and cellulosic materials are under development, but it may be a decade before they can be successfully commercialized. But production of Bioethanol and Biogas are well-known technologies. Generation of Biogas from agricultural waste, food waste and municipal solid waste and waste water are known technologies. However Methane the major constituents of biogas,is a potential greenhouse gas.The Biogas can be easily cleaned from other impurities such as Carbon dioxide and Hydrogen sulfide and can be readily converted to Hydrogen gas by steam reformation. This will substantially increase the energy efficiency of Biogas plants. Many developing countries can adopt these technologies on a wider scale and promote Bioethenaol and Biogas generation to substitute petroleum oil and gas. They can convert Gasoline cars into 100% Bioethanol (anhydrous) or blended with gasoline fuels for cars.These technologies are commercially available.Number of countries in Asia, Africa and South America produce starches such as Tapioca starch for industrial applications.Vegetable oils such as Jatropa and Castor oils are excellent for bio-fuels and lubricants.Though it is theoretically possible to substitute most of the petrochemicals with bio-organic materials,it is important that food products such as corn should not be diverted for commercial applications such as fuel. The coming decade will be a challenging one and Hydrogen generation from various biological organic materials can substitute fossil fuels at a much faster rate. A judicial mix of bio-energy and renewable energy such as solar and wind should help the world to overcome the challenges.

Tame the Renewable with Hydrogen

The sun is bright and warm and your roof top solar panels and solar heaters are working hard to generate power and hot water. But the rate of power generated is too small to use immediately. The hot water is not hot enough for your shower. Your 200watt rooftop solar panel generates only 0.12 kwhrs after 5 hours of hard work. It does not meet your expectations. You expect 200 watts solar panel to generate about 1000 watt.hrs (1kwhr) in 5 hours. It is not happening. You don’t think renewable energy can meet your electricity demand. There is a strong wind in the island and the wind turbines are rotating faster than usual but there are hardly any people living there. Wind turbine generates good power when the wind velocity is above certain level. But the electricity generated by the wind has no immediate takers. There is a good rain this year and the dams are overflowing and the Hydro is generating surplus power but not many people are living near the catchment area. The power has to be transmitted hundred of kilometers to the nearby town through a sub-station. When the dams are dry there is hardly any power generation and power supply is rationed to the town. When there is a demand for power Mother Nature does not offer the resources for power generation. When Mother Nature offers the resource we do not need power. This anomalous situation is the single largest obstacle that is undermining the potential of renewable energy. Of course, the high initial cost and half-hearted approach by Governments to offer subsidies or grants for renewable energy are other factors that add to the anomaly. The only option to get over this situation is to store the energy 24x7 when it is generated and use them when we need them. It requires good storage technology, automation and information technology that can communicate with Natures energy resources and harness them, store them and deploy them judiciously and intelligently to meet our demands. Current battery technology cannot be a long term sustainable solution; it is expensive, requires constant maintenance and replacement, which adds to the expensive initial investment on renewable systems. The best option is to generate Hydrogen on-site whenever sun shines or wind blows and store them under pressure that can be used as and when we require electricity using Fuel cell. It is easier to handle gas than stored electricity in batteries. Batteries are very heavy, has a limited life cycle and poses health hazard and not suitable for large scale power storage and not sustainable in the long run. An Elecrolyzer can generate Hydrogen from water onsite whenever there is a sun or wind energy available and they can operate from 10% to 100% capacity depending upon the availability of renewable resources. The surplus power from Hydro can be converted into Hydrogen and stored. With so much advancement in information and communication technology, harnessing nature’s energy, storing them and deploying them in a timely manner is not major issue. Hydrogen can bridge the gap between Natural resource availability and human demand. This is what science is all about. We developed science by learning from Nature or duplicating Nature and Renewable energy is nothing different.

