China's Green Methanol Industry is racing ahead 🇨🇳🌱⚗️🏎️
Many expect that Green Methanol is the future clean shipping fuel🚢⛽, as well as a promising feedstock for sustainable aviation fuels✈️ & fossil-free plastics🧴
In 2023, something happened in China🇨🇳 industrydecarbonization.com/news/why-chi...
🔌💡 🧵
I'm covering in-depth stories like this about industrial decarbonization in a newsletter. You can subscribe via e-mail here:
industrydecarbonization.com/subscribe.html
Noteworthy about Denmark's CCS tender is that companies that don't deliver could face significant fines💵. That scared away most of the power plants🔥🏭 that had submitted bits.
Denmark also ran a tender specifically for negative emission technologies, and it was won entirely by Biomethane🌱 projects.
How 8/10 projects in Denmark's CCS latest tender dropped out 🇩🇰
Denmark has started handing out significant subsidies to CCS projects.
In its latest tender, 10 projects were pre-selected: the only cement plant🪨🏭 + 9 projects at bioenergy🪵🔥 and waste-to-energy🗑️🔥 plants. In the end, only 2 remained🔌💡
🧵
In the coming years, we will likey see a cement plant🪨🏭, Biomethane🌱 upgraders, two bioenergy plants, and a waste-to-energy plant with CCS in Denmark. I sympathize with the first two. I'm skeptical about bioenergy plants and waste incinerators with CCS.
More in my latest newsletter.
In the last round, 9 of 10 preselected applicants dropped out, all of them bioenergy🪵🔥 or waste-to-energy🗑️🔥 plants. Did I say 9? Well, 9 announced they were dropping out, but one mystery🔮 bidder decided to un-drop out. The tender ended with two bids.
What happens if you offer generous subsidies💰 for Carbon Capture and Storage💨 - but you demand that projects deliver on time⏰?
In recent years, Denmark🇩🇰 has started a rollout of CCS technology. 🔌💡 🧵
industrydecarbonization.com/news/denmark...
Some of the cleanest Caprolactam factories are shutting down 🧪🏭🚧
The production of a chemical used to make Nylon+plastics, results in significant N₂O emissions, a potent greenhouse gas🌿🏠🔥, but emissions can easily be avoided. 🔌💡
industrydecarbonization.com/news/some-of...
Obviously, that does not look plausible, and is likely a data reporting error. Yet, despite having informed responsible authorities months ago, the EU emission database has not been corrected.
It is not the only strange issue in EU emission databases: industrydecarbonization.com/news/errors-...
Elkem Ferrosilicon Plant Iceland
The plant you can see in this picture had CO2 emissions of around 300-400 thousand tons annually up until 2014. But, according to an EU emission database, it had no emissions for the three following years and only around 1/1000th of the emissions in later years. 🔌💡
/thread 🧵
More in my latest newsletter. And if you prefer a video, I presented this at the #39C3 - a recording is available: media.ccc.de/v/39c3-green...
In all likelihood, the data📊 was entered in the wrong unit🤷♂️
Less clear is why an ArcelorMittal steel🔩 plant & a Yara fertilizer🌾 plant in France🇫🇷 have diverging emissions for some years in the ETS and the EU's Industrial Emissions Portal. (Brought to my attention by @leonardstimpfle.bsky.social)
It's so much that it is hard to believe this really happened. And that is not the only odd thing I found in emission databases. Another factory in Iceland, Elkem's ferrosilicon plant, did not report CO₂ emissions for multiple years, and afterwards, they fell by a factor of 1,000 twice.
Was there a massive leak of a dangerous greenhouse gas in Iceland🇮🇸 in 2011-or was it a data📈 reporting error?
Emission databases show that the Norðurál aluminium factory🏭 released 60 tons of SF₆ in 2011 — but no such emissions in any other year. 🔌💡 industrydecarbonization.com/news/errors-...
🧵
SF6, a Greenhouse Gas 25,000 times as bad as CO2 💨🟡🌍🔥
It's been known that reported📊 SF6 emissions & measurements☁️ don't match. Now, scientists have been able to identify a significant SF6 source in Southern Germany - a chemical plant🧪🏭 operated by Solvay
industrydecarbonization.com/news/super-e...
