Loop Energy Grows European Footprint with UK Expansion

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA and LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM – August 16, 2022 – Loop Energy™ (TSX: LPEN), a designer and manufacturer of hydrogen fuel cells for commercial mobility, will extend its presence in Europe later this month by expanding into the UK.

Loop Energy’s newest facility will be based in Grays, Essex, just east of the centre of London and next to a growing group of manufacturers helping decarbonize road transport, including current customer Tevva Motors, the hydrogen and electric truck OEM which is based in Tilbury.

Loop Energy has already started to recruit for the roles at the new facility, with employees assisting in the areas of production support, customer support and inventory.

The move is in reaction to growing customer demand for Loop Energy’s fuel cells in continental Europe and the UK, where diesel and petrol vehicles will start to be banned from 2030.

Loop Energy, which is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, and has raised $100 million CAD so far, is targeting the commercial vehicle sector, including buses and heavy goods vehicles (HGVs).

Diesel and petrol HGVs made up 18% of all road emissions in 2019, amounting to 19.5 metric tons carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2e), according to UK government data.

The market for zero-emissions commercial vehicles continues to evolve quickly and Loop Energy is well positioned to provide its technology and expertise to help OEMs and others decarbonize the transportation industry.

The announcement comes just a month after Loop Energy signed a multi-year fuel cell supply agreement with UK-based Tevva, which includes delivery commitments in excess of US$12 million through 2023.

Elsewhere, Loop Energy recently entered the Australian bus market as a supplier of fuel cell modules to Aluminium Revolutionary Chassis Company (ARCC) and the company has seen its order book grow substantially for its technology, with 52 purchase orders in the six months to the end of June, up from 13 over the same period last year.

Loop Energy President & CEO, Ben Nyland said:

“We are excited to open a new facility in the UK, where both the private and public sector is quickly growing around decarbonizing commercial vehicles. We were pleased to see the UK government’s recent commitment to the hydrogen sector, with the Business Secretary’s pledge to unlock £9bn investment needed to make hydrogen a cornerstone of the UK’s greener future,”

“Our investment commitment for the UK market is strategic to serve both UK and the rest of Europe. We expect to service a truck and bus market size upwards of US $15 Billion over the next 2 to 3 years, and our UK facility is established as the localized support center for these vehicles. Our investments to the UK will grow in lock-step with the growth of our local OEM customers, and our investment strategy will align with the timing and volume of our ecosystem partners as the industry ramps up supply to this market,”

“We also believe that the UK’s strong pool of manufacturing and design talent will help take Loop to the next level in its growth story.”

UK Business Minister Lord Callanan said:

“Hydrogen is likely to be fundamental to cutting emissions across some of our largest forms of commercial transport – from buses to heavy goods vehicles. As the world shifts to cleaner transport it is critical we embed a UK supply chain that can capture the economic opportunities of hydrogen technology,”

“Loop Energy’s expansion in Essex is fantastic news for the region, bringing green jobs and growth, while adding to the UK’s reputation as a leader in hydrogen and fuel cell research.”

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About Loop Energy Inc.

Loop Energy is a leading designer and manufacturer of fuel cell systems targeted for the electrification of commercial vehicles, including light commercial vehicles, transit buses and medium and heavy-duty trucks. Loop’s products feature the company’s proprietary eFlow™ technology in the fuel cell stack’s bipolar plates. eFlow™ is designed to enable commercial customers to achieve performance maximization and cost minimization. Loop works with OEMs and major vehicle sub-system suppliers to enable the production of hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles. For more information about how Loop is driving towards a zero-emissions future, visit www.loopenergy.com.

Forward Looking Warning

This press release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities legislation, which reflect management’s current expectations and projections regarding future events. Particularly, statements regarding the Company’s expectations of future results, performance, achievements, prospects or opportunities or the markets in which we operate is forward-looking information, including without limitation the ability for Loop to service the truck and bus market and the market’s potential to reach upwards of US $15 billion.

Forward-looking information is based on a number of assumptions (including without limitation assumptions with respect to the potential growth of the bus and truck market and is subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company’s control and could cause actual results and events to vary materially from those that are disclosed, or implied, by such forward‐looking information. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the market reaching the TAM of upwards of US $15 billion, the realization of electrification of transportation, the elimination of diesel fuel and ongoing government support of such developments, the expected growth in demand for fuel cells for the commercial transportation market and the factors discussed under “Risk Factors” in the Company’s Annual Information Form dated March 23, 2022. Loop disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

Source: Loop Energy Inc.

