Pathway 2045 (5)
Listed here are hyperlinks to Half 1 , Half 2, Half three, and Half four~ctm
That is the fifth of 6 elements of a dialogue of SoCalEd’s plan to decarbonize California by 2045. This fourth ‘constructing block’ in SoCalEd’s Roadmap 2045 is a transfer to low carbon fuels.
The main points under this graphic clarify it higher:
–50% discount in pure gasoline consumption
–40% of relaxation is biomethane or hydrogen
–20% of heavy vehicles are powered by hydrogen
Lets deal with these three ‘low carbon gas’ factors in reverse order.
Heavy supply hydrogen powered vehicles
20% of heavy vehicles powered by hydrogen is technical nonsense opposite to SoCalEd’s personal level two. See my essay Hydrogen Hype in book Blowing Smoke for particulars of hydrogen’s many issues.
In sum, hydrogen could be very troublesome to retailer, and is barely an power middleman (as a result of it’s constructed from water or methane, as any free hydrogen escaped the environment billions of years in the past).
Most business hydrogen is produced by steam reformation of methane. On web power grounds we’re higher off from a CO2 perspective ‘burning’ pure gasoline somewhat than changing it to hydrogen.
Hydrogen from water electrolysis has a theoretical effectivity of 88%, however sensible effectivity is about 75%. 4 % of business hydrogen is produced by electrolysis at this time. Utilizing electrical energy from renewables to supply hydrogen after which utilizing the hydrogen in gas cells at about 60% effectivity is theoretically doable for electrified heavy vehicles, however the web helpful power is barely (zero.75*zero.6) 45% of the beginning renewable electrical energy.
The BIG (pun meant) downside with hydrogen powered heavy vehicles is its gas cell. The massive bodily issue is measurement and weight, by no means thoughts value. A typical class eight OTR ’18 wheeler’ truck tractor is about 600Hp (wanted to recover from the Rockies and Appalachians), or about 450 Kw. A Ballard 100Kw PEM gas cell for metropolis buses (SOFC can’t be thermally cycled on/off due to warmth stress cracking) has the tough dimensions 1.2m x zero.9m x zero.5m and weighs 285Kg. Its cooling system is zero.7m x zero.5m x zero.4m and weighs 44Kg. Ballard’s 60Kw PEM is 1.1m x zero.9m x zero.5m. A category eight tractor would want 4 100Kw plus one 60Kw PEMs. Ignoring cooling, that could be a minimal gas cell house requirement of 5.9m x four.5m x 2.5m! Is all cell, no truck—doesn’t match. And the factor would additionally weigh a minimum of 1.four metric tons
Lest this appear a bit unfair to SoCalEd’s imaginative and prescient, maybe they meant the everyday built-in class 7 ‘field van’ supply truck, normally a cab over diesel design at about 250Hp, or about 185Kw. Two of the Ballard 100kw PEMs would suffice. Minimal house required (once more ignoring cooling) is ‘solely’ 2.4m x 1.8m x 1m. Nonetheless doesn’t match.
In sum hydrogen powered vehicles are apparently not doable.
40% of pure gasoline is changed by biomethane or hydrogen
This second half has two separate claims.
The hydrogen declare was already refuted above. Changing pure gasoline with hydrogen from steam reformation makes the CO2 ‘downside’ worse. Changing pure gasoline with renewable electrolysis hydrogen wastes 25% of the electrical energy; we’re higher off with out conversion.
That leaves biomethane.
Methanogen micro organism ingest hydrocarbons and excrete methane. True in ruminant stomachs and in landfills. So the essential SoCalEd query turns into methods to usefully seize significant portions of biomethane? Clearly not from cow farts.
There are lots of of landfill methane extraction services that use the methane from rubbish decomposition to supply electrical energy utilizing spark ignited diesel engines. There’s a massive one close to my Chicagoland townhome, situated alongside Willow Highway west of the Lake. Google Earth will take you there. The highest of the large outdated landfill is now Willow Hill Golf Course. Methane assortment wells dot the sloped sides; two Caterpillar spark ignited diesel turbines are housed within the construction on the entrance off Willow Highway.
However biomethane from rubbish and sewage decomposition is restricted in amount each by supply materials and by manufacturing time views, as digestion is a reasonably gradual course of. It’s doable to vary the availability magnitude downside. SoCalGas is the biggest pure gasoline utility in California. It has 20.9 million clients. Seventy % on 40% biomethane is ‘solely’ 5.85 million clients equipped with biomethane. Nope.
50% discount in constructing pure gasoline consumption
Utility pure gasoline is usually for CCGT. SoCalEd likes plenty of renewables, however will want pure gasoline for backup technology. With sufficient renewables and backup this aspiration may be doable.
Residential pure gasoline is usually for heating and sizzling water. These features might be electrified, however at nice value to the constructing house owners and no value to SoCalEd, similar downside as with electrified automobiles (see earlier elements three and four). The grid would have an excellent bigger ‘decarbonized electrical energy’ set of just about insurmountable renewables issues.
So though the low carbon fuels determine is massive, fairly and inexperienced, it’s comprised of newly discovered components from SoCal’s periodic desk: impossibilium and hopium.
Like this:
Loading…