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jpak

(41,742 posts)
Sat Mar 15, 2014, 02:25 PM Mar 2014

Excess Wind Power Turned Into Gas in Denmark Using Hydrogenics Technology

http://www.nasdaq.com/press-release/excess-wind-power-turned-into-gas-in-denmark-using-hydrogenics-technology-20140218-00145

MISSISSAUGA, Ontario, Feb. 18, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hydrogenics Corporation(Nasdaq:HYGS) (TSX:HYG), a leading developer and manufacturer of hydrogen generation and hydrogen-based power modules, today announced that it will be a participating partner of the Power-to-Gas Biological Catalysis ("BioCat&quot Project in Denmark. The "BioCat" installation will use hydrogen made ​​from excess wind power to convert biogas from sewage sludge into cleaner methane gas. This new Danish energy project will illustrate how future energy systems can be better integrated.

The "BioCat" project has received 27.6 million DKK (€3.7 million) in funding from the Danish research pool ForskEL. The consortium is led by Electrochaea, a developer of methanation technologies for Power-to-Gas applications, and the Danish transmission system operator for power and gas, Energinet. Other partners in the BioCat consortium include Hydrogenics, Audi, NEAS Energy, HMN Gashandal, Spildevandscenter Avedore, and Insero Business Services.

For this project, Hydrogenics will install a 1 MW water electrolysis plant in Spildevandscenter Avedøre, one of the largest wastewater treatment facilities in Denmark. The site will use surplus electricity from the grid to produce hydrogen using Hydrogenics' electrolyzer, and the hydrogen will then be combined with carbon dioxide from raw biogas and fed into a separate bioreactor - in which microorganisms will perform a catalytic reaction to produce pipeline-grade renewable methane. The facility will be operated in different modes to demonstrate its ability to produce methane under dynamic operations, including while providing ancillary services to the electricity grid. The product gas will be injected into a nearby gas distribution system, and the by-products - oxygen and heat - will be recycled onsite in the wastewater treatment process. The biomethanation technology was developed by Electrochaea.

The 1 MW electrolyzer from Hydrogenics will contribute to electricity balancing through the services of NEAS Energy, thus ensuring optimal use of available wind power and demonstrating the full potential of electrolysis for grid management and regulation. The upgraded methane will be supplied to the local gas distribution system and traded by HMN Gashandel, a Danish energy service and gas distribution company managing gas grids, biogas upgrading plants, and grid injection facilities.

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Excess Wind Power Turned Into Gas in Denmark Using Hydrogenics Technology (Original Post) jpak Mar 2014 OP
Fantastic ... next generation of renewable energy MindMover Mar 2014 #1
This is really a storage technology, not a new energy source. Jim Lane Mar 2014 #2
 

Jim Lane

(11,175 posts)
2. This is really a storage technology, not a new energy source.
Sat Mar 15, 2014, 07:04 PM
Mar 2014

One big advantage of fossil fuels over wind and solar is that a fossil-fuel power plant can generate power whenever it's needed. Wind and solar generate power when the wind is blowing or the sun is shining, but not otherwise. Critical to giving renewables a larger role in our energy supply is being able to store the energy when it's produced and then deliver it when it's needed.

This technology starts off with "excess wind power" to generate hydrogen. Presumably, when the wind is blowing on a nice day when people don't need much heating, cooling, or artificial lighting, the plant would run the unneeded electricity through water to separate it into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen can be combined with carbon from atmospheric carbon dioxide to form methane, which can be burned to generate energy. The burning would release carbon dioxide, completing the carbon cycle. (Although an early step uses carbon dioxide, this is not a sequestration method, because the same amount of carbon dioxide re-emerges at the end.)

Most storage methods like this lose some of the energy en route. I wish the linked article had given an estimate of how efficient this would be (i.e., how much of the energy that you put in do you get back out).

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