[Greenbuilding] carbon capture and transformation

johndaglish at free.fr johndaglish at free.fr
Mon Oct 31 17:02:16 CDT 2011


Some interesting developments from Europe...


Maybe carbon dioxide CO2 should be given value rather than a cost.

Instead of just injecting CO2 into underground reservoirs as has been proposed
to reduce CO2 emissions from carbon based fuel sources, the CO2 could
be used to create methane (natural gas) via the sabatier reaction and hydrogen
via hydrolsis of
water using renewable energy.

CO2 + 4 H2 > CH4 + 2 H2O

When burning the methane (Synthetic Natural Gas SNG) the CO2 is captured and
used to make more SNG.
Similarly CO2 can also be captured from other carbon based fuels or directly
from the air.

The CO2 is given economic value as a composant of SNG.

Methane can use the existing natural gas network and existing energy
systems with carbon capture to create a low Carbon based energy system.

The use of the methane cycle maximises electrical renewable energy were the
excess capacity instead of being restricted and limited because of
potential grid instability is used. The German gas grid for
example has about 2 months of energy storage capacity. This is more than enough
stockage to overcome shortfalls when the sun or wind is not available.

CO2 capture and transformation is part of the wider 100% renewable energy
system being developed based on energy efficiency, renewables and low carbon
biomass cycles in Germany at the Fraunhofer Institute and other
centres...

This a pragmatic and cost effective use of existing resources in
order to develop a renewable energy system free from the problematics
of the nuclear energy cycles.


Fraunhofer Institute + proposal
http://www.brighthub.com/environment/renewable-energy/articles/78303.aspx

Specht renewable energy methane
http://www.solar-fuel.net/fileadmin/user_upload/Publikationen/Wind2SNG_ZSW_IWES_SolarFuel_FVEE.pdf

Solar Fuel GmbH a company set up by Fraunhofer et al to develop and
commercialise the technology
http://www.solar-fuel.net/en/the-challenge

Sterneer thesis : "Bioenergy and renewable power methane in integrated
100% renewable energy systems" that modeled the German energy sector
http://www.uni-kassel.de/upress/online/frei/978-3-89958-798-2.volltext.frei.pdf


The Negawatt Institute (France) has modelled in detail the French energy
system based on using efficiency, biomass and renewable energy with significant
SNG conversion. This could significantly de-carbonise the French
energy system and the nuclear industry would be phased out by 2050.
http://translate.google.fr/translate?hl=fr&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.negawatt.org%2Fscenario-negawatt-2011-p46.html


The process was proposed by NASA initially for a space station to
fabricate fuel for the return journey from mars ;
http://spot.colorado.edu/~meyertr/rwgs/rwgs.html

and sems to be have taken up here
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/SC0410/S00063.htm

PS. the germans have done some work on 100% renewable grids and load
balancing using solar pv + wind as base load and biomethane + hydro as
peak / make up load at Kassel University.
http://www.kombikraftwerk.de/index.php?id=27

-- 
Best regards,

John DAGLISH
Paris, France





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