Wind energy-that can save islands

Wind is a potential source of renewable energy, especially for islands with an average wind velocity of 5mts/sec and above. Many islands in pacific ocean have some common problems like sea erosion, shortage of power and drinking water. These small islands with little population are fully depending on diesel fuel. In fact their life depends on diesel fuel and any increase in price significantly affects their daily life. Their main source of income is only by fishing and they live day to day. I had a personal experience of visiting a small island off Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea. They call it Daugo Island or ‘Fisherman’s island’ with population of less than 700 people. It is about 4.5km wide and 2km long. It is a coral atoll pushed out of the sea. One can take stroll on the beach and it is one of the most beautiful experiences one can have. It gives a feeling that you are far away from the rest of the world. There is a small abandoned World War II Airfield. The people in the island do not have any electricity or drinking water, and most of them are fishing on small boats. Their boats are fuelled by diesel. They will go to nearby city of Port Moresby and sell their fish and with that money they will buy drinking water and diesel in cans, and return to the island. This is their daily life. Such an island is an ideal location to set up a wind turbine and a small sea water desalination plant, that can easily solve their problem of water and power. The trade wind from the Coral Sea in the island of Papua New Guinea blows almost 7-8 months in a year and their wind velocity averages 7 mts/sec. Two wind turbines of each 250 kW capacity and a small seawater desalination SWRO plant of capacity 15,000lts/day will be sufficient to solve their problems. The desalination plant will consume about 4.5Kwhrs/m3 of water generated. About 2000 kwhrs/day of power can be supplied to the village, each family consuming about 2.85 kwhrs/day for 6 hours/day and also for the desalination plant. The system will generate surplus power. Renewable wind energy is the best option for such islands to generate on-site power and also to desalinate seawater for supply of drinking water. With increasing global warming and sea level rising, these small island face seawater intrusion and inundation. Many islands are slowly disappearing into the vast sea. Moreover, these islands are the most vulnerable to the fluctuating diesels prices and they are walking on a tight rope.Industrialised countries with an average power consumption of several kilowatt hours per day are crying foul about rising energy cost while people in such small islands barely manage their food and shelter after paying for the diesel. Recently the Government of Maldives conducted their cabinet ministers meeting under the sea, to showcase their plight due to sea level rise caused by global warming, to the rest of the world. Small islands can cry loud but their voice is muffled by roaring sea, while rest of the world carries on their business as usual.

Renewable Hydrogen-Future source of clean energy

I use the word ‘renewable Hydrogen’ for the Hydrogen derived from water using renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, geothermal, wave energy, ocean thermal energy conversion systems and biological processes. Hydrogen is clearly the energy source of the future because it has got the highest energy content, compared to any other fossil fuels such a diesel, gasoline, or Butane. The energy content is more than three times that of natural gas, which is currently considered as the cleanest commercial fuel available in the market. The heating value of Hydrogen is 61,100Btu/lb compared to 23,879 Btu/lb of natural gas. Moreover, only Hydrogen can guarantee a complete reduction of Carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The problem with renewable Hydrogen is the cost, at current situation. The DOE (department of energy, USA) has targeted a cost for Hydrogen production at $10to $15 per mmBtu, which is comparable with current Natural gas cost. Currently bulk of the Hydrogen is commercially produced by steam reforming natural gas. However; this process will emit carbon dioxide at the rate of 11,888gms per Kg of Hydrogen produced. Though the cost of Hydrogen by this route is cheaper, mitigation of carbon dioxide is clearly an environmental issue. However it is an important route during the transition process from fossil fuel to a full- fledged Hydrogen economy of the future. Natural gas is increasingly in demand and the price of natural gas keeps increasing as the supply demand gap widens. Large natural gas liquefaction plants are already in operation in many parts of the world and number of new plants are under implementation or under planning stages. Japan, South Korea, Taiwan are three largest importers of LNG (liquefied natural gas) from Australia in Pacific region. There are many coal seam methane gas facilities already in operation in Australia and many are under planning. Due to the disaster at Fukashima nuclear plant, Japan has stepped up its import of LNG. India and China, which have been traditionally using coal as a major fuel, have started importing LNG for their power plants. This has pushed the prices of LNG in the international market significantly. Though LNG is relatively a cleaner fuel, it is very expensive to build import terminals. Moreover countries like India and China do not have a good distribution network by pipelines.The economy of scale also favor only large capacity LNG plants and terminals. However it is not a sustainable solution in the long run considering the fact that supply of natural gas also keeps dwindling steadily. Despite all these obstacles, Governments around the world are looking only for short term solutions like LNG, simply because it is an easy fix. Biogas can be generated from organic waste and waste waters by anaerobic digestion. Many sewage treatment plants around the world have started generating biogas to generate power and use captively and to export the surplus power to the grid. Similarly municipalities are also implementing projects to convert ‘waste garbage’ to ‘energy’. However, the scale of operation favors only large capacity plants in larger cities. However these biogas plants will still emit carbon dioxide because biogas will be combusted using conventional engines, micro turbines and Fuelcells.This is once again a temporary solution only. We need to look beyond all these technologies to really reduce the greenhouse emissions. The only option is by Renewable Hydrogen and we need to take steps to make it a commercial reality. Biohydrogen is another potential technology. However the technology is still in a nascent stage but it is promising. Renewable Hydrogen using renewable energy sources are our best bet. Countries have already started investing in renewable energy infrastructures such as solar and wind. They can as well plan for renewable Hydrogen so that they can be certain about three things. One, they can generate and use uninterrupted power supply without importing oil or gas. Secondly they can be certain that greenhouse emissions can be reduced to pre-industrialization level. Thirdly they can be certain about the final cost of energy and its stability in the long run. These are three important factors every citizen of a country is looking for. It requires political will, determination and swift action on the part of individual Governments.

