[Greenbuilding] carbon capture and transformation

[Don Lush]

Thanks John- The one key question that I have is - how do we generate the H2
gas in significant quantities to reduce the very significant quantities of
CO2 being produced. The articles talk about using excess renewable power to
store as H2 and converted to CH4 but are we not just better off displacing
fossil power using smart grid technology based on real time weather
forecasting when the sun is shining and the wind blowing? 

 Conversion of H2 to a relatively safe and transportable energy commodity by
reducing CO2 makes sense but we need to produce H2 somewhere in proximity to
where we can capture or transport CO2 to. If we could find an inexpensive
way to generate H2 then we could also use fuel cells to convert the stored
(in our trunks and homes) H2 to electricity (more versatile form of energy
than CH4) and our energy problems would be solved. 

This is what mother nature did about 2 billion years ago when photosynthesis
evolved to produce hydrogen that is used to reduce CO2 not to methane but to
sugars and other reduced carbon molecules that store energy that we
secondary consumers burn in our bodies (fuel cells called mitochondria) and
stoves: to create information (more DNA to drive evolution and knowledge to
drive social development) and  keep warm. This process (photosynthesis)
works well for low energy density environments in forests and oceans but we
( now in excess of 7 billion and counting) have created the need for very
high energy dense environments (cities and associated industries) that are
demanding higher density energy sources and all of the issues that these
bring . Renewables (other than nuclear) are unfortunately low density power
sources.

Don

-----Original Message-----
From: greenbuilding-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org
[mailto:greenbuilding-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of
johndaglish at free.fr
Sent: Monday, October 31, 2011 6:02 PM
To: greenbuilding at lists.bioenergylists.org
Subject: [Greenbuilding] carbon capture and transformation

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_I
WES_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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