We stopped worrying about “peak oil” a long time ago. Instead we worry that there is too much fossil fuel left and that the world doesn’t move to renewables fast enough.
[bbc.com] – Why ‘flammable ice’ could be the future of energy
[deepresource] – The Sudden Death of Peak Oil – 4.5 Trillion Barrels of Oil Left
Dutch language videoGerard Lugtigheid demonstrates his experimental setup with NaBH4, pure water and acid and produced H2 that pushes away the water in the tube.
Dutch inventor Gerard Lugtigheid is proposing a novel way of storing hydrogen in a sodium boron compound (NaBH4), which comes as a powder. So far the NaBH4 cycle came with a round-trip efficiency of 50% (DOE). Lugtigheid claims to have found a method of increasing that number to almost 100% and to have patents in America and Asia. Key is using very pure water. Storage of the powder is trivial.
[h2-fuel.nl] – Company site
[deingenieur.nl] – New Experiment Makes Hydrogen Usable in Cars
[tudelft.nl] – Hydrogen as the key to a sustainable shipping sector
[betterworldsolutions.eu] – Hydrogen can be stored as a powder
[wikipedia.org] – Sodium borohydride
[wikipedia.org] – Direct borohydride fuel cell
[opwegmetwaterstof.nl] – Tanken we straks H2Fuel?
[deingenieur.nl] – Test met tankbare waterstof
[gcep.stanford.edu] – Hydrogen Storage via Sodium Borohydride (2003)
[energiekaart.net] – Is dit de heilige graal? Waterstof in poedervorm
Dutch #1 hydrogen guru prof. Ad van Wijk (who has a horse in this race) doesn’t denounce this technology, but sees some challenges ahead.
Dutch language video
Dutch language video
NaBH4
Location: Jardelund, near Flensburg
Date: May 2018
Techology: Lithium-Ion
Capacity: 48 MW / 50 MWh
Purpose: reducing fossil fuel as well as store excess local wind energy
Participants: Eneco and Mitsubishi
Cost: 30 Mio. Euro
[source]
[wikipedia.org] – Energy storage
[irena.org] – Electricity Storage and Renewables
[setis.ec.europa.eu] – Power storage
[setis.ec.europa.eu] – Europe to experience pumped storage boom
[sandia.gov]
[maxwell.com] – An Overview Of 6 Energy Storage Methods
[ingenieur.de] – Technologien des Energiespeicherns– ein Überblick
[deingenieur.nl] – Wat is grootschalige opslag en waarom hebben we het nodig?
[vereniging-bwt.nl] – Overzicht van opslagtechnieken voor energie
[wikipedia.org] – Electric battery
[wikipedia.org] – List of battery types
[wikipedia.org] – Rechargeable battery
[wikipedia.org] – Comparison of commercial battery types
[wikipedia.org] – History of the battery
[wired.com] – Batteries Still Suck But They Are Working On It.
[pocket-lint.com] – Future batteries, coming soon
[forbes.com] – A Battery That Could Change The World
[electrochem.org] – The Future of Batteries
[ft.com] – Beyond lithium — the search for a better battery
[speichermonitoring.de] – Batterietechnologien
Battery based on iron and salt water, virtually without negative environmental side-effects.
[essinc.com] – ESS Company site
[wikipedia.org] – Flow Battery
[greentechmedia.com] – EFE breakthrough in Iron Flow Tech (150 kW, $300/kWh)
[greentechmedia.com] – UniEnergy Vanadium Flow Battery
[greentechmedia.com] – Imergy Recycled Vanadium for Flow Batteries
[greentechmedia.com] – CellCube Vanadium Flow Battery
[greentechmedia.com] – EnerVault Iron-Chromium Flow Battery
[greentechmedia.com] – Primus Power Zinc-Bromide Flow Battery
Lithium-ion batteries are short-lived, which is fine for phones but not for grid applications. Liquid metal batteries were born from the practice of electrochemical aluminium smelting (electricity in, aluminium from oxide out), but operating in reverse. Electrons come from the lighter metal on top, where the corresponding ions are travelling downwards through the electrolyte in order to recombine with the electrons at the boundary of the heavier liquid metal at the bottom. For the rest, no mixing takes places and the three layers remain separate. During discharge the top layer gets thinner and bottom layer thicker, during charging this reverses. There is no need for membranes. Degrading of the system is nearly absent. Donald Sadoway c.s. formed a company now called Ambri.
P.S. in a latest development, Sadoway seems to be using a membrane after all, see Nature link below.
[wired.com] – Inside the race to build the battery of tomorrow
[wbur.org] – A Low-Tech Approach To Energy Storage: Molten Metals
[wikipedia.org] – Donald Sadoway
[wikipedia.org] – Molten-salt battery
[news.mit.edu] – A new approach to rechargeable batteries
[greentechmedia.com] – Ambri Still Chasing Its Liquid Metal Battery Dreams
[ambri.com] – Company site
[phys.org] – New battery made of molten metals may offer low-cost, long-lasting storage for the grid. Liquid electrodes solve the problem of degrading solid ones.
[nature.com] – Faradaically selective membrane for liquid metal displacement batteries
[chemistryworld.com] – Solid electrolyte boosts liquid metal battery
Everything molten: lighter metal A, salt electrolyte and heavier metal B.
The green elements are heavier and will sink to the bottom.
The British company Storelectric is joining forces with NAM (Shell/Exxon) in exploring the idea of using the existing natural gas infrastructure in the Netherlands for adiabatic compressed air energy storage purposes of renewable electricity. The heat that is generated during compression to ca. 70 bar will be stored and reused during expansion phase. Storelectric believes it can deliver CAES at 70-85% efficiency. Recuperation of stored heat is an essential ingredient in increasing efficiency.
They aim to build underground storage sites in the Netherlands and potentially the North Sea, to store energy from offshore wind farms and onshore solar power plants.
[theengineer.co.uk] – UK’s Storelectric brings compressed air storage to the Netherlands
[ensoc.nl] – NAM met Britten in zee voor energieopslag
[parliament.uk] – Business Plan Grid Scale Energy Storage
[storelectric.com] – Storelectric company site
[wikipedia.org] – Compressed air energy storage
– investment: $9B
– 540 MW peak
– Technology: CSP and molten salt
– Construction begin: 2013
– Commission date: 2016
– Build bij TSK-Acciona-Sener/Spain
[wikipedia.org] – Ouarzazate Solar Power Station
Chalmers University in Sweden has come up with a novel way of long-term (years) storing (solar) heat, namely in isomers.
– Discharge operating temperature: 63 C
– Storage capacity: 0.25 kWh/kg (2x Tesla Powerwall)
– 125 charge-discharge cycles without detoriation.
Researcher Moth-Poulsen thinks there is a lot of potential for improvement, like operating temperatures of 110 C.
[sciencealert.com] – Scientists Develop Liquid Fuel That Can Store The Sun’s Energy
[wiley.com] – Liquid Norbornadiene Photoswitches for Solar Energy Storage
[mynewsdesk.com] – Emissions-free energy system stores heat
[pubs.rsc.org] – Macroscopic heat release in a molecular solar thermal energy storage system
[wikipedia.org] – Isomer
[nbcnews.com] – Scientists bottle solar energy and turn it into liquid fuel
[wikipedia.org] – Norbornadiene
[wikipedia.org] – Quadricyclane
DeepResource 