36 Air Monitoring
SWIRL AND VORTEX METERS WILL AID GREEN HYDROGEN PRODUCTION
The route to net zero will require big changes in the way we generate energy. In this article, David Bowers, Product Manager UK & Ireland Measurement & Analytics, describes how technology innovation is making clean energy possible.
Climate change and pollution in general are major challenges facing the modern world. Much of the unwelcome effects on the environment that we are seeing today are down to an over reliance on fossil fuels in the past. Burning fossil fuels to generate electricity not only produces greenhouse gases such as CO2 and methane, it also leads to elevated levels of gasses such as carbon monoxide and nitrous oxide that are harmful to health.
The COP26 summit in Glasgow encouraged countries to draw up ambitious emissions reduction targets for 2030, and thereafter aiming to reaching net zero carbon emissions by the middle of the century.
Achieving these targets will mean moving to forms of energy that do not rely on carbon emitting fossil fuels, but which are based on renewable sources.
This means that the search is on for an energy source that can offer much of the convenience and ubiquity of fossil fuels, with few or none of their drawbacks.
Some of the major advantages of fossil fuels is that they can be easily stored and transported and so are ready when needed and have a high ratio of energy to volume (energy density). They can
Figure 1: Estimates of hydrogen production from different sources by 2050 (source: IEA)
be used in a wide range of applications, from large power plants, to district heating schemes, furnaces and boilers for smaller factories, individual houses and in transport. They can also act as a chemical feed stock for industrial processes.
An alternative is renewable sources such as wind and solar. Although these can help reduce emissions, they are intermittent, and it is diffi cult to store the electricity produced.
Hopes for hydrogen
Hydrogen is considered one of the key fuels to help de-carbonise energy use, as it offers many of the advantages of both fossil fuels and wild and solar – it can be produced with low or zero emissions, can be stored and transported readily, is clean burning (producing only water as a by-product) and can be used in further chemical processing or production.
It can be used as fuel for transport and electricity peaking plants (power plants fi red up to meet fl uctuating or peak demands of energy demand), while burning hydrogen can also provide heat for many types of industries and both residential and commercial buildings. Hydrogen can also act as a feedstock for chemicals such as fertilizers, fuel refi ning and plastics.
SwirlMaster
Although inherently clean, the production method chosen for hydrogen has a big effect on its environmental credentials. In the most polluting method, it can be produced by burning coal, while green hydrogen, the most ecologically friendly type, is produced by electrolysis using renewables or nuclear energy - hydrogen is generally classifi ed as green, grey, blue, brown or white depending on the method used.
If hydrogen is to make a signifi cant contribution to mitigating climate change, most must be in the form of green hydrogen.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that achieving Net Zero emissions by 2050 will mean that total hydrogen demand from industry will have expanded by 44 percent by 2030 – some 21 million tonnes will be made up of with low carbon hydrogen [1] Some progress has already been made, with nearly 70 MW of electrolysis capacity installed in 2020, doubling the previous year’s record. [2]
To encourage the production of green hydrogen, a number of countries have put strategies in place to develop a viable domestic hydrogen sector. Europe is expected to lead the fi eld and in fact already has a number of green hydrogen plants in operation. This will rise through signifi cant government investments and the EU aims to produce 10 million tonnes of renewable hydrogen by 2030 and to import 10 million tonnes by 2030. [3]
In addition to EU ambitions, most European countries also have their own hydrogen strategies, as do Canada, Chile, USA, China, South Korea, Japan, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, India and Israel.
Three major green methods
Three main electrolysis methods can be used to produce green hydrogen.
Possibly the most mature and commercial method is alkaline electrolysis. By avoiding the use of precious metals, it has relatively low capital costs compared to other electrolyzer technologies. However, it does a have a signifi cant drawback in that the process is diffi cult to start up or shut down and output
IET NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2023
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56