New method Using Aluminum Nanoparticles Creates Rapid, Efficient Hydrogen Generation from Water – UC Santa Cruz

Hydrogen gas generated from the reaction of water with an aluminum-gallium composite. Credit: Amberchan et al., Applied Nano Materials 2022

Aluminum is a highly reactive metal that can strip oxygen from water molecules to generate hydrogen gas. Now, researchers at UC Santa Cruz have developed a new cost-effective and effective way to use aluminum’s reactivity to generate clean hydrogen fuel.

In a new study, a team of researchers shows that an easily produced composite of gallium and aluminum creates aluminum nanoparticles that react rapidly with water at room temperature to yield large amounts of hydrogen. According to researchers, the gallium was easily recovered for reuse after the reaction, which yields 90% of the hydrogen that could theoretically be produced from the reaction of all the aluminum in the composite.

“We don’t need any energy input, and it bubbles hydrogen-like crazy. I’ve never seen anything like it,” said UCSC Chemistry Professor Scott Oliver.

The reaction of aluminum and gallium with water works because gallium removes the passive aluminum oxide coating, allowing direct contact of aluminum with water.

Using scanning electron microscopy and x-ray diffraction, the researchers showed the formation of aluminum nanoparticles in a 3:1 gallium-aluminum composite, which they found to be the optimal ratio for hydrogen production. In this gallium-rich composite, the gallium serves both to dissolve the aluminum oxide coating and to separate the aluminum into nanoparticles.

“The gallium separates the nanoparticles and keeps them from aggregating into larger particles,” said Bakthan Singaram, corresponding authors of a paper on the new findings. “People have struggled to make aluminum nanoparticles, and here we are producing them under normal atmospheric pressure and room temperature conditions.”

The researchers say the composite for their method can be made with readily available sources of aluminum, including used foil or cans. The composite can be easily stored for long periods by covering it with cyclohexane to protect it from moisture.

While gallium is not abundant and is relatively expensive, it can be recovered and reused multiple times without losing effectiveness. However, it remains to be seen if this process can be scaled up to be practical for commercial hydrogen production.

Green Hydrogen Systems Receives Electrolysis Units from Logan Energy

Green Hydrogen Systems, a leading provider of efficient pressurized alkaline electrolyzers used in on-site hydrogen production based on renewable electricity, has today signed a supply agreement with Edinburgh-based Logan Energy to deliver electrolysis equipment for a project in England.

The order includes the supply of two GHS HyProvide® A90 electrolysers with a combined capacity of 0.9 MW for the production of green hydrogen from renewable energy.

Manufactured by Green Hydrogen Systems and operated by Logan Energy, the electrolyzers will be deployed in a 40 ft container as a complete green hydrogen plant as part of plans to develop a regional hydrogen economy in Dorset, England.

Green Hydrogen Systems will be responsible for delivering the electrolyser units and will support the project with on-site maintenance and remote monitoring and support as part of a three-year service agreement.

Logan Energy is a leading hydrogen technology company with a proven track record for delivering affordable, market-ready projects and solutions in the low carbon, renewable energy, and hydrogen sectors.

When fully operational during 4Q22, the ordered electrolyzers have the capacity to provide approximately 389 kg/day of green hydrogen.

Aso Read About:

Everfuel receives grant for hydrogen refuelling stations in Sweden

Monday 31 January 2022 14:00

Everfuel Sweden AB has been awarded two grants totaling approximately SEK45 million by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency investment program.

Making the case for hydrogen in a zero-carbon economy

As the United States races to achieve its goal of zero-carbon electricity generation by 2035, energy providers are swiftly ramping up renewable resources such as solar and wind. But because these technologies churn out electrons only when the sun shines and the wind blows, they need backup from other energy sources, especially during seasons of high electric demand. Currently, plants burning fossil fuels, primarily natural gas, fill in the gaps.

“As we move to more and more renewable penetration, this intermittency will make a greater impact on the electric power system,” says Emre Gençer, a research scientist at the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI). That’s because grid operators will increasingly resort to fossil-fuel-based “peaker” plants that compensate for the intermittency of the variable renewable energy (VRE) sources of sun and wind. “If we’re to achieve zero-carbon electricity, we must replace all greenhouse gas-emitting sources,” Gençer says.

