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Archived material from historical editions of The Generator

  • Industry pledges $1b for ‘clean coal’

    Clean coal ... Greens say Australia should be investing in renewable energy sources.

    Clean coal … Greens say Australia should be investing in renewable energy sources. (Reuters)

    Australian coal companies have pledged hundreds of millions of dollars in further funding over the next decade into research for combating climate change.

    Australian Coal Association executive director Mark O’Neill says the $300 million COAL21 fund announced last year would now be expanded to $1 billion.

    Queensland Premier Peter Beattie yesterday criticised the coal industry for not committing $300 million to the ZeroGen clean coal project at Stanwell, and threatened to increase the coal royalty.

    But the industry now says it will commit that amount to a clean coal project in Queensland.

    The Queensland Resources Council says the $1 billion commitment to clean coal development has raised the bar for other industries to follow.

    Head of the Resources Council, Michael Roche, says the coal industry does recognise their product generates greenhouse gas emissions.

    "This is the coal producers demonstrating their commitment to being part of the solutions for climate change," he said.

    "What better way then… to extend their existing fund to something which over 10 years is going to raise $1 billion to be pumped into clean coal technology development?"

    But Greens Senator Kerry Nettle says Australia should be investing in renewable energy sources.

    "Clean coal technology is a dangerous pipedream, we should be putting money into renewable energy that we know works and that can work right now," she said.

    "Rather than putting money away for a technology that we don’t know that it works and it won’t be able to, if it does work, help until many decades away."

  • Recycle water for Industry – Boffin

    But despite his warning, Professor Collignon says he supports the use of recycled water for industry or to water lawns.

    "Singapore is put up as an example of people who use recycled water and drink [it], but that’s actually not true," he told the ABC’s AM program.

    "They have two different systems for their water where the water that’s recycled from sewage is almost entirely used in industry."

    He says recycled water should be used first for industry or to water lawns and only used to top up drinking supplies when no other water saving measures are available.

    Professor Collignon was speaking before a Senate inquiry into south-east Queensland’s water crisis.

    The use of recycled water is being considered by several states as dam levels reach critical lows.

    Last year a referendum in the south-east Queensland town of Toowoomba rejected a plan to use recycled water in the town’s drinking-water supply.

    © 2007 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
    Copyright information: http://abc.net.au/common/copyrigh.htm

  • Manure…A True Story

    Manure: In the 16th and 17th centuries, everything had to be transported by ship and it was also before commercial fertilizer’s invention, so large shipments of manure were common.

     
    It was shipped dry, because in dry form it weighed a lot less than when wet, but once water (at sea) hit it, it not only became heavier, but the process of fermentation began again, of which a by product is methane gas. As the stuff was stored below decks in bundles you can see what could (and did) happen.
     
    Methane began to build up below decks and the first time someone came below at night with a lantern, BOOOOM! Several ships were destroyed in this manner before it was determined just what was happening After that, the bundles of manure were always stamped with the term "Ship High In Transit" on them, which meant for the sailors to stow it high enough off the lower decks so that any water that came into the hold would not touch this volatile cargo and start the production of methane.
     
    Thus evolved the term "S.H.I.T " , (Ship High In Transport) which has come down through the centuries and is in use to this very day.
     
    You probably did not know the true history of this word. Neither did I.I had always thought it was a golf term!

  • Brown Coal Diesel plans for Victoria

    $5bn project cost: The product could be blended with conventional diesel to help it meet emissions standards, or could be used as a direct diesel in niche locations such as cities or particularly sensitive environments. Early estimates – now being reviewed – put the cost of the project at $5 billion and some heavyweight companies are involved. Energy giants Anglo American – which acquired Monash Energy (previously known as Australian Power and Energy Ltd) in 2003-04 – and Shell are providing the investment funds. Anglo Coal, a division of Anglo American, would conduct the mining of the coal feedstock.

