It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Thursday, February 16, 2023
Spanish Port Denies Maersk Tanker Entry Over Russian Oil Links
A ship operated by giant shipping company Maersk Tankers has been denied entry into a Spanish port after its oil cargoes were found to have previously been carried by a vessel that was formerly Russian flagged. According to Spanish officials, Spain’s northeastern Tarragona port refused entry to the Maersk Magellan tanker after the ship picked up an oil cargo that had originated from the Cameroon-registered Nobel tanker.
Trade in oil products linked to Russia has become complicated ever since G7 nations imposed a price cap on Russian oil in December and issued separate EU measures that prohibit the import of Russian oil products into the bloc.
The Magellan is unlikely to be the last oil-carrying ship caught up in the Russian oil snafu.
The European Union is considering sanctions on Dubai-based SUN Ship Management Ltd on suspicions that it has been helping Russia bypass oil exports sanctions, unnamed European diplomats told Politico’s Brussels Playbook on Tuesday. According to those sources, SUN has acquired a fleet of oil tankers from Russian state-owned Sovcomflot that had been sanctioned and continues to operate them. The fleet is said to comprise over 90 tankers.
Oil shipping also hit another snap in December, when Turkey–a key beneficiary of Russia’s crude exports shipping–caught the markets off-guard by announcing that it would start demanding proof of insurance for oil tankers passing through the Bosphorus shipping strait.
Ostensibly in order to comply with EU sanctions, the Turkish Ministry of Transport now requires ships hauling oil through the waterway and the nearby Dardanelles strait to provide a letter from their insurer saying that cover will be provided for that specific vessel voyage and cargo. According to the Ministry, ships sailing through the straits uninsured could result in significant damage to the waterway and vessel traffic in the event an uninsured ship has an accident. The move is likely to negatively impact Russian tankers if they struggle to obtain the necessary protection and indemnity insurance.
By Alex Kimani for Oilprice.com
Crypto Miners Blamed For Kazakhstan’s Power Problems
Seven regions across Kazakhstan were knocked off the country’s aging power grid due to the failure of a high-voltage insulator on a power line.
The incident is the latest to underline a chronic problem with the country’s Soviet-era infrastructure.
Authorities have placed significant responsibility for the crisis on cryptocurrency miners, many of which have tapped the grid illegally.
Households and enterprises in seven regions across Kazakhstan were temporarily knocked off the power grid as temperatures dropped to around -14 degrees Celsius over the weekend in fresh evidence of how the country is struggling to cope with inexorably mounting demand for electricity.
State-run power grid operator KEGOC said in a statement on February 13 that the need to effect an emergency suspension of transmissions on a high-voltage power line led to a 10 percent reduction in capacity.
Power officials said their quick work prevented a more serious outcome.
Shutdown of the power line “avoided the complete cut-off of users in southern and central regions of Kazakhstan,” KEGOC said in their statement.
Phosphorous miner and processor Kazphosphate and metals companies Arcelormittal and Kazakhmys were among the companies left without power.
Electricity supplies had been restored to the affected areas by February 13.
The Energy Ministry said the outage that triggered this breakdown was caused by the failure of a high-voltage insulator on a power line. Following an earlier breakdown in the western city of Atyrau earlier this month, officials cited a snowstorm as the cause.
The frequent recurrence of power outages is serving to underline a chronic problem. Demand is growing, Soviet-vintage infrastructure is showing its age, and refurbishments are not happening fast enough.
The issue has implications for the whole region. A blackout that plunged Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan into darkness, for anywhere up to several days in some areas, was blamed by the Uzbeks on a failure in the Kazakh power grid.
Since then, Kazakhstan appears to have experienced power shortages on a systemic basis.
First Deputy Prime Minister Roman Sklyar said at a meeting of the Energy Ministry in early February that they have been compelled to paper over deficits by buying electricity from Russia, and at high prices. He chided the Energy Ministry for its passivity in solving the problem.
“This situation needs to be radically changed in the near future. The Ministry and the [National Welfare Fund] Samruk-Kazyna must by February 15 address the issue of reducing the time spent commissioning new generating capacities,” Sklyar said.
The authorities have placed significant responsibility for the crisis on cryptocurrency miners. When Beijing imposed a mining ban in 2021, many farms moved from China to Kazakhstan, which at the time boasted favorable regulatory conditions and cheap electricity. By the fall of that year, Kazakhstan unexpectedly became the second largest cryptocurrency miner in the world, going from a position wherein it accounted for 1.4 percent of the global industry in September 2019 to over 18 percent in August 2021.
