DuPont Introduces First Ion Exchange Resin For Green Hydrogen Production
The title of this post, is the same as that of this press release from DuPont.
This is the sub-heading.
Newly designed ion exchange resin with extended service time designed to enhance electrolyzer operation
This is the first paragraph.
DuPont today announced the launch of its first product dedicated to the production of green hydrogen – the DuPont™ AmberLite™ P2X110 Ion Exchange Resin. To support the production of hydrogen from water, this newly available ion exchange resin is designed for the unique chemistry of electrolyzer
Put simply, it appears, that DuPont’s new product will improve the overall efficiency of the electrolysis of water to produce hydrogen.
New Rolls-Royce Engine For Hybrid-Electric Flight Completes Successful First Fuel Burn
The title of this post is the same as that of this press release from Rolls-Royce.
This is the sub-heading.
A new Rolls-Royce small gas turbine that has been specifically developed to power hybrid-electric flight has successfully completed its first fuel burn. The engine has been designed using novel combustion technology to produce ultra-low emissions and this significant achievement confirms the effectiveness of the compact, power-dense turbine that will be integrated into a light-weight turbogenerator system.
This first paragraph gives more details.
The complete turbogenerator system is being developed for the Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) market. This includes electrical vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) or electric short take-off and landing (eSTOL) aircraft for Urban Air Mobility (UAM) and commuter aircraft applications up to 19 seats. The gas turbine under test also has potential applications within helicopter, auxiliary power unit (APU) and defense markets.
Looking at Wikipedia, it appears that a typical 19 seat airliner needs two engines with a power between 500 and 600 kW.
This would fit with the next paragraph of the press release.
The turbogenerator system will complement Rolls-Royce’s electrical propulsion portfolio by delivering an on-board power source with scalable power offerings between 500 kW and 1,200 kW enabling extended range on sustainable aviation fuels and later, as it becomes available, through hydrogen combustion. This will open up new, longer routes than electric battery powered aircraft can support today.
I can envisage electric 19-seat airliners powered by either two 600 kW engines or one 1200 kW engine.
But then the mind boggles at the applications for this range of engines.
Wrightbus To Provide Hydrogen Buses For Sizewell C Nuclear Plant
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the BBC.
This is the sub-heading.
Ballymena bus manufacturer Wrightbus is providing four hydrogen buses to the Sizewell C nuclear power site as part of a pilot scheme.
These first three paragraphs outline the scheme.
If successful, up to 150 buses could be ordered, making it one of the largest hydrogen bus fleets in the world.
Construction of the plant is to begin next year and multiple vehicles will be needed to move workers to and from the site.
Sizewell C will test the performance of four double-decker buses.
As I used to live in that area, I know the buses are bad and this will surely help.
Biggest Untapped UK Oil Field, Rosebank, Approved By Regulators
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the BBC.
This is the BBC’s summary so far.
- The UK’s largest untapped oil field has been approved by regulators
- Rosebank, 80 miles west of Shetland, is estimated to contain 500 million barrels of oil
- The UK government welcomes the decision, saying it will raise billions of pounds and “make us more secure against tyrants like Putin”
- But Scotland’s First Minister Humza Yousaf says he’s “disappointed”, while the Green Party calls the decision “morally obscene”
- Regulators said net zero considerations had been taken into account
This is my summary.
I have been reading Equinor’s web site on Rosebank.
Production will use what is known as a Floating Production Storage and Offloading Vessel or FPSO, which means, when they’ve finished, it can just sail away.
The FPSO will also be electrification-ready, so that all operations on the vessel will probably be powered by green electricity from a nearby wind farm, instead of by a gas turbine engine on the vessel, which burns gas.
This means that the offshore operations will be as carbon-free as is reasonably possible. But importantly, we will pipe the maximum amount of gas from the field for either our own use or selling to the gas-thirsty Germans.
We will need the gas for some time to back up wind and solar with gas-fired power stations.
But what about the emissions from the power stations?
Capturing carbon dioxide from a power station is getting easier, but more importantly, researchers are finding more and more innovative ways of using the carbon dioxide.
H & M and Zara are even selling clothes made from captured carbon dioxide.
Ways are also being developed using plasma electrolysis to strip the carbon out of natural gas to leave useful hydrogen.