Low- and zero-carbon alternatives to greenhouse-gas emitting peaker plants are in development, such as arrays of lithium-ion batteries and hydrogen power generation. But each of these evolving technologies comes with its own set of advantages and constraints, and it has proven difficult to frame the debate about these options in a way that’s useful for policymakers, investors, and utilities engaged in the clean energy transition.

Now, Gençer and Drake D. Hernandez SM ’21 have come up with a model that makes it possible to pin down the pros and cons of these peaker-plant alternatives with greater precision. Their hybrid technological and economic analysis, based on a detailed inventory of California’s power system, was published online last month in Applied Energy. While their work focuses on the most cost-effective solutions for replacing peaker power plants, it also contains insights intended to contribute to the larger conversation about transforming energy systems.

“Our study’s essential takeaway is that hydrogen-fired power generation can be the more economical option when compared to lithium-ion batteries—even today, when the costs of hydrogen production, transmission, and storage are very high,” says Hernandez, who worked on the study while a graduate research assistant for MITEI. Adds Gençer, “If there is a place for hydrogen in the cases we analyzed, that suggests there is a promising role for hydrogen to play in the energy transition.”

Adding up the costs

California serves as a stellar paradigm for a swiftly shifting power system. The state draws more than 20 percent of its electricity from solar and approximately 7 percent from wind, with more VRE coming online rapidly. This means its peaker plants already play a pivotal role, coming online each evening when the sun goes down or when events such as heat waves drive up electricity use for days at a time.

“We looked at all the peaker plants in California,” recounts Gençer. “We wanted to know the cost of electricity if we replaced them with hydrogen-fired turbines or with lithium-ion batteries.” The researchers used a core metric called the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) as a way of comparing the costs of different technologies to each other. LCOE measures the average total cost of building and operating a particular energy-generating asset per unit of total electricity generated over the hypothetical lifetime of that asset.

Selecting 2019 as their base study year, the team looked at the costs of running natural gas-fired peaker plants, which they defined as plants operating 15 percent of the year in response to gaps in intermittent renewable electricity. In addition, they determined the amount of carbon dioxide released by these plants and the expense of abating these emissions. Much of this information was publicly available.

Coming up with prices for replacing peaker plants with massive arrays of lithium-ion batteries was also relatively straightforward: “There are no technical limitations to lithium-ion, so you can build as many as you want; but they are super expensive in terms of their footprint for energy storage and the mining required to manufacture them,” says Gençer.

But then came the hard part: nailing down the costs of hydrogen-fired electricity generation. “The most difficult thing is finding cost assumptions for new technologies,” says Hernandez. “You can’t do this through a literature review, so we had many conversations with equipment manufacturers and plant operators.”

The team considered two different forms of hydrogen fuel to replace natural gas, one produced through electrolyzer facilities that convert water and electricity into hydrogen, and another that reforms natural gas, yielding hydrogen and carbon waste that can be captured to reduce emissions. They also ran the numbers on retrofitting natural gas plants to burn hydrogen as opposed to building entirely new facilities. Their model includes identification of likely locations throughout the state and expenses involved in constructing these facilities.

The researchers spent months compiling a giant dataset before setting out on the task of analysis. The results from their modeling were clear: “Hydrogen can be a more cost-effective alternative to lithium-ion batteries for peaking operations on a power grid,” says Hernandez. In addition, notes Gençer, “While certain technologies worked better in particular locations, we found that on average, reforming hydrogen rather than electrolytic hydrogen turned out to be the cheapest option for replacing peaker plants.”

Credit: DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2021.117314

A tool for energy investors

When he began this project, Gençer admits he “wasn’t hopeful” about hydrogen replacing natural gas in peaker plants. “It was kind of shocking to see in our different scenarios that there was a place for hydrogen.” That’s because the overall price tag for converting a fossil-fuel based plant to one based on hydrogen is very high, and such conversions likely won’t take place until more sectors of the economy embrace hydrogen, whether as a fuel for transportation or for varied manufacturing and industrial purposes.

A nascent hydrogen production infrastructure does exist, mainly in the production of ammonia for fertilizer. But enormous investments will be necessary to expand this framework to meet grid-scale needs, driven by purposeful incentives. “With any of the climate solutions proposed today, we will need a carbon tax or carbon pricing; otherwise nobody will switch to new technologies,” says Gençer.

