The Anonymous Widower

Energy In – Hydrogen And Carbon Dioxide Out

This article was inspired by this article in the Sunday Times, which is entitled ‘It’s A Slog’: Life Inside Britain’s Last Coal Power Station.

The article is about Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station, which is next to East Midlands Parkway station.

This is the first paragraph of the station’s Wikipedia entry.

Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station is a coal-fired power station owned and operated by Uniper at Ratcliffe-on-Soar in Nottinghamshire, England. Commissioned in 1968 by the Central Electricity Generating Board, the station has a capacity of 2,000 MW. It is the last remaining operational coal-fired power station in the UK, and is scheduled to close in September 2024.

I took these pictures of the power station in 2019.

Ratcliffe-on-Soar is the last of a number of large coal-fired power stations, that were built in the area, mainly along the River Trent.

  • Rugeley – 600 MW – 1961
  • Drakelow – 1630 MW – 1964
  • Willington – 800 MW – 1962
  • Castle Donington – 600 MW – 1958
  • Ratcliffe-on-Soar – 2000 MW – 1968
  • High Marnham – 1000 MW – 1959
  • Cottam – 2000 MW – 1968
  • West Burton – 2000 MW – 1968

Note.

  1. The date is the commissioning date.
  2. That is 10,630 MW of electricity.
  3. There are also a few large gas-fired power stations along the river, that are still operating.
  4. Both coal and gas-fired stations use the water from the River Trent for cooling.

At the mouth of the river, there is the Keadby cluster of gas-fired power stations.

  • Keadby 1 – 734 MW – 1996
  • Keadby 2 – 849 MW – 2023
  • Keadby 3 – 910 MW – 2027
  • Keadby Hydrogen – 900 MW – 2030

Note.

  1. The date is the commissioning date.
  2. That is 3,393 MW of electricity.
  3. Keadby 2 is the most efficient CCGT in the world.
  4. Keadby 3 will be fitted with carbon capture.
  5. Keadby 2 has been designed to be retrofitted with carbon capture.
  6. Keadby Hydrogen will be fuelled by zero-carbon hydrogen.

As the years progress, I can see the Keadby cluster of power stations becoming a large zero-carbon power station to back-up wind farms in the North Sea.

  • Hydrogen power stations will emit no carbon dioxide.
  • Carbon dioxide from all gas-fired stations will be captured.
  • Some carbon dioxide will be sold on, to companies who can use it, in industries like construction, agriculture and chemical manufacture.
  • The remaining carbon dioxide will be stored in depleted gas fields.

As technology improves, more carbon dioxide will be used rather than stored.

Other Power Sources In The Humberside Area

In the next few sub-sections, I will list the other major power sources in the Humberside area.

Drax Power Station

Drax power station is a shadow of its former self, when it was one of the power stations fed by the newly discovered Selby coalfield.

These days it is a 2,595 MW biomass-fired power station.

Eastern Green Link 2

Eastern Green Link 2 will be a 2 GW interconnector between Peterhead in Scotland and Drax.

It is shown in this map.

Note.

  1. Most of the route is underwater.
  2. It is funded by National Grid.
  3. Contracts have been signed, as I talk about in Contracts Signed For Eastern Green Link 2 Cable And Converter Stations.
  4. It is scheduled to be completed by 2029.

This interconnector will bring up to 2 GW of Scottish wind-generated electricity to Drax and Humberside.

Drax has the substations and other electrical gubbins to distribute the electricity efficiently to where it is needed.

2 GW could also reduce the amount of biomass used at Drax.

In the long term, if the concept of the four Eastern Green Links is successful, I could see another Eastern Green Link to Drax to replace imported biomass at Drax.

I also, don’t see why a smaller Drax can’t be run on locally-sourced biomass.

Solar Farms And Batteries Along The River Trent

As the coal-fired power stations along the River Trent are demolished, solar farm developers have moved in to develop large solar farms.

Salt End Power Station And Chemical Works

These two paragraphs from the Wikipedia entry for Salt End describes the hamlet and its power station and chemical works.

Salt End or Saltend is a hamlet in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, in an area known as Holderness. It is situated on the north bank of the Humber Estuary just outside the Hull eastern boundary on the A1033 road. It forms part of the civil parish of Preston.

Salt End is dominated by a chemical park owned by PX group, and a gas-fired power station owned by Triton Power. Chemicals produced at Salt End include acetic acid, acetic anhydride, ammonia, bio-butanol, bio-ethanol, ethyl acetate (ETAC) and ethylene-vinyl alcohol copolymer (EVOH) with animal feed also being produced on site.

I wonder, if running the complex on hydrogen would give cost and marketing advantages.

Aldbrough Hydrogen Storage Facility

This page on the SSE Thermal web site is entitled Plans For World-Leading Hydrogen Storage Facility At Aldbrough.

This is the most significant paragraph of the page, that is definitely a must-read.

With an initial expected capacity of at least 320GWh, Aldbrough Hydrogen Storage would be significantly larger than any hydrogen storage facility in operation in the world today. The Aldbrough site is ideally located to store the low-carbon hydrogen set to be produced and used in the Humber region.

This is a hydrogen storage facility for a much wider area than Humberside.

Rough Gas Storage Facility

This is the first paragraph of the Wikipedia entry for the Rough Gas Storage Facility.

Rough is a natural gas storage facility under the North Sea off the east coast of England. It is capable of storing 100 billion cubic feet of gas, nearly double the storage capacities in operation in Great Britain in 2021.

In Wood To Optimise Hydrogen Storage For Centrica’s Rough Field, I describe Centrica’s plans to convert the Rough gas storage into a massive hydrogen storage.