Natural gas will be our friend for many decades yet, if we can turn it into a zero-carbon fuel, which I believe we can!
Iarnród Éireann And Latvia’s DIGAS To Trial Europe’s First Retrofitted Hydrogen Freight Locomotive
The title of this post, is the same as that of this press release from Irish Rail.
This is the sub-heading.
Cleaner, cheaper and practical initiative towards decarbonisation goals
These are the first three sections.
Cleaner
Iarnród Éireann Irish Rail is providing a locomotive and will test a retrofitted hydrogen locomotive using a cleaner burning renewable fuel.
Cheaper
DIGAS will provide a cost-effective way how to introduce a hydrogen in the fleet of existing diesel locomotives by retrofitting diesel locomotives with a specialised internal combustion engine (ICE) hydrogen system.
Practical
The collaboration will demonstrate a practical path towards complete decarbonisation of the diesel locomotive fleet.
Note.
- The eighteen 071 Class locomotives were built in Canada by General Motors.
- Some date from as early as 1976.
- In the UK, there is a similar project to convert Class 66 locomotives to dual fuel, which I wrote about in Clean Air Power Adds Hydrogen To Class 66 Fuel Mix.
It does look that the technology is being developed to convert freight locomotives to hydrogen.
Signalling Team Trials Hydrogen Power
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Railway Gazette.
These two paragraphs outline the project.
The use of hydrogen to provide power for staff welfare compounds and to recharge battery tools and electric vehicles has been tested by Colas Rail UK’s signalling team during a project in the Gloucester area.
H-Power Tower fuel cell stacks designed by AFC Energy to replace diesel generators at off-grid construction sites were used to provide power for Eco-Cabins supplied by Sunbelt Rental. The H-Towers were also used to recharge battery-operated equipment and electric-hybrid vehicles.
There has been a large saving in carbon emission during the work.
Whilst living in the Suffolk countryside for nearly forty years, we had three major power outages.
The first was the smallest and Eastern Electricity or whoever it was around 1980, needed to change the transformer that fed the village where we lived. So a diesel generator was plugged in and it fed the village, whilst the new transformer was connected.
Then in the Great Storm of 1987, where we were without power for fourteen days until a load of happy foreigners from the other side of Offa’s Dyke, got the system up and singing again. I think today, that waiting two weeks to be reconnected would be unacceptable. Although the problems in 1987, were more down to the considerable amount of damage in Suffolk.
The last time, the power went just as we were going to bed on a summer evening.
We woke to find that the power had been restored.
The manner of the restoration was a textbook case of how power outages can be solved.
- Our house and the farm buildings around it, were fed from a transformer up a pole in the hedge by the drive.
- A driver who had known what they were doing had backed a full-size articulated lorry into the field alongside the transformer.
- Inside the trailer was a diesel generator and this had been connected to the transformer.
- When I investigated early in the morning, an engineer appeared from inside the trailer and asked if everything was OK.
- I said it was and asked a few technical questions.
- It turned out, that someone had brought the overhead cables down, whilst moving a load of straw near the prison.
So as our house was on one end of the cable that connected a few villages and farms to the grid, by temporarily connecting their mobile generator to the transformer everybody could be reconnected until the damage done near the prison could be repaired.
How long will it be before emergencies like these are handled by generators powered by hydrogen rather than diesel?
In HS2 Smashes Carbon Target, I describe how High Speed Two are making use of hydrogen electricity generators.
In UK Consortium To Develop Mobile Hydrogen Refuelling For Construction Sites, I talked about a UK government project to develop the hydrogen refuelling technology for construction sites. This would also work for the refuelling of emergency generators.
I can envisage the development of a series of zero-carbon hydrogen-powered trucks with onboard hydrogen generators of different sizes.
Conclusion
Hydrogen will bring a revolution in how we provide power on construction sites, in emergencies and in remote areas.
UK Consortium To Develop Mobile Hydrogen Refuelling For Construction Sites
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on H2 View.
These first two paragraphs outline the project.
A UK consortium has secured over £3m ($3.7m) in government funding to develop mobile hydrogen refuelling for construction sites.