The researchers believe studies like theirs could help key energy stakeholders make better-informed decisions. To that end, they have integrated their analysis into SESAME, a life cycle and techno-economic assessment tool for a range of energy systems that was developed by MIT researchers. Users can leverage this sophisticated modeling environment to compare costs of energy storage and emissions from different technologies, for instance, or to determine whether it is cost-efficient to replace a natural gas-powered plant with one powered by hydrogen.

“As utilities, industry, and investors look to decarbonize and achieve zero-emissions targets, they have to weigh the costs of investing in low-carbon technologies today against the potential impacts of climate change moving forward,” says Hernandez, who is currently a senior associate in the energy practice at Charles River Associates. Hydrogen, he believes, will become increasingly cost-competitive as its production costs decline and markets expand.

A study group member of MITEI’s soon-to-be published Future of Storage study, Gençer knows that hydrogen alone will not usher in a zero-carbon future. But, he says, “Our research shows we need to seriously consider hydrogen in the energy transition, start thinking about key areas where hydrogen should be used, and start making the massive investments necessary.”

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Explore further

Green hydrogen production from curtailed wind and solar power

New Nanoscale Material Harvests Hydrogen Fuel From the Sea – University of Central Florida

Researchers developed a long-lasting, stable nanoscale material for electrolysis.

Researchers at the University of Central Florida (UCF) designed the world’s first nanoscale material capable of efficiently splitting seawater into oxygen and green hydrogen, which can be used as a fuel, a press release explains.

The development is another step towards improving our capacity for harvesting hydrogen fuel in a bid to fight climate change by reducing our reliance on fossil fuels.

The researchers detailed their long-lasting nanoscale material for electrolysis — the process of separating water into hydrogen and oxygen — in the journal Advanced Materials. According to study co-author Yang Yang, the new material “will open a new window for efficiently producing clean hydrogen fuel from seawater.”

There has been great debate in recent times over the feasibility of hydrogen fuel for helping to combat hydrogen fuel. Though Tesla and SpaceX CEO recently called the ideaof hydrogen cars “mind-bogglingly stupid,” companies such as Toyota and BMW have shown their support for the technology and are developing hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.

Meeting the rapidly growing requirement for green hydrogen

For their nanoscale material, the UCF researchers devised a thin-film material featuring nanostructures on its surface. In their study, the scientists explain that the material is made of nickel selenide with added, or “doped,” iron and phosphor. “The seawater electrolysis performance achieved by the dual-doped film far surpasses those of the most recently reported, state-of-the-art electrolysis catalysts and meets the demanding requirements needed for practical application in the industries,” Yang explained.

Nanoscale material catalyzing the electrolysis reaction. Source: University of Central Florida

They say that not only is their material effective at catalyzing the electrolysis process, it also shows the stability and high performance required to use the material at an industrial scale — they tested their material for over 200 hours and said it retained high performance and stability throughout the tests. Earlier this month, French firm Lhyfe announced it was commencing tests on the world’s first offshore green hydrogen plant, which will make use of the abundant surrounding water source and a nearby wind turbine.

Though there is still debate over the use of hydrogen fuel as opposed to electricity, we will be much better off in a world where hydrogen and electricity compete with each other, instead of with the current supremacy of the internal combustion engine.

Super Oil & Gas Company Total Orders Hydrogen Re-Fueling Station from HRS – A Hydrogen Fuel Success Story

Hydrogen Refueling Solutions (HRS) has announced that it has received an order from Total for the supply and installation of a hydrogen station at the site of one of its customers.

A European designer and manufacturer of hydrogen fueling stations, HRS is a success
story. Recently listed on the stock exchange, the Iserise company has just formalized an order related to the supply and installation of a hydrogen station for one of the total group’s customers.

READ ALSO
Engie and Total embark on massive production of green hydrogen

A hydrogen station delivered by June 2021

If hrS does not specify the location of this future station, it says it will be delivered and commissioned by June 2021.
Specially designed to meet the needs of Total’s teams, this station will be able to distribute up to 200 kilograms of hydrogen per day. Accessible to all types of vehicles, it will offer two levels of pressure: 350 and 700 bars. With a storage capacity of 190 kilos, it can be easily dismantled and transported.