The Location Of Aldbrough Gas Storage, Rough Gas Storage, Salt End And Easington Gas Terminal

This Google Map shows between Salt End and the coast.

Note.

  1. The river crossing the South-West corner of the map is the Humber.
  2. Salt End with its power station and chemical works is on the North Bank of the Humber, where the river leaves the map.
  3. Aldbrough Gas Storage is marked by the red arrow at the top of the map.
  4. Easington Gas Terminal is in the South-East corner of the map.
  5. According to Wikipedia, gas flows into and out of the Rough Gas Storage are managed from Easington.

Looking at the map, I feel that the following should be possible.

  • The two gas storage sites could be run together.
  • Salt End power station and the related chemical works could run on hydrogen.
  • Salt End will always have a reliable source of hydrogen.
  • This hydrogen could be green if required.

All the chemical works at Salt End, could be run on a zero-carbon basis. Would this mean premium product prices? Just like organic does?

Enter The Germans

The Germans have a huge decarbonisation problem, with all their coal-fired power stations and other industry.

Three massive projects will convert much of the country and industry to hydrogen.

These would appear to be three of Europe’s largest hydrogen projects, that few have ever heard of.

AquaVentus And The UK

This video shows the structure of AquaVentus.

I clipped this map from the video.

Note.

  1. The thick white line running North-West/South-East is the spine of AquaVentus, that delivers hydrogen to Germany.
  2. There is a link to Denmark.
  3. There appears to be an undeveloped link to Norway.
  4. There appears to be an undeveloped  link to Peterhead in Scotland.
  5. There appears to be a link to just North of the Humber in England.
  6. Just North of the Humber are the two massive gas storage sites of Aldbrough owned by SSE and Brough owned by Centrica.
  7. There appear to be small ships sailing up and down the East Coast of the UK. Are these small coastal tankers, that are distributing the hydrogen to where it is needed?

In the last century, the oil industry, built a substantial oil and gas network in the North Sea.

It appears now the Germans are leading the building of a substantial hydrogen network in the North Sea.

These are my thoughts about development of the AquaVentus network.

Hydrogen Production And AquaVentus

This RWE graphic shows the layout of the wind farms feeding AquaVentus.

Note.

  1. There is a total of 10.3 GW.
  2. Is one of the 2 GW web sites on the UK-side of AquaVentus, the 3 GW Dogger Bank South wind farm, which is being developed by RWE?
  3. Is the 0.3 GW wind farm, RWE’s Norfolk wind farm cluster, which is also being developed by RWE?

Connecting wind farms using hydrogen pipelines to Europe, must surely mitigate the pylon opposition problem from Nimbys in the East of England.

As the AquaVentus spine pipeline could eventually connect to Peterhead, there will be other opportunities to add more hydrogen to AquaVentus.

Hydrogen Storage And AquaVentus

For AquaVentus to work efficiently and supply a large continuous flow of hydrogen to all users, there would need to be storage built into the system.

As AquaVentus is around 200 kilometres in length and natural gas pipelines can be up to 150 centimetres in diameter, don’t underestimate how much hydrogen can be stored in the pipeline system itself.

This page on the Uniper web site is entitled Green Wilhelmshaven: To New Horizons.

This is a sentence on the page.

Access to local hydrogen underground storage at the Etzel salt cavern site.

An Internet search gives the information, that Etzel gas storage could be developed to hold 1 TWh of hydrogen.

That would be enough hydrogen to supply 10 GW for a hundred hours.

Note that the UK branch of AquaVentus reaches the UK, just to the South of the massive hydrogen storage facilities at Aldbrough and Rough.

It would appear that both Germany and the UK are connected to AquaVentus through substantial storage.

I am certain, that all country connections to AquaVentus will have substantial storage at the country’s hydrogen terminal.

AquaDuctus

This would appear to be the first part of the AquaVentus network and has its own web site.

The web site is entitled Nucleus Of A Offshore Hydrogen Backbone.

These are the first two paragraphs.

The project partners are focusing on a scalable, demand-driven infrastructure: By 2030, AquaDuctus will connect the first large hydrogen wind farm site, SEN-1, with a generation capacity of approximately one gigawatt. SEN-1 is located in the German EEZ in the northwest of Helgoland. The pipeline will transport at a length of approx. 200 km green hydrogen produced from offshore wind to the German mainland and from there to European consumers via the onshore hydrogen infrastructure.

In the next project stage, AquaDuctus will be extended to the remote areas of the German exclusive economic zone towards the tip of the so-called duck’s bill. By that, additional future hydrogen wind farm sites will be connected. Along its way AquaDuctus will provide interconnection points with the opportunity for linking of adjacent national offshore hydrogen infrastructures originating from Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium and United Kingdom which opens the door for Europe-wide offshore hydrogen transport by pipeline.

There is also an interactive map, that gives more details.

This paragraph explains, why the Germans have chosen to bring the energy ashore using hydrogen, rather than traditional cables.

Recent studies show that offshore hydrogen production and transport via pipelines is faster, cheaper, and more environmentally friendly than onshore electrolysis with a corresponding connection of offshore wind turbines via power cables. The German federal government has also recognized this advantage and has clearly expressed its intention to promote offshore hydrogen production in the North Sea.

I suspect, that some UK offshore wind farms will use the same techniques.

Hydrogen Production For The UK

Electrolysers will probably be built along the East Coast between Peterhead and Humberside and these will feed hydrogen into the network.

  • Some electrolysers will be offshore and others onshore.
  • Turning off windfarms will become a thing of the past, as all surplus electricity will be used to make hydrogen for the UK or export to Europe.
  • Until needed the hydrogen will be stored in Albrough and Rough.

Backup for wind farms, will be provided using hydrogen-fired power stations like Keadby Hydrogen power station.