The brick and morter of solar panels

Solar industry is growing at an accelerated rate as the world is facing an uncertain oil future and nuclear disaster. The cost of solar panels is steadily decreasing, but still it is beyond the reach of millions of people. Why the cost is so high and what can be done about it? In fact, the basic raw material for solar panel is nothing, but beach sand in the form of silicon dioxide. But the cost of sand increases from next to nothing to $ 1300 per kg, as it transforms into electronic grade polysilicon wafer. There are number of steps involved to convert raw sand into electronic grade silicon ingot that includes energy intensive processes and high technology inputs. The raw sand is often contaminated with various impurities, thus displaying different colours.The best quality sand with least impurities are further melted in arc furnace at 2000 C to get 95-98% pure silicon, called metallurgical grade silicon, with an estimated cost at $2 per kg.The metallurgical sand is further treated with Hydrochloric acid in a fluidized bed reactor and distilled to get Trichlorosilane. High purity silicon is made from Trichlorosilane (TCS) by chemical vapor deposition (CVD). The trichlorosilane is reduced with hydrogen gas forming pure grade Silicone crystal. The process involves high temperature reaction and toxic doping gases. The resulting electronic grade polysilicon costs almost $80 per kg at this stage. This is grown into single silicon crystal and drawn into an ingot. The highly pure silicon crystal ingot costs about$ 400 per kg .The silicon ingot is sliced into thin wafer using diamond saw. This process of wafering and polishing is expensive and the resulting silicon wafer costs as much as $1300 per kg.The thinly cut silicon wafer is doped with Phosphorus, coated on the heated surface of the wafer so that it diffuses into wafer uniformly. The doped wafer can generate electricity on exposure to sunlight. These wafers are cut into various sizes, polished and arranged on a back panel to form a solar panel. Conductive copper strips are fixed on the surface of the cells facing the sunlight. Finally a layer of glass is glued on top of the solar cells as a protective layer. The completed crystalline solar panel is ready for installation. The cost of solar panel varies from $2.5 up to $ 7.00 per watt, depending upon the make and construction. Some companies are already selling solar panels at the rate of $1 per watt, making it affordable. As the technology improves, the cost of solar panels is likely to come down further, making it competitive with conventional power sources. The cost benefit analysis will certainly favor solar energy in the future, as we are counting the cost of the damages done, by unprecedented weather conditions in many parts of the world, attributed to global warming. The cost of solar power is estimated at $0.25 per kwhr without any Government subsidy, based on solar panel cost at $ 5.00per watt. But this cost may come down to $0.06 per kwhrs, as the cost of $1.00 per watt solar panel, is made available in the market. In fact many individuals claim to assemble solar panels on their own at a cost much cheaper than market prices. The solar power cost will be certainly comparable to conventional power sources in the future. Those who don’t join the race now will be left behind with costly power bills.