(Quote) Philippe Callejon, Director of Mobility and New Energy of Total Marketing France,

“With this high-capacity, transportable HRS solution, Total is able to offer its customers an innovative solution of temporary rental offer turnkey and quickly deployable, to address their experimental operational needs (bus fleets, household dumpsters, heavy trucks, commercial vehicles …).” says

Hydrogen projects worth $300 billion are dropping green H2 prices fast

 

 

Key hydrogen projects that have been announced globally – Hydrogen Council

 

A new Hydrogen Council report sheds some light on Hydrogen’s rise as a green fuel source. More than 30 countries now have a national H2 strategy and budget in place, and there are 228 projects in the pipeline on both the production and usage sides.

Europe is leading the way, with 126 projects announced to date, followed by Asia with 46, Oceania with 24 and North America with 19. In terms of gigawatt-scale H2 production projects, there are 17 projects planned, with the largest in Europe, Australia, the Middle East and Chile.

Overall, projects seem fairly well balanced between hydrogen production and end-use applications, with a smaller number focusing on distribution.

European projects are balanced between production and usage initiatives, while Korea and Japan are developing much more on the usage side, for both transport and industrial applications. Australia and the Middle East are more active on the supply side, working to position themselves as hydrogen exporters.

The majority of these projects – some 75 percent, it should be noted – have been announced but do not yet have funding committed. This figure includes budgets committed by governments for spending, for which no project has yet been identified.

Only US$45 billion worth of projects are at the “mature” stage, having reached the feasibility study or engineering and design stage, and $38 billion are at the “realized” stage, with a final investment decision made, construction started, or already operational. 

Hydrogen production projections for 2030 have leapt up in the last year. The previous report estimated that 2.3 million tons will be produced annually by 2030, and this report revises that figure up to 6.7 million tons. To put that another way, two-thirds of the global hydrogen production expected to be operational in 2030 has been announced in the last year.

Government decarbonization initiatives are a huge driving force behind the hydrogen wave, with some $70 billion committed globally. Carbon pricing is helping, with some 80 percent of global GDP covered by some kind of CO2 pricing mechanism. 

Japan and Korea, as you’d expect, are leading the charge on fuel cell vehicles, and globally the report projects some 4.5 million FCVs on the road by 2030, with 10,500 hydrogen fuel stations targeted to meet that demand.

Green hydrogen production prices are dropping faster than previously expected, with optimal operations beginning to achieve price parity by 2030 even without carbon taxes on gray hydrogen  – Hydrogen Council

There’s good news too in terms of production costs, with prices for green, renewable hydrogen falling faster than expected. Partially, this is because electrolyzer supply chains are ramping up faster than expected, bringing the price of electrolyzers down 30-50 percent lower than anticipated.

Other factors include a declining cost of energy, with renewable energy costs revised down by 15 percent, and green hydrogen production companies figuring out their mix of renewable inputs more effectively to keep the hydrolyzers up and running longer.

So while “gray” hydrogen costs are expected to remain stable at around $1.59 per kg, green hydrogen is expected to drop from its current price around $4-5.50 per kilogram to hit an average of $1.50 by 2050, with green supply potentially becoming cheaper than gray hydrogen in optimal areas as soon as 2030. Low-carbon hydrogen production will start coming online around 2025, with prices sitting roughly between the two. Adding carbon taxes to the gray production could bring green hydrogen to price parity by 2030. 

Hydrogen transport is going to become a big deal, with major demand centers likely to look at imports. The cheapest way to do it for short to medium distances is through retrofitted pipelines, provided you’ve got a guaranteed demand to fill.

If demand fluctuates, trucks become more attractive. For longer distances, some routes have undersea pipelines that could be used, but much of the rest will have to be done using ships, which will add around $1-2 to the cost per kilogram.

Long-range overland pipelines also look like an interesting opportunity, with the report pointing out that hydrogen pipelines can transport 10 times more energy than a long-distance electricity transmission line at one eighth the cost. And existing pipelines can be retrofitted to handle hydrogen to vastly reduce the cost of pipeline projects.

The report makes further long-term projections for hydrogen vehicles, trucks, ships and aircraft. In aviation, the report projects hydrogen will become a cost-effective way to de-carbonize short and medium range flights (sub-10,000 km, or 6.200 mi) by around 2040, but there’ll need to be significant advances in storage to make it practical for longer range flights.

The report should not be taken as gospel, having been written by the H2 industry itself, but it makes for some interesting reading if you’re interested in the development of the clean energy economy.