Financial Implications

I reported on Rishi Sunak’s Manifesto Speech, which he made on June 11th. This is an extract

This document on the Policy Mogul web site is entitled Rishi Sunak – Conservative Party Manifesto Speech – Jun 11.

These are three paragraphs from the speech.

We don’t just need military and border security. As Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has shown, we need energy security too. It is only by having reliable, home-grown sources of energy that we can deny dictators the ability to send our bills soaring. So, in our approach to energy policy we will put security and your family finances ahead of unaffordable eco zealotry.

Unlike Labour we don’t believe that we will achieve that energy security via a state-controlled energy company that doesn’t in fact produce any energy. That will only increase costs, and as Penny said on Friday there’s only one thing that GB in Starmer and Miliband’s GB Energy stands for, and that’s giant bills.

Our clear plan is to achieve energy security through new gas-powered stations, trebling our offshore wind capacity and by having new fleets of small modular reactors. These will make the UK a net exporter of electricity, giving us greater energy independence and security from the aggressive actions of dictators . Now let me just reiterate that, with our plan, we will produce enough electricity to both meet our domestic needs and export to our neighbours. Look at that. A clear, Conservative plan not only generating security, but also prosperity for our country.

I can’t remember any reports about an energy security policy, which he outlined in the last paragraph of my extract from his speech.

He also said we would have sufficient electricity to export to our neighbours. As I said earlier some of this energy will be in the form of hydrogen, which has been created by offshore electrolysers.

If we are exporting electricity and hydrogen to Europe, this is likely to have three effects.

  • An improvement in Europe’s energy security.
  • H2ercules will improve and decarbonise German industry, using UK hydrogen.
  • The finances of UK plc will improve.

It looks like there would be winners all round.

Rishi Sunak had the cards and he played them very badly.

It is now up to Keir Starmer, Great British Energy and Jürgen Maier to play those cards to link the energy systems of the UK and Germany to ensure security and prosperity for Europe.

 

August 5, 2024 Posted by | Energy, Finance & Investment, Hydrogen | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

RWE Plans Hydrogen-Ready Combined-Cycle Gas Turbine At Gersteinwerk In Werne

The title of this post, is the same as that of this press release from RWE.

These two bullet points act as sub-headings.

  • Italian-Spanish consortium commissioned to plan 800-megawatt plant
  • Investment decision to be made once H2 grid connection and regulatory framework are in place and economic viability has been established

These two paragraphs introduce the project.

RWE is planning to build hydrogen-ready gas-fired power plants at the company’s power plant sites in Germany to contribute to a successful coal phase-out by 2030. Following Weisweiler in the Rhenish mining area, the company is now pressing ahead with plans for such a plant at a possible second site in Werne in the southern Münsterland region. An H2-ready combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) power plant with a nominal capacity of around 800 megawatts may be built at the Gersteinwerk power plant.

Following intensive technical soundings, RWE has commissioned an Italian-Spanish consortium to plan the project. Work on the planning approval process is already underway.

These are my thoughts.

The current coal-fired power station at Gersteinwerk has a capacity of 2127 MW and was built in 1984.

This is a visualisation of the two power stations.

Note.

  1. The new gas/hydrogen-fired power station is in the foreground.
  2. The coal-fired power station, with its three cooling towers is behind.

This Google Map shows the site.

I suspect that due to the size of the original coal-fired power station, more than one hydrogen-fired power station will be needed.

Project Timeline

These paragraphs lay out the project timeline and the route to 100 % hydrogen operation.

Work on the planning process is already underway. This is the prerequisite for RWE to be able to start implementing the project as soon as an investment decision has been made.

According to current planning, the plant in Werne could start producing electricity by 2030.

At the time of commissioning, the plant should be able to use a fuel mix with at least 50 per cent hydrogen content, and it is intended to run it entirely on hydrogen at a later stage.

Germany is aiming for a coal phase-out by 2030.

The Scale Of German Power Decarbonisation

This article on Power Technology is entitled Germany To Invest €16bn In Hydrogen-Ready Gas-Fired Power Plants.

These are the first two paragraphs.

Germany’s Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) has agreed to provide subsidies of €16bn for the construction of 10GW of hydrogen-ready gas-fired power plants.

The subsidy scheme has been significantly reduced since August 2023 when the proposal was first unveiled. A maximum of 23.8GW was anticipated at that time.

These power stations will need a lot of green hydrogen and I believe the most convenient place to source some of the hydrogen, will come from the windy waters of the UK’s North Sea.

RWE already have leases to build 7.2 GW of wind farms in UK waters.

July 1, 2024 Posted by | Energy, Hydrogen | , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Frederick Snow & Partners, The Severn Barrage And Harold Wilson’s Government

In the 1970s, for a few weeks, I did a project management consultancy on the new Belfast international Airport.

I am sure they felt I was more experienced than I was, because they gave me a report on their proposal to barrage the River Severn and asked me to comment.

As consultant engineers, who had designed Gatwick Airport, the main feature of the barrage, was a central spine in the River with a major two-runway airport on top.

  • The runways would have pointed into the prevailing wind, which would have made take-offs and landings, efficient and safe.
  • A few minutes and perhaps five percent of fuel would have been saved on flights to the West.
  • The central spine would have divided the river into two parallel lakes; a high lake and a low one.
  • I seem to remember, that the high lake was on the Welsh side.

At the Western end of the lake and the spine, there would have been a barrage.

  • Sluice gates would have controlled the water flows into and out of the two lakes.
  • The barrage would have also served as the Second Severn Crossing.
  • The barrage would have been designed to reduce flooding along the River Severn.
  • There would have been a lock on the English side, to allow ships to pass through the barrage.