A Solvay factory in Bad Wimpfen emits far more than reported. Solvay and local authorities are now in legal disputes over orders to reduce & measure emissions. It's probably safe to say that this is truly impactful climate research by Katharina Meixner, Andreas Engel, and their many collaborators.
It also has an extreme impact on the climate, with a 100-year global warming potential of ~24.000. Studies have warned that atmospheric measurements and reported SF6 emissions don't add up. And now, it looks like the research was able to find a major source of these discrepancies.
It's the worst known greenhouse gas, and a factory in Southern Germany emits a lot of it 🌍🏡💨🏭
Sulfur Hexafluoride or SF6 is a gas that has been used in Nike shoes (until 2006), Magnesium production, soundproof windows, and electric switchgear. 🔌💡 /thread 🧵
industrydecarbonization.com/news/super-e...
The UNFCCC makes it needlessly difficult to download emission data📊📈
I am now providing a service that allows downloading bundles of tables that the UNFCCC — for whatever reason — does not want you to access easily. 🔌💡
industrydecarbonization.com/news/why-is-...
Will Enerkem's Waste Gasification tech work in Spain after it failed to deliver in Canada? ♨️🗑️ Repsol wants to build a Waste-to-Methanol plant in Tarragona🇪🇸. The tech was used in Edmonton🇨🇦 for ~10y, but never came close to its expected production volumes. industrydecarbonization.com/news/is-ener...
Given Enerkem's poor performance in Edmonton, it is worth asking: why does Repsol think that the tech will work better in Spain? Is it worth additional money💶 from the EU🇪🇺 and indirectly Spanish🇪🇸 taxpayers? Unfortunately, neither Enerkem nor Repsol wanted to talk to me. More in my latest newsletter
While Enerkem's projects in CA failed, one in Spain moves ahead. Ecoplanta at Repsol's Tarragona complex🧪🏭 is probably Enerkem's last chance to succeed. Ecoplanta only came to pass after plans for the extension of an energy tax🏛️ in Spain were dropped after the party Junts declined to support it
Is Enerkem's Waste Gasification technology a Failure or a promising Climate Solution?
Gasification of waste🗑️ and biomass🪵 could be an enormously helpful tool to make circular+renewable chemicals. Yet, the list of failed gasification projects is long.🔌💡 🧵
industrydecarbonization.com/news/is-ener...
Most existing CO2 storage is something called Enhanced Oil Recovery. Existing CCS usually uses easye CO2 sources, and gas-fired power plants are the opposite of that. A key determinant for the costs of CCS is the concentration of a CO2 source. Check my video:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=aO72...
Sometimes, I feel we're talking about different worlds of CCS. One is the world of ideas that people may have about what CCS might look like. The other is how actual CCS projects look in the real world.
CCS does not look like you may think💨🏭
Carbon Capture and Storage is certainly one of the more controversial technologies to mitigate climate change.
When I observe discussions about it, I am often frustrated.
🔌💡 🧵
Looking for new ways to make clean Hydrogen?🌱💧
Peregrine Hydrogen says they have a way that requires 1/2 the electricity by integrating it with another process. By doing so, they make a 2nd product & there is an industry that needs both: Phosphate mines⛏️⚒️🪨
industrydecarbonization.com/news/this-hy...
If you want to know why companies whose names you may have never heard - like Bigadan or BioCirc - may soon be more important players in the carbon removal space than well-known names like Climeworks, check my latest newsletter.
A smarter way of doing BECCS could be to tap into existing processes that create CO2 as a by-product - like Biomethane upgrading. Biogas from anaerobic digestion is a mixture of Methane and CO2. If those gases are separated, which is often already done, CO2 is available in high concentrations.💨
An alternative way of removing carbon from the atmosphere is BECCS - Bio Energy with Carbon Capture and Storage. However, "naive" BECCS, i.e., having a biomass power plant 🪵🔥 with a carbon capture unit, isn't exactly cheap.