Source: Hydrogen Council

“Great Things from Small Things” Top 50 Nanotech Blog – Our Top Posts This Week

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Happy Holiday (Labor Day) Weekend Everyone! Here are our Top Posts from this past week … Just in case you missed them! We hope all of you are well and safe and continuing to ‘get back to normal’ as the COVID-19 Pandemic of 2020 continues to restrain all of us in one way or another.

Thankfully however, COVID-19 has NOT restricted the Forward Advance of Innovation and Technology Solutions from the small worlds of Nanotechnology – “Great Things from Small Things” – Read and Enjoy and wonderful Holiday Weekend! – Team GNT

Carbon Nanotube Second Skin Protects First Responders and Warfighters against Chem, Bio Agents – Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

The same materials (adsorbents or barrier layers) that provide protection in current garments also detrimentally inhibit breathability.

Recent events such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the use of chemical weapons in the Syria conflict have provided a stark reminder of the plethora of chemical and biological threats that soldiers, medical personnel and first responders face during routine and emergency operations. Researchers have developed a smart, breathable fabric designed to protect the wearer against biological and chemical warfare agents. Material of this type could be used in clinical and medical settings as well.

Recent events such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the use of chemical weapons in the Syria conflict have provided a stark reminder of the plethora of chemical and biological threats that soldiers, medical personnel and first responders face during routine and emergency operations.

Read More … https://genesisnanotech.wordpress.com/2020/05/11/carbon-nanotube-second-skin-protects-first-responders-and-warfighters-against-chem-bio-agents-lawrence-livermore-national-laboratory/

MIT: Lighting the Way to Better Battery Technology

Supratim Das is determined to demystify lithium-ion batteries, by first understanding their flaws.  Photo: Lillie Paquette/School of Engineering

Doctoral candidate Supratim Das wants the world to know how to make longer-lasting batteries that charge mobile phones and electric cars.

Supratim Das’s quest for the perfect battery began in the dark. Growing up in Kolkata, India, Das saw that a ready supply of electric power was a luxury his family didn’t have. “I wanted to do something about it,” Das says. Now a fourth-year PhD candidate in MIT chemical engineering who’s months away from defending his thesis, he’s been investigating what causes the batteries that power the world’s mobile phones and electric cars to deteriorate over time.

Lithium-ion batteries, so-named for the movement of lithium ions that make them work, power most rechargeable devices today. The element lithium has properties that allow lithium-ion batteries to be both portable and powerful; the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to scientists who helped develop them in the late 1970s. But despite their widespread use, lithium-ion batteries, essentially a black box during operation, harbor mysteries that prevent scientists from unlocking their full potential. Das is determined to demystify them, by first understanding their flaws.

Read More … https://genesisnanotech.wordpress.com/2020/07/06/mit-lighting-the-way-to-better-battery-technology/

Nuclear Diamond Batteries could disrupt Energy/ Energy Storage as we know it … “Imagine a World where you wouldn’t need to charge your battery for …. Decades!”

Illustration of the NDB Battery in a Most Recognizable ‘18650’ Format

“They will blow any energy density comparison out of the water, lasting anywhere from a decade to 28,000 years without ever needing a charge.”

“They will offer higher power density than lithium-ion. They will be nigh-on indestructible and totally safe in an electric car crash.”

And in some applications, like electric cars, they stand to be considerably cheaper than current lithium-ion packs despite their huge advantages.

In the words of Dr. John Shawe-Taylor, UNESCO Chair and University College London Professor: “NDB has the potential to solve the major global issue of carbon emissions in one stroke without the expensive infrastructure projects, energy transportation costs, or negative environmental impacts associated with alternate solutions such as carbon capture at fossil fuel power stations, hydroelectric plants, turbines, or nuclear power stations.

Read More … https://genesisnanotech.wordpress.com/2020/08/25/nano-diamond-self-charging-batteries-could-disrupt-energy-as-we-know-it-imagine-a-world-where-you-wouldnt-need-to-charge-your-battery-for-decades/

“Practical and Viable” Hydrogen Production from Solar – Long Sought Goal of Renewable Energy – Is Close … Oh So Close

Technology developed at the Technion: the oxygen and hydrogen are produced and stored in completely separate cells.