    ‘Safe’ storage in CO2 dump: A mining licence has already been granted by the Victorian Government, which has flagged strong in-principle support for the project. A crucial aspect of the project, from an environmental aspect, is the capture of carbon dioxide from the liquids production process. With gasification in the presence of oxygen rather than air, the separation of excess carbon dioxide can proceed using proven technologies. The question then arises of how the carbon dioxide can then be safely stored, and the project is looking at the process of geosequestration. "An advantage we have is proximity to the very promising geological formations of the Gippsland Basin in Bass Strait, which have stored oil and natural gas for millions of years," Hargreaves said. "Initial studies into the potential of the region for large-scale transport, injection and storage of carbon dioxide have been positive."

    Further research needed: "With the help of a grant from the Commonwealth Government, the Cooperative Centre for Greenhouse Gas Technology conducted a study into geosequestration in the Gippsland Basin, and concluded that it could provide safe and secure long-term storage." he said. "Of course, further research is necessary and a thorough technical and environmental risk assessment would be necessary before injection could proceed in a given location, particularly since there are incumbent oil and gas producers in the area. The Federal Government is building a regulatory regime to ensure this assessment process is workable and sound."

    The Australian, 28/4/2007, p. 4

  • Vanadium Flow Batteries

    Skyllas-Kazacos’s solution to this problem was to use the same chemical element for both electrolytes. She could still provide the required difference in redox potential by ensuring that the element was in different "oxidation states" in the two solutions – in other words its atoms carried different electrical charges. The element she eventually decided on was the metal vanadium, which can exist in four different charge states – from V(ii), in which each vanadium atom has two positive charges, to V(v), with five. Dissolving vanadium pentoxide in dilute sulphuric acid creates a sulphate solution containing almost equal numbers of V(iii) and V(iv) ions.

    When Skyllas-Kazacos added the solution to the two chambers of her flow battery and connected an outside power supply to the electrodes, she found that the vanadium at the positive electrode changed into the V(v) form while at the negative electrode it all converted to the V(ii) form. With the external battery disconnected, electrons flowed spontaneously from the V(ii) ions to the V(v) ions and the flow battery generated a current (see Graphic). Best of all, it didn’t matter too much if a few vanadium ions on one side of the membrane leaked across to the other: this slightly discharged the battery, but after a recharge the electrolyte on each side was as good as new.

    After more than a decade of development, Skyllas-Kazacos’s technology was licensed to a Melbourne-based company called Pinnacle VRB, which installed the vanadium flow battery on King Island. With 70,000 litres of vanadium sulphate solution stored in large metal tanks, the battery can deliver 400 kilowatts for 2 hours at a stretch. It has increased the average proportion of wind-derived electricity in the island’s grid from about 12 per cent to more than 40 per cent.

  • Plastic Solar Cell Efficiency Hits 6% in U.S.

    Because they are inexpensive and light weight, especially in comparison to traditional silicon solar panels, researchers have worked for years to create flexible, or "conformal," organic solar cells that can be wrapped around surfaces, rolled up or even painted onto structures.

    In theory, plastic solar cells could be used as a replacement for roof tiling or home siding products or incorporated into traditional building facades. These energy harvesting devices could also be placed on automobiles since plastic solar cells are much lighter than the silicon solar panels structures do not have to be reinforced to support additional weight.

    In a paper published in the journal Applied Physics Letters, the Wake Forest researchers describe how they have achieved record efficiency for organic or flexible, plastic solar cells by creating "nano-filaments" within light absorbing plastic, similar to the veins in tree leaves. This allows for the use of thicker absorbing layers in the devices, which capture more of the sun’s light.

    In order to be considered a viable technology for commercial use however, solar cells must be able to convert about 8 percent of the energy in sunlight to electricity. Wake Forest researchers hope to reach 10 percent in the next year, said Carroll, who is also associate professor of physics at Wake Forest.

    A large part of Carroll’s research is funded by the United States Air Force, which is interested in the potential uses of more efficient, light-weight solar cells for satellites and spacecraft.

    Other members of Carroll’s research team include Jiwen Liu and Manoj Namboothiry, postdoctoral associates at Wake Forest’s nanotechnology center, and Kyungkon Kim, a postdoctoral researcher at the center, who has moved to the Materials Science & Technology Division at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology in Seoul.


    Source: Renewable Energy Access