The turbines would have been under the airport.

  • They would have generated power by transferring water from the high to the low lake.
  • About ten percent of England’s power could have been generated.
  • I feel, that if the system were to be built now, pumped storage could be incorporated.

The sequence of operation of the power station would have been as follows.

  • On an incoming tide, the sluices in the barrage to the high lake would be opened.
  • Water would flow into the high lake.
  • So long as the water level in the high lake was high enough and the water level in the low lake was low enough, electricity would be generated.
  • On an outgoing tide, the sluices in the barrage to the low lake would be opened.
  • Water would flow out from the low lake.

I believe that because the water levels can be precisely controlled, this tidal power station, would have been able to provide the power needed.

One of their engineers told me, that Harold Wilson’s government had turned the project down, as the Government believed that large coal power stations were the future.

Can you imagine, Canada, Japan, Korea, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland or many other companies even in the 1970s, taking such a short-sighted decision?

Over the years of this blog, I make no apology about returning to the subject of the Severn Barrage, with these posts.

I still feel strongly, that it was a tragedy for this country, that the Severn Barrage was never built in the last century.

Conclusion

Any engineer, who trained in the 1960s after the Aberfan Disaster knew that coal had no future.

But nobody had seemed to have convinced Harold Wilson of this fact.

So instead of the clean power from the Severn Barrage, we got more polluting coal-fired power stations.

May 21, 2024 Posted by | Energy, Energy Storage | , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners Takes FID On 1,000 MWh Battery Energy Storage Project

The title of this post, is the same as that of this press release from Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners.

This is the sub-heading.

The battery energy storage system Coalburn 1 will be one of the largest battery storage projects in Europe. Construction has commenced in November 2023 and the project will be 500 MW / 1,000 MWh once complete.

These two paragraphs outline the project.

Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) through its Flagship Funds has taken final investment decision and commenced construction on a 500 MW / 1,000 MWh energy storage system in Coalburn, Scotland, which will be one of the largest of its kind in Europe.

The facility is the first project to be developed from the partnership between CIP and Alcemi to deploy 4 GW of energy storage assets across the UK. CIP aims to take final investment decision on two other projects next year with a combined capacity above 1 GW. The portfolio will provide vital support to the UK’s energy network, accelerating the integration of renewable energy and the transition to net zero by 2050.

Note.

  1. FID means final investment decision.
  2. 500 MW / 1,000 MWh could become a common size as it is two hours of power and easy for politicians to add up.
  3. CIP and Alcemi seem to be planning a total amount of energy storage, eight times bigger than Coalburn 1.

This battery could be the largest in the UK, when it is commissioned.

Who Are Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP)?

Their About CIP web page gives a lot of details.

Who Are Alcemi?

Their Who We Are web page gives a lot of details.

Environmental Considerations

The press release says this about environmental considerations.

The Coalburn 1 facility has been developed with extensive landscaping and ecological mitigation measures, including the maintenance of peat reserves, tree and wildflower planting, and new habitats, promoting biodiversity across the site.

I’ll agree with that, but add that I hope that they look after the hares. It will be interesting to see how big batteries and big bunnies co-exist. As co-exist they will!

Operation

The press release says this about operation.

The scheme will reduce the need for fossil fuel power generation during periods of peak demand leading to a decrease in CO2 emissions but also provide balancing services to help lower the costs for end consumers to manage the UK Power system.

As a Control Engineer, I suspect, it will act in a little-and-large mode with Scotland’s pumped storage.

Location

This page on the SP Energy Networks web site is entitled Coalburn Connection – South Lanarkshire.

There is this introductory paragraph.

SP Energy Networks own and maintain the electricity network in central and southern Scotland. As part of our infrastructure, Coalburn Grid Substation is a key installation in the transmission network situated to the south of Lesmahagow in South Lanarkshire.

Underneath is this map.

Note.

  1. The orange arrows are wind farms and there appear to be around a dozen of them.
  2. The blue arrow is Coalburn Grid Substation.
  3. Running through the area is the M74 between Glasgow and Carlisle.
  4. There are some remains of opencast coal-mines in the area, which have been restored and turned into wind farms.
  5. I have found the capacity of fourteen of the existing wind farms and it totals 946 MW, which is an average capacity for each wind farm of 67 MW.
  6. During my search for capacity, I found a couple of wind farms that were being upgraded with larger turbines.
  7. The SP Energy Networks page gives a date of Q3 2025 for connection of the Coalburn battery to the sub-station.

With the 500 MW/1000 MWh Coalburn 1 battery, I wouldn’t be surprised that this massive onshore wind farm complex has been designed to provide a guaranteed 1000 MW to the grid.

 

December 9, 2023 Posted by | Energy, Energy Storage | , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Hydrogen Business Model / Net Zero Hydrogen Fund: Shortlisted Projects Allocation Round 2022

The title if this post, is the same as this notice from the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero.

These are the the first three paragraphs.

The shortlist contains the following electrolytic hydrogen projects, totalling 408MW of capacity across England, Scotland and Wales.

Projects that have not been shortlisted for this allocation round are encouraged to submit updated bids for the second allocation round – see more details.

We expect to award contracts totalling up to 250MW of capacity from HAR1, subject to affordability and value for money. We aim for contracts to be awarded in Q4 2023, with first projects becoming operational in 2025.

Note.

  1. A rough calculation says that 408 MW of electrolysers could product about 177 tonnes of hydrogen per day.
  2. It’s not long to the fourth quarter of 2023, when hopefully we shall know more.

These are the seventeen shortlisted projects.

Aldbrough Hydrogen Pathfinder

Aldbrough Hydrogen Pathfinder is being developed by SSE Thermal in Yorkshire.