Technion Israel Institute of Technology

Israeli and Italian scientists have developed a renewable energy technology that converts solar energy to hydrogen fuel — and it’s reportedly at the threshold of “practical” viability.The new solar tech would offer a sustainable way to turn water and sunlight into storable energy for fuel cells, whether that stored power feeds into the electrical grid or goes to fuel-cell powered trucks, trains, cars, ships, planes or industrial processes.Think of this research as a sort of artificial photosynthesis, said Lilac Amirav, associate professor of chemistry at the Technion — Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa. (If it could be scaled up, the technology could eventually be the basis of “solar factories” in which arrays of solar collectors split water into stores of hydrogen fuel——as well as, for reasons discussed below, one or more other industrial chemicals.)Read More … https://genesisnanotech.wordpress.com/2020/09/02/practical-and-viable-hydrogen-production-from-solar-long-sought-goal-of-renewable-energy-is-close-oh-so-close/

Watch More … The EV ‘Revolution and Evolution’ … Will the Era of the ICE be over in 2025? 2030?

Tony Seba, Silicon Valley entrepreneur, Author and Thought Leader, Lecturer at Stanford University, Keynote The reinvention and connection between infrastructure and mobility will fundamentally disrupt the clean transport model. It will change the way governments and consumers think about mobility, how power is delivered and consumed and the payment models for usage.

“Practical and Viable” Hydrogen Production from Solar – Long Sought Goal of Renewable Energy – Is Close … Oh So Close

Technion Israel Institute of Technology

Israeli and Italian scientists have developed a renewable energy technology that converts solar energy to hydrogen fuel — and it’s reportedly at the threshold of “practical” viability.

The new solar tech would offer a sustainable way to turn water and sunlight into storable energy for fuel cells, whether that stored power feeds into the electrical grid or goes to fuel-cell powered trucks, trains, cars, ships, planes or industrial processes.

Think of this research as a sort of artificial photosynthesis, said Lilac Amirav, associate professor of chemistry at the Technion — Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa. (If it could be scaled up, the technology could eventually be the basis of “solar factories” in which arrays of solar collectors split water into stores of hydrogen fuel——as well as, for reasons discussed below, one or more other industrial chemicals.)

“We [start with] a semiconductor that’s very similar to what we have in solar panels,” says Amirav. But rather than taking the photovoltaic route of using sunlight to liberate a current of electrons, the reaction they’re studying harnesses sunlight to efficiently and cost-effectively peel off hydrogen from water molecules.

The big hurdle to date has been that hydrogen and oxygen just as readily recombine once they’re split apart—that is, unless a catalyst can be introduced to the reaction that shunts water’s two component elements away from one another.

Enter the rod-shaped nanoparticles Amirav and co-researchers have developed. The wand-like rods (50-60 nanometers long and just 4.5 nm in diameter) are all tipped with platinum spheres 2–3 nm in diameter, like nano-size marbles fastened onto the ends of drinking straws.

Since 2010, when the team first began publishing papers about such specially tuned nanorods, they’ve been tweaking the design to maximize its ability to extract as much hydrogen and excess energy as possible from “solar-to-chemical energy conversion.”

Which brings us back to those “other” industrial chemicals. Because creating molecular hydrogen out of water also yields oxygen, they realized they had to figure out what to do with that byproduct.

“When you’re thinking about artificial photosynthesis, you care about hydrogen—because hydrogen’s a fuel,” says Amirav. “Oxygen is not such an interesting product. But that is the bottleneck of the process.”

There’s no getting around the fact that oxygen liberated from split water molecules carries energy away from the reaction, too. So, unless it’s harnessed, it ultimately represents just wasted solar energy—which means lost efficiency in the overall reaction.

Technology developed at the Technion: the oxygen and hydrogen are produced and stored in completely separate cells.

Prof. Avner Rothschild from the Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering

Read More About “Hydrogen on Demand Technology” from Technion

So, the researchers added another reaction to the process. Not only does their platinum-tipped nanorod catalyst use solar energy to turn water into hydrogen, it also uses the liberated oxygen to convert the organic molecule benzylamine into the industrial chemical benzaldehyde (commonly used in dyes, flavoring extracts, and perfumes).

All told, the nanorods convert 4.2 percent of the energy of incoming sunlight into chemical bonds. Considering the energy in the hydrogen fuel alone, they convert 3.6 percent of sunlight energy into stored fuel.