That fall, Kazakhstan experienced an 8 percent surge in electricity consumption, leading to severe power shortages and blackouts across the country. Soon, miners began to leave the country as well amid pressure from the government in the form of energy cuts and steep tax increases.
Sapar Akhmetov, head of the Kazakhstan Association of Blockchain Technologies, a lobbying organization, said at the Kazakhstan Blockchain Day 2023 forum in early February, that since the end of 2021, 70 percent of miners, mostly the illegal ones, had left Kazakhstan. As a result, Kazakhstan’s share in global mining has fallen from 18 percent to 6 percent, he said.
By Eurasianet.org
UK Financial Regulator Sued Over Oil Firm’s Climate Disclosures
An environmental law charity is suing the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), alleging that the financial regulator accepted last year the listing prospectus of North Sea oil and gas operator Ithaca Energy despite the document failing to fully disclose climate change risks.
ClientEarth, which sued Shell’s directors last week, is now targeting the UK’s financial watchdog with a lawsuit in the UK High Court, the Financial Times reported on Thursday.
The environmental law charity claims that the FCA failed in its duty to protect investors by signing off on the listing documents, which, ClientEarth says, were too general in the climate risk disclosures department.
Ithaca Energy applied to and was listed on the London Stock Exchange at the end of last year. Ithaca Energy holds stakes in 28 producing oil and gas fields on the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) and has stakes in six of the ten largest producing fields offshore the UK. Ithaca Energy also holds a 70% operated interest in the Cambo oil field.
Environmentalists want the UK to stop the development of the Cambo field, as well as the development of Rosebank, where Ithaca Energy has 20% in the Equinor-operated field.
“In the case of Ithaca’s listing, we believe the regulator has failed when it comes to this fundamental function by ultimately waving through Ithaca’s prospectus even though legal requirements have not been met,” Robert Clarke, ClientEarth accountable finance lawyer, told FT.
ClientEarth grabbed headlines last week after filing a world-first lawsuit against the Board of Directors of Shell plc for “failing to manage the material and foreseeable risks posed to the company by climate change.”
“The lawsuit alleges Shell’s 11 directors have breached their legal duties under the Companies Act by failing to adopt and implement an energy transition strategy that aligns with the Paris Agreement,” ClientEarth said.
The High Court has yet to accept both lawsuits by ClientEarth and potentially decide whether to allow the cases to go ahead.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
Scientists Use Nano Carbons To Convert Methane Into Hydrogen
Scientists at the University of Surrey discovered metal-free catalysts that could contribute to cost-effective and sustainable hydrogen production technologies.
The study has shown promising results for the use of edge-decorated nano carbons as metal-free catalysts for the direct conversion of methane into hydrogen.
When it comes to storing hydrogen methane is a good choice, nature had that figured out hundreds of millions of years ago.
The study has shown promising results for the use of edge-decorated nano carbons as metal-free catalysts for the direct conversion of methane, which is also a powerful greenhouse gas, into hydrogen. Among the nano carbons investigated, nitrogen-doped nano carbons presented the highest level of performance for hydrogen production at high temperatures.
Crucially, the researchers also found that the nitrogen-doped and phosphorus-doped nano carbons had strong resistance to carbon poisoning, which is a common issue with catalysts in this process.
Dr Neubi Xavier Jr, the research fellow who performed the material science simulations, said, “Our results suggest that using edge-decorated nano carbons as catalysts could be a game-changer for the hydrogen industry, offering a cost-effective and sustainable alternative to traditional metal catalysts. At the same time, this process gets rid of methane, which is a fossil fuel involved in global warming.”
Hydrogen fuel is a clean and renewable energy source that has the potential to reduce carbon emissions and decrease our dependence on fossil fuels. When used as a fuel, hydrogen can power vehicles, generate electricity, and heat buildings. The only by-product of hydrogen fuel is water vapor, making it an environmentally friendly alternative to traditional fossil fuels.
However, the production of hydrogen fuel is currently reliant on fossil fuels, which creates carbon emissions in the process, and metal catalysts, which mining and manufacturing are energy intensive and can negatively affect the environment. Therefore, the development of sustainable hydrogen production methods and catalytic materials is crucial to realizing the full potential of hydrogen fuel as a clean energy source.