This paragraph outlines the operation of the Aldbrough Hydrogen Pathfinder.

The concept would see green power sourced from grid through Renewable PPAs, in compliance with the Low Carbon Hydrogen Standard. Hydrogen would then be produced via a 35MW electrolyser before being stored in a converted salt cavern and then used in a 100% hydrogen-fired turbine, exporting flexible green power back to grid at times of system need. In future, hydrogen storage will also benefit offtakers in other sectors, for example in industry, heat or transport.

Initial storage at Aldbrough could be as high as 320 GWh.

I went to see their presentation in June and wrote about my visit in Did I See The UK’s Hydrogen-Powered Future In Hull Today?.

Barrow Green Hydrogen

Barrow Green Hydrogen is being developed by Carlton Power in North West England.

The Barrow Green Hydrogen project has its own web site, where this is the introductory paragraph.

Barrow Green Hydrogen is an industry leading project, that will use renewable energy to produce green hydrogen fuel which will decarbonise industry, and in the future, transport and heating. The development will have an initial capacity of 35 MW, which will produce enough hydrogen to heat the equivalent of 14,000 homes. The project has the potential to expand to several hundred megawatts.

There is also a section, that is entitled; Why Barrow?, where this is said.

Barrow-in-Furness is ideally located because the area has several industrial sites, which are able to take green hydrogen without extensive modification to decarbonise their operations, which otherwise rely on natural gas. Further to this, it is well placed to serve commercial applications in other areas of Cumbria, once the project is scaled up and these applications become hydrogen ready. The site in Barrow is also well positioned to use renewable electricity from existing installations and will also enable additional new generation capacity to be installed.

In Government Hydrogen Boost To Help Power Kimberly-Clark Towards 100% Green Energy Target, I explain how this hydrogen hub will supply one of Kimberly-Clark’s factories with hydrogen to replace natural gas.

 

Bradford Low Carbon Hydrogen

Bradford Low Carbon Hydrogen is being developed by Hygen in Yorkshire.

These paragraphs from this press release on the Hygen web site outline the operation of Bradford Low Carbon Hydrogen.

A partnership between gas distributor Northern Gas Networks (NGN) and clean energy pioneers Hygen Energy (Hygen) and Ryze Hydrogen for an ambitious low carbon hydrogen production and dispensing facility in the heart of Bradford has been shortlisted for government funding.

NGN, the gas distributor for the North East, Cumbria and much of Yorkshire, is carrying out the project in a Joint Venture with the two companies.

The project will be built on NGN’s decommissioned gas storage site of Bowling Back Lane in the heart of Bradford. It will deliver one of the UK’s largest low carbon hydrogen production facilities with a clear objective of using renewable energy to power an electrolyser which will produce clean hydrogen. The site will also have on-site refuelling for hydrogen vehicles, EV charging, and a low carbon technology education centre. Residents and businesses in West Yorkshire will be able to use the refuelling facilities, with Ryze distributing hydrogen to industrial users across the region.

Note.

  1. The press release has an excellent visualisation of the project.
  2. Using a site that was previously used for gas storage, must give advantages in designing the project and its operational procedures.
  3. If anybody knows the capacity, please tell me!

It looks like a hydrogen facility for all of Bradford, its citizens and its businesses.

Cheshire Green Hydrogen

Cheshire Green Hydrogen is being developed by Progressive Energy Net Zero in North West England.

This press release from HyNet NorthWest gives these details.

HyNet partner, Progressive Energy, Statkraft and Foresight, will be working together to jointly develop a suite of green (‘electrolytic’) hydrogen projects in the North West of England.

This includes the proposed 28 megawatt (MW) Cheshire Green Hydrogen project which will use renewable electricity from Frodsham wind farm in Cheshire. This will generate green hydrogen which will supply low carbon hydrogen via the HyNet project’s planned pipeline.

The initial phase of 100MW of projects will reduce carbon dioxide emissions from industry by up to 180,000 tonnes.

The initial capacity will be 28 MW.

Commercial Scale Demonstrator

Commercial Scale Demonstrator is being developed by ERM Dolphyn in Scotland.

There is not much specific information on the ERM Dolphyn web site.

Cromarty Hydrogen Project

Cromarty Hydrogen Project is being developed by Pale Blue Dot Energy in Scotland.

This paragraph describes the Cromarty Hydrogen Project.

The facility would have a maximum output of up to 50 megawatt (MW) although this is likely to be limited in the first instance to around 30MW and be able to produce up to 20,000 kg of green hydrogen per day. The facility will have multiple electrolysers feeding on-site low pressure storage containers. The hydrogen will then be compressed onto tube trailers for transportation off-site to customers. It is our intention to use low or zero carbon fuels for the hydrogen transport vehicles wherever possible.

There is a lot of information on the web site.

Gigastack

Gigastack is being developed by Phillips 66 in North East England.

The Gigastack web site appears to be lacking in updates.

Gordonbush Hydrogen Project (GBH2)

Gordonbush Hydrogen Project is being developed by SSE Renewables in Scotland.

The proposed development is introduced like this.

The proposed development comprises a green hydrogen production facility. This would be located within the existing infrastructure of Gordonbush Wind Farm.

At this stage, the detailed design has not been fully developed and a level of refinement of the scheme is expected prior to submission of the planning application.

As with much of what SSE Renewables does, it seems a very professional project.

Green Hydrogen 1, 2 And 3

I’ll discuss these three projects together.

  • Green Hydrogen 1 is being developed by RES and Octopus Renewables in Scotland.
  • Green Hydrogen 2 is being developed by RES and Octopus Renewables in Wales.
  • Green Hydrogen 3 is being developed by RES and Octopus Renewables in South East England.