These might seem like minuscule figures. But 3.6 percent is still considerably better than the 1-2 percent range that previous technologies had achieved.

And according to the U.S. Department of Energy, 5-10 percent efficiency is all that’s needed to reach what the researchers call the “practical feasibility threshold” for solar hydrogen generation.

Between February and August of this year, Amirav and her colleagues published about the above innovations in the journals NanoEnergy and Chemistry Europe. They also recently presented their research at the fall virtual meeting of the American Chemical Society.

In their presentation, which hinted at future directions for their work, they teased further efficiency improvements courtesy of new new work with AI data mining experts.

“We are looking for alternative organic transformations,” says Amirav. This way, she and her collaborators hope, their solar factories can produce hydrogen fuel plus an array of other useful industrial byproducts.

In the future, their artificial photosynthesis process could yield low-emission energy, plus some beneficial chemical extracts as a “practical” and “feasible” side-effect.

Fuel cells for hydrogen vehicles are lasting longer and longer and … Promising Research from the University of Copenhagen

The new electrocatalyst for hydrogen fuel cells consists of a thin platinum-cobalt alloy network and, unlike the catalysts commonly used today, does not require a carbon carrier. Credit: Gustav Sievers

Roughly 1 billion cars and trucks zoom about the world’s roadways. Only a few run on hydrogen.

This could change after a breakthrough achieved by researchers at the University of Copenhagen.

The breakthrough? A new catalyst that can be used to produce cheaper and far more sustainable hydrogen powered vehicles.

Hydrogen vehicles are a rare sight. This is partly because they rely on a large amount of platinum to serve as a catalyst in their fuel cells—about 50 grams. Typically, vehicles only need about five grams of this rare and precious material. Indeed, only 100 tons of platinum are mined annually, in South Africa.

Now, researchers at the University of Copenhagen’s Department of Chemistry have developed a catalyst that doesn’t require such a large quantity of platinum.

“We have developed a catalyst which, in the laboratory, only needs a fraction of the amount of platinum that current hydrogen fuel cells for cars do. We are approaching the same amount of platinum as needed for a conventional vehicle.

At the same time, the new catalyst is much more stable than the catalysts deployed in today’s hydrogen powered vehicles,” explains Professor Matthias Arenz from the Department of Chemistry.

A paradigm shift for hydrogen vehicles

Sustainable technologies are often challenged by the limited availability of the rare materials that make them possible, which in turn, limits scalability.

Due to this current limitation, it is impossible to simply replace the world’s vehicles with hydrogen models overnight. As such, the new technology a game-changer.

“The new catalyst can make it possible to roll out hydrogen vehicles on a vastly greater scale than could have ever been achieved in the past,” states Professor Jan Rossmeisl, center leader of the Center for High Entropy Alloy Catalysis at UCPH’s Department of Chemistry.

The new catalyst improves fuel cells significantly, by making it possible to produce more horsepower per gram of platinum. This in turn, makes the production of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles more sustainable.

More durable, less platinum

Because only the surface of a catalyst is active, as many platinum atoms as possible are needed to coat it. A catalyst must also be durable. Herein lies the conflict.

To gain as much surface area as possible, today’s catalysts are based on platinum-nano-particles which are coated over carbon. Unfortunately, carbon makes catalysts unstable. The new catalyst is distinguished by being carbon-free.

Instead of nano-particles, the researchers have developed a network of nanowires characterized an abundance of surface area and high durability.

“With this breakthrough, the notion of hydrogen vehicles becoming commonplace has become more realistic. It allows them to become cheaper, more sustainable and more durable,” says Jan Rossmeisl.

Dialogue with the automotive industry

The next step for the researchers is to scale up their results so that the technology can be implemented in hydrogen vehicles.

“We are in talks with the automotive industry about how this breakthrough can be rolled out in practice. So, things look quite promising,” says Professor Matthias Arenz.

The research results have just been published in Nature Materials, one of the leading scientific journals for materials research. It is the first article in which every researcher at the basic research center, “Center for High Entropy Alloy Catalysis (CHEAC)”, has collaborated.

The center is a so-called Center of Excellence, supported by the Danish National Research Foundation.

“At the center, we develop new catalystmaterials to create sustainable chemicals and fuels that help society make the chemical industry greener. That it is now possible to scale up the production of hydrogen vehicles, and in a sustainable way, is a major step forward,” says center leader Jan Rossmeisl.