The Ryze-led consortium, made up of iGAS, Wrightbus, Skanska, Mace Dragados and Sizewell C, has been awarded £3.2m ($3.99m) from the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero’s Red Diesel Replacement Programme to develop and demonstrate a new suite of production-ready hydrogen refuelling equipment suitable for construction sites.
It appears to be a very comprehensive project and everything will be tested in a working quarry.
Having recently had a diesel-powered truck outside my house, that was clearing up the mess left by a dead tree, I feel that the health benefits of zero-carbon construction sites could be immense.
Sizewell C
I find it interesting that Sizewell C is part of the consortium.
Does this mean, that all construction on Suffolk’s new nuclear power station will use hydrogen and electric power, to lower the carbon footprint?
In Ryze Hydrogen’s Suffolk Freeport Hydrogen Vision Takes Shape, I gave this quote from this article on S & P Global.
Ryze Hydrogen plans to install a 6 MW electrolyzer at the Sizewell nuclear site in Suffolk as a launchpad for mass production of low carbon hydrogen in and around the future freeport of Felixstowe, company founder Jo Bamford told S&P Global Platts March 3.
As Sizewell C is to be built by a consortium led by EDF Energy and the French company operates Sizewell B, will the Sizewell electrolyser be built first and powered by Sizewell B, so that the hydrogen can be used to lower the carbon footprint of Sizewell C?
The Zero-Carbon Toilet
In Cadent’s Hydrogen-Hybrid Solar Toilet, I describe how Cadent are looking after their workers on a site in London.
These ideas will inspire a lot more.
Cadent’s Hydrogen-Hybrid Solar Toilet
You see some strange sites on the streets of London, but this is one of the strangest I’ve seen for some years.
It describes itself as a Zero-Emission Support Unit, which is solar-powered with hydrogen back-up.
I suspect some of the conversation and banter amongst users is priceless to say the least.
But at least it doesn’t hide its achievement of a zero-carbon toilet under a bushel.
New Freight Interchange Connects To West Coast Main Line
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Rail Technology Magazine.
This is the sub-heading.
Rail passengers have been thanked after major work to connect a new rail to road freight interchange with the West Coast main line was completed.
These two paragraphs outline the project.
The work, which took nine days, saw new track, points and signalling systems installed to connect the existing railway to the new sidings at the under-construction freight facility at SEGRO logistics park in Northampton.
Once complete, the facility will provide 5 million square ft of warehouse space and employ up to 7,000 people.
This OpenRailwayMap shows the location of SEGRO logistics park in Northampton (SLPN).
Note.
- SEGRO logistics park in Northampton is in the middle of the map.
- The M1 motorway runs along the North-East side of the logistics park
- The complex junction of the M1 at the Eastern side of the logistics park is Junction 15.
- The orange line down the West side of SLPN is the Northampton Loop Line.
- A loop from the Northampton Loop Line is used to create a Rail Freight Interchange on the West side of the logistics park.
- The red line running across the South-West corner of the map is the West Coast Main Line.
The SEGRO logistics park has a comprehensive web site, which shows seven plots.
These are my thoughts.
Freight Trains
Initial plans talk of four freight trains per day, with more to come in the future.
This picture from Network Rail shows the Northern end of the Rail Freight Interchange.
Note.
- There is a freight train, which looks like it’s going North on the Northampton Loop Line.
- There are tunnels at the Northern end of the site.
- This page on the Network Rail web site has another picture and a video.
- It looks like there will be a lot of concrete.
It will be interesting to see the final layout in a year or so.
There Is No Mention Of A Rail Station
In everything I’ve read about the SLPN, there is no mention of a railway station, so this must mean that all the seven thousand or more workers on the site, will get there by road.
The only thing I can see about transport for workers to and from the site is this sentence.
A sustainable bus route will connect SLPN to the town centre and local neighbourhoods to the south.
Well-designed and implemented, it would properly suffice.
Nothing though is said about cycling or walking!
There Is No Mention Of Hydrogen
It is likely, that in the life of SLPN, there will be a significant move to hydrogen-powered heavy trucks.
Has SLPN been designed with hydrogen in mind.
Solar Thermal Heating
The buildings are noted as having solar thermal heating. That is a new one on me, but it seems possible.
I took these pictures as I passed the site on my return from Birmingham on September 21st 2023
One concrete tunnel is clearly visible.
The Anonymous Widower 