RES and Octopus Renewables have formed a joint company called Hyro.

On the Hyro web site, this is said on the opening page.

Market Leaders Coming Together For Decarbonisation

HYRO is a joint venture between Octopus Energy Generation and RES

RES is the world’s largest independent renewable energy developer – having delivered 23GW of generation in 11 countries.

Octopus Energy Generation is one of Europe’s largest investors in renewable energy. The team manages over 3GW of green power assets worth £5bn across 11 countries. It’s the generation arm of Octopus Energy Group, the global energy tech pioneer, using technology to unlock a customer focused and affordable green energy revolution.

That’s not a bad opening statement.

In Government Hydrogen Boost To Help Power Kimberly-Clark Towards 100% Green Energy Target, I explain how Green Hydrogen 2 and 3 will supply two of Kimberly-Clark’s factories with hydrogen to replace natural gas.

The initial capacity of Green Hydrogen 2 and 3 will be 50 MW. So will Green Hydrogen 1, 2 and 3 all be 25 MW electrolysers?

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Hyro doing more deals with large natural gas users.

H2 Production Plant at High Marnham

H2 Production Plant at High Marnham is being developed by J G Pears in the East Midlands of England.

J G Pears is the driver here and the About page of their web site is a must-read.

This section describes their approach.

From our humble beginnings, we have grown to become one of the largest businesses in the UK animal by-products sector. We’ve achieved this thanks to constant innovation and investment plus a relentless focus on building relationships with customer and partner businesses.

Innovation, investment and customer focus.

We actively look for new and better ways to work, and invest continuously in new ideas and processes. We plan everything we do around the twin goals of making our operations as clean and green as possible and delivering products and services that meet customer needs.

And this section details their story.

We started as a family business, and we’re still a family business. But today, our family now includes a group of companies, customers and suppliers worldwide, and a large workforce across our various sites.

The story starts in 1972, with the Pears family developing a livestock farming business in and around Penistone, South Yorkshire.

As time went on, the family farming business diversified into animal by-product and food waste collection services. More recently we added two by-product processing facilities to the Group’s activity portfolio. This ensures complete control of our end to end collection and processing services.

The original family farm in Penistone is still very much part of the business, continuing our farming heritage and housing the Group’s head office.

They’ve recently added a combined heat and power plant (CHP).

These two paragraphs describe how they use the CHP.

The CHP plant generates renewable energy by providing steam and electricity to our existing businesses as well as exporting its excess electrical power to the National Grid.

This biomass-fired CHP plant will use meat and bone meal (MBM) to replace over 90% of the fossil fuels used in the current business processes. MBM is a sustainable alternative with a calorific value of the same magnitude as coal, meaning that more than 150,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide will be saved per year. MBM can also be sourced more locally than the fuels currently used, which in turn reduces carbon emissions from transport and transport kilometres.

It’s a new one on me, to use meat and bone meal to replace coal.

Their services and products are worth a look.

The company are certainly proof of the old Yorkshire saying of “Where there’s muck there’s brass!”

HyBont

HyBont is being developed by Marubeni Europower on Wales.

Hybont has a comprehensive web site, where this is said about the concept.

We are developing plans for a green hydrogen production and refuelling facility at Brynmenyn Industrial Estate, partially powered by a solar farm at Bryncethin.

A wide number of uses for the hydrogen, including vehicle fuelling are proposed.

HyGreen Teesside

HyGreen Teesside is being developed by BP Alternative Energy Investments in North East England.

HyGreen Teesside has a comprehensive web site, where this is said about the project.

HyGreen Teesside aims to be one of the biggest green hydrogen production facilities in the UK. Green hydrogen is made by electrolysing water using power from low carbon energy sources such as solar or wind.

Located in Teesside, HyGreen Teesside is targeting 80MWe of green hydrogen capacity by 2025 – and targeting growth to 500 MW by 2030, delivering up to 5% of the UK government’s hydrogen target of 10GW by 2030.

It is eventually going to be a large electrolyser.

Langage Green Hydrogen

Langage Green Hydrogen is being developed by Carlton Power in South West England.

Langage Green Hydrogen has a comprehensive web site, where this is said about the project.

Langage Green Hydrogen is an industry leading project, that will use renewable energy to produce green hydrogen fuel which will decarbonise industry, and in the future, transport and heating. The development will have an initial capacity of 10 MW, which will produce enough hydrogen to heat the equivalent of 14,000 homes. The project is part of the wider Langage Energy Park.

 

Note.

 

Quill 2

Quill 2 is being developed by INOVYN ChlorVinyls in North West England.

There is very little about Quill 2 on the Internet.

Personally, I find that a pity, as I used to work on what is now INOVYN’s Runcorn site.

Tees Green Hydrogen

Tees Green Hydrogen is being developed by EDF Renewables Hydrogen in North East England.

This page on the EDF Renewables web site gives this spotlight for Tees Green Hydrogen.

Tees Green Hydrogen, will be a pioneering project, using the green electricity from nearby Teesside Offshore Wind Farm along with a new solar farm, which EDF Renewables UK intends to construct near Redcar, to power its hydrogen electrolyser. The project will supply local business customers with hydrogen to support decarbonisation efforts and a significant reduction in industrial pollution.

There is also an informative animation.

This is said about the capacity.

In its initial phase, the electrolyser will have a 7.5MW capacity. It is hoped that work could begin on site in 2024, with the facility operational by 2026. Future phases will seek to deliver up to 300MW in Teesside before 2030.

Quel énorme!

Trafford Green Hydrogen

Trafford Green Hydrogen is being developed by Carlton Power in North West England.

This is the introduction on the project web page.