The research was conducted by a team led by Dr Marco Sacchi from the University of Surrey, an expert in the field of sustainable energy and computational chemistry, who combined quantum chemistry, thermodynamics and chemical kinetics to determine the most efficient edge decoration for hydrogen production.
Dr Sacchi said, “One of the biggest challenges with catalysts for hydrogen production is that they can get poisoned by carbon. But our study found that nitrogen and phosphorus-doped nano carbons are pretty resistant to this problem. This is a huge step forward for sustainable hydrogen production.”
***
While it is a bad thing to be venting methane out into the atmosphere, methane is a great store of energy and produces more heat and light energy by mass than other hydrocarbons. That could be because methane is one carbon atom and four hydrogen atoms.
When it comes to storing hydrogen methane is a good choice. Nature had that figured out hundreds of millions of years ago.
What’s not said in the press release is where those carbon atoms end up. There seem to be choices in the study paper. For now lets say the CH2CH2 ethylene double bound molecules as a chemical (there is quite a large worldwide market for ethylene) would need remade into something(s) civilization or nature can use to their benefit. For now, answers like carbon monoxide for industrial processes or carbon dioxide for plant sustainability won’t go with the hysterical anti carbon crowd. The next step looks critical for the process to find true usefulness. The next step could prove to be a driver of the process.
On the other hand, this information could be an alternative to the current tech of extracting the hydrogen from methane. That tech is still the low cost leader for making hydrogen fuel. It will be interesting to see how this progresses over the coming years.
Scientists Successfully Split Seawater To Produce Green Hydrogen
A team of scientists have successfully split natural seawater without pre-treatment to produce green hydrogen.
The team will work on scaling up the system by using a larger electrolyzer so that it can be used in commercial processes such as hydrogen generation for fuel cells and ammonia synthesis.
Seawater is an almost infinite resource and is considered a natural feedstock electrolyte.
University of Adelaide’s Professor Shizhang Qiao and Associate Professor Yao Zheng from the School of Chemical Engineering led an international team that successfully split seawater without pre-treatment to produce green hydrogen.
Professor Qiao said, “We have split natural seawater into oxygen and hydrogen with nearly 100 per cent efficiency, to produce green hydrogen by electrolysis, using a non-precious and cheap catalyst in a commercial electrolyser.”
A typical non-precious catalyst is cobalt oxide with chromium oxide on its surface.
Associate Professor Zheng explained, “We used seawater as a feedstock without the need for any pre-treatment processes like reverse osmosis desolation, purification, or alkalization. The performance of a commercial electrolyser with our catalysts running in seawater is close to the performance of platinum/iridium catalysts running in a feedstock of highly purified deionized water.
Professor Zheng added, “Current electrolysers are operated with highly purified water electrolyte. Increased demand for hydrogen to partially or totally replace energy generated by fossil fuels will significantly increase scarcity of increasingly limited freshwater resources.”
Seawater is an almost infinite resource and is considered a natural feedstock electrolyte. This is more practical for regions with long coastlines and abundant sunlight. However, it isn’t practical for regions where seawater is scarce.
Seawater electrolysis is still in early development compared with pure water electrolysis because of electrode side reactions, and corrosion arising from the complexities of using seawater.
“It is always necessary to treat impure water to a level of water purity for conventional electrolysers including desalination and deionization, which increases the operation and maintenance cost of the processes,” noted Zheng. “Our work provides a solution to directly utilize seawater without pre-treatment systems and alkali addition, which shows similar performance as that of existing metal-based mature pure water electrolyser.”
The team will work on scaling up the system by using a larger electrolyzer so that it can be used in commercial processes such as hydrogen generation for fuel cells and ammonia synthesis.
***
Should this work get replication with similar success it will be a breakthrough. No expensive precious metals involved. But cobalt while not so rare isn’t abundant by any means and is often sourced from ore gathering by small children. That makes the future of cobalt very much up in the air for assessment. Should this research prove up, the cobalt demands would sky rocket and get way more expensive. There is cobalt to be had, its just buried under ‘not in my backyard’ and the environmental green groups’ lawyer barriers, which plug up the politics quite severely.
The second matter is that the power source isn’t discussed. While the energy input is definitely electric and the claim is near 100% efficiency, the input vs product calculation isn’t shown or discussed.
Yet the prospect of a greatly reduced water source cost, plus not using precious metals is cause for a lot of anticipation. Congratulations to the team is in order. Lets hope the next steps are solvable by low costs and not requiring decades of political maneuvering to get the jobs done.