Water and Clean Energy- two sides of the same coin

Why I say “water and clean energy, are two sides of the same coin?” At the outset, it may sound odd, but in reality, these two are closely interconnected. Let us examine, step by step, how they are connected, to each other, and what are the implications, in terms of cost, and environmental issues. Take for example, power generation industries. The two basic materials, any power plant require, are, fuel and water. It does not matter, what kind of fuel is used, whether it is a coal based power plant or liquid fuel based plant like Naphtha, or gas based plants, like piped natural gas or LNG Of course, this statement is applicable only, for existing, conventional power generation technologies, and not for PV solar or wind energy, technologies. Let us consider, only power generation, involving conversion of thermal energy, into electrical energy. Today, more than 80% of power generation in the world, is based on thermal power, including nuclear plants. What is the usage of water in power plants? All thermal power plants use steam, as the prime motive force, to drive the turbines, (gas turbine is an exception, but, even in gas based plants, the secondary motive force, is steam, using waste heat recovery boilers, in combined cycle operations). The quality of water for conversion into steam is of high quality, purer, than our drinking water. The second usage of water is for cooling purpose. The water consumption by power plants, using once through cooling system is 1 lit/kwhr, and by closed circuit cooling tower, it is 1.7lit/kwhr .Only about 40% power plants in Europe, for example, use closed circuit cooling towers, and the rest use only ‘once through’ cooling systems. The total power generated in 2010, by two largest users, namely US and China, were 3792Twhrs and 3715 Twhrs respectively. The total world power production, in 2008 was 20,262 Twhrs, using following methods. Fossil fuel: Coal 41 %, Oil 5.50%, Gas 21%, Nuclear 13% and Hydro 16%. Renewable: PV solar 0.06%, PV thermal 0.004%, Wind 1.1%, Tide 0.003 %, Geothermal 0.3%, Biomass &others 1.30%. (1Twhrs is = 1,000,000,000 kwhrs) The above statistics, gives us an idea, on how much water, is being used, by power generating plants, in the world. Availability of fresh water, on planet earth, is only 2.5% (96. 5% oceans, 1.70% ground water, 1.7% glaciers and ice caps, and 0.001% in the air, as vapor and clouds).The world’s precious water source, is used for power generation, while millions of people, do not have water, to drink. The cost of bottled drinking water is US$ 0.20 /lit, in countries like, India. This situation is simply unsustainable. The prime cause, for this situation, is lack of technology, to produce clean power, without using water. The power technology, we use today, is based on the principle of electromagnetism, invented, by Michael Faraday, in the year 1839. That is why, renewable energy, is becoming critically important, at this juncture, when the world is, at the cross road. In order to overcome, the shortage of fresh water, many countries are now opting, for seawater desalination. Desalination, again, is an energy intensive process. For example 3-4 kwhrs of power is used, to desalinate 1 m3 of water. This power has to come, from fossil fuel fired, thermal power plants, which are often co-located, with desalination plants, so that, all the discharge, from both the plants, can be easily pumped into the sea. Since, the world is running out of fresh water, we have to look for alternative source of water. In countries like India, the ground water is being exploited, for agricultural purpose, and the ground water is getting depleted. Depleting water resources is a threat to agriculture production. It is a vicious circle. That is why, distributed energy systems, using Hydrogen as an alternative fuel, is an important step, towards sustainability. One can generate Hydrogen from water, using renewable energy source, like solar or wind, and store them, for future usage. The stored Hydrogen can be used to generate power, as and when required, at any remote location (even where there is no grid power).The water is regenerated, during this process of power generation using Fuelcell, which can be recycled. There is no large consumption of water, and there is no greenhouse emission. It is a clean and sustainable solution. The same stored Hydrogen can also be used as a fuel for your car! Therefore; one can say “water and clean energy, are two sides of the same coin”. (The above statistics are based on Wikipedia data).