Trafford Green Hydrogen is an industry leading project, that will use renewable energy to produce green hydrogen fuel for industry, transport and heating. The development will have an ultimate capacity of 200MW, which will be sufficient to take around 8,000 petrol cars off the road annually. The initial phase will be 20MW.

Carlton are also developing two other projects;

West Wales Hydrogen Project – Phase 1

West Wales Hydrogen Project – Phase 1 is being developed by H2 Energy and Trafigura in Wales.

The best source of information is this must-watch Youtube video.

The company appears to be able to lease you a hydrogen truck on a pay per mile basis, at the same price as a diesel truck.

Get the finance right for your customers and yourself and everybody will be happy.

Whitelee Green Hydrogen

Whitelee Green Hydrogen is being developed by Scottish Power in Scotland.

The Whitelee wind farm is described like this on this web page.

Whitelee is the UK’s largest onshore windfarm, located on Eaglesham Moor just 20 minutes from central Glasgow. Its 215 turbines generate up to 539 megawatts of electricity, enough to power over 350,000 homes*.

With more than 130 kilometres of trails to explore, on foot, by cycle or by horse, with free parking and free entry to our onsite Visitor Centre, Whitelee is a great destination for a day out with the whole family.

I wrote about this project in Whitelee Green Hydrogen Facility To Power Public Transport.

Conclusion

These projects will create a lot of green hydrogen.

These are my highlights.

  • J G Pears, who have developed an animal by-products business with a distinct green agenda.
  • Kimberly-Clark planning three hydrogen plants in Cumbria, Kent and North Wales to decarbonise their paper products business.
  • The up to 300 MW Tees Green Hydrogen being developed by EDF Renewables.
  • The H2 Energy and Trafigura hydrogen truck business in West Wales.

Don’t forget to watch the video for the last project.

 

 

 

August 19, 2023 Posted by | Energy, Hydrogen | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Australia Climate Protest: Rising Tide Activists Shovel Coal Off Train

The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the BBC.

This is the sub-heading.

About 50 climate activists have been arrested in the Australian state of New South Wales after protesters climbed on a train carrying coal and began shovelling its cargo out of the wagons.

At least with coal, the mess won’t do too much damage.

 

April 16, 2023 Posted by | Energy, Transport/Travel | , , , , | Leave a comment

Coal Sales Could Lose Tens Of Millions For Consumers

The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on The Times.

These two paragraphs outline the story.

A huge stockpile of coal bought for emergency use in power stations this winter is due to be resold at a loss of tens of millions of pounds to consumers.

National Grid funded the procurement of hundreds of thousands of tonnes of coal as part of a deal to keep open five coal-fired units this winter. The estimated £368 million cost of the “winter contingency contracts”, which includes an undisclosed sum for the coal purchases, is being recouped via energy bills.

Note.

  1. None of the coal has been burned, as the weather was warmer than expected,
  2. It is now sitting in various places around the country.
  3. It will probably sell at a loss and there will be transport costs.

I will look at the mathematics of disposal.

Burning Fossil Fuels

On the Internet, I have found these figures.

  • If you burn a kilogram of natural gas you create 15.5 KWh of electricity and 2.75 kilograms of carbon dioxide.
  • If you burn a kilogram of coal you create 2.46 KWh of electricity and 2.38 kilograms of carbon dioxide.

This means that natural gas and coal create 0.18 and 0.97 kilograms of carbon dioxide respectively for every KWh generated.

I believe these figures say, that if we have to use a fossil fuel, gas will be much better than coal for climate change reasons.

The Size Of The Problem

We are talking about 130,000 tonnes of coal for EDF and 400,000 for Drax. Uniper’s figure is not stated. Let’s say they make the coal pile up to 600,000 tonnes.

Burning this pile will generate 1,476,000 KWh or 1.476 GWh of electricity and create 1428,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide.

Effect On Total UK Carbon Dioxide Emissions

According to government figures on the Internet in 2021 we emitted 107.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide.

Burning all that coal in a year, would add less than 1.5 % to our carbon dioxide emissions. Perhaps we should burn it strategically over a number of years, when there are energy supply problems, as it is after all a crude form of energy storage.

What Would I Do With The Savings?

The money saved on the transport and making loss-making sales could be spent on other ways to save carbon emissions, like converting surplus wind energy into hydrogen and blending it with the gas.

I discussed the mathematics of hydrogen blending in UK – Hydrogen To Be Added To Britain’s Gas Supply By 2025.

If we put 2 % hydrogen in our natural gas, this would save nearly 2.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions in a year. This figure is much bigger than the 1428,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide, that would be created by burning all the coal.

At a level of 2 %, most appliances, boilers and industrial processes would work without change. But a good service would help.

February 21, 2023 Posted by | Energy, Energy Storage, Hydrogen | , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Containerised Coal Overcomes The Break-Of-Gauge

The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the Railway Gazette.

Innofreight containers are being transferred from broad to standard gauge trains as part of a through journey for the first time.

Russia’s attack on Ukraine has forced Poland to seek alternatives to Russian coal, but Polish ports have limited capacity to handle the required volumes.

As a result, coal is being imported via the Lithuanian port of Klaipėda. LTG Cargo’s 1 520 mm gauge trains are loaded with 60 Innofreight MonTainer XXL bulk goods containers of coal for transport to Kaunas or Šeštokai, where the containers are transferred to 15 standard gauge InnoWagons for onward transport to Braniewo in Poland.

It sounds like a simple solution, with advantages.

Innofreight says that this is faster than discharging the coal from one train and reloading it onto another, and also avoids creating dust.

On their home page, Innofreight describe themselves like this.

The focus of our corporate activity is the development of innovative wagons, containers and unloading systems for and in cooperation with our customers.

Certainly after the war in Ukraine is finished, there should be a large market for dual-gauge systems like that being used to get coal to Poland.

 

January 30, 2023 Posted by | Design, Transport/Travel | , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

US Utility Xcel To Put Form Energy’s 100-hour Iron-Air Battery At Retiring Coal Power Plant Sites

The title of this post is the same as that of this article on Energy Storage News.

This is the first two paragraphs.

‘Multi-day’ battery storage startup Form Energy’s proprietary iron-air battery is set to be deployed at the sites of two US coal power plants due for retirement.

Form Energy said yesterday that definitive agreements have been signed with Minnesota-headquartered utility company Xcel Energy for the two projects, one in Minnesota and the other in Colorado.

 

On their Technology page, they say this about their battery storage technology.

Our first commercial product is an iron-air battery capable of storing electricity for 100 hours at system costs competitive with legacy power plants. Made from iron, one of the most abundant minerals on Earth, this front-of-the-meter battery will enable a cost-effective, renewable energy grid year-round.

They also seem to be very much into grid-modelling technology. As I’ve build mathematical models for sixty years, I like that!

It does seem Form Energy is on its way.

January 28, 2023 Posted by | Energy, Energy Storage | , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Lützerath: German Coal Mine Stand Off Amid Ukraine War Energy Crunch

The title of this post, is the same as that on this article on the BBC.

This is the sub-heading.

From her tiny wooden treehouse, which sways precariously in the winter wind, a young woman watches an enormous mechanical digger tear into the earth below, its jaws edging ever closer to the village which she’s determined to save.

And these two paragraphs outline the protest.

Lützerath, in western Germany, is on the verge – literally – of being swallowed up by the massive coal mine on its doorstep.

Around 200 climate change activists, who are now all that stand in the way of the diggers expanding the Garzweiler opencast mine, have been warned that if they don’t leave by Tuesday they’ll be forcibly evicted.

But this is not about coal or bituminous coal, as we know it in the UK, this mine will produce lignite or brown coal.

Read both Wikipedia entries linked to the previous sentence and you find some choice phrases.

For bituminous coal.

  • Within the coal mining industry, this type of coal is known for releasing the largest amounts of firedamp, a dangerous mixture of gases that can cause underground explosions.
  • Extraction of bituminous coal demands the highest safety procedures involving attentive gas monitoring, good ventilation and vigilant site management.
  • The leading producer is China, with India and the United States a distant second and third.

For lignite.

  • It has a carbon content around 25–35%. and is considered the lowest rank of coal due to its relatively low heat content.
  • When removed from the ground, it contains a very high amount of moisture which partially explains its low carbon content.
  • The combustion of lignite produces less heat for the amount of carbon dioxide and sulfur released than other ranks of coal. As a result, environmental advocates have characterized lignite as the most harmful coal to human health.
  • Depending on the source, various toxic heavy metals, including naturally occurring radioactive materials may be present in lignite which are left over in the coal fly ash produced from its combustion, further increasing health risks.
  • Lignite’s high moisture content and susceptibility to spontaneous combustion can cause problems in transportation and storage.

I don’t think, that we’ve ever burned lignite in the UK for electricity, as it is just too filthy.

This map shows the mine.

Note.

  1. The autobahn at the West of the map, is a six-land highway, so gives an idea of the scale.
  2. The village of Lützerath is towards the bottom of the map in the middle.
  3. What has been left after the mining, is going to take a lot of restoration.

It almost appears that some of the scenes of devastation, we are seeing in the Ukraine are also happening in Germany due to the frantic search for energy.

A 1960s-Educated Engineer’s Attitude To Coal

I was one of about four-hundred engineers in my year at Liverpool University in the 1960s.

  • Quite a few of those engineers were from coal-mining areas and some were children of miners.
  • I remember the graduate recruitment fair at the University in 1968, where the representative from the National Coal Board sat there alone, as if he’d got the 1960s version of Covid-19.
  • Some went and talked to him, as they felt sorry for him.
  • As far as I know, not one of us, went to work for the National Coal Board.

Engineers and other graduates of the 1960s, didn’t feel that coal was the future.

Had Aberfan and the other pit disasters of the era killed coal as a career, amongst my generation of the UK population?

What Should The Germans Do?

It is my view that whatever the Germans do, burning brown coal, should not be on the list. It’s just too polluting.

This article on euronews is entitled Germany And Poland Have A Dirty Big Secret – An Addiction To Brown Coal.

A few years ago, I was in Katowice on Poland and I have never seen such pollution in Europe, since the smogs of the 1950s.

The euronews article says this.

In eastern Germany some members of a little-known group claim they are being ethnically cleansed, not by militia groups, but by the coal mining industry.

Bulldozers have so far destroyed over 130 Sorb villages to make way for the mining of Europe’s dirtiest kind of fossil fuel – brown coal, or lignite as it is also known.

Brown coal mines are open cast and devour vast tracts of land. As well as whole villages farming and wildlife are destroyed.

The Penk family live in the village of Rohne. They feel their whole culture is also being destroyed.

Note that the Sorbs have a Wikipedia entry, which says there are 60,000 Sorbs in Germany.

One thing the Germans are doing is investing in the UK renewable energy industry.

  • RWE own or part-own over 7 GW of offshore wind farms in the UK, some of which are under development.
  • enBW and BP are developing 3 GW of offshore wind farms in the UK.
  • Over twenty offshore wind farms use Siemens Gamesa turbines.
  • The NeuConnect interconnector is being built between the Isle of Grain and Wilhelmshaven.

Would it not be better for the physical and mental health of German citizens, if they abandoned their dirty love of brown coal and spent the money in the North Sea?

January 10, 2023 Posted by | Energy | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

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