How old fossil-fueled power stations can be transformed into clean energy facilities

MINING.COM Staff Writer | June 29, 2021 

Coal-fired power plant. (Reference image by Greg Williams, Flickr).

A recent analysis by IDTechEx presents the case for turning old fossil-fueled power stations, hydro dams and pumped storage on waterways that are drying up into clean energy storage facilities.


The proposal is presented taking into consideration the fact that as renewables grow, so does intermittency. This means that more energy storage — or delayed electricity — is going to be needed.

“Cost reduction of solar generation is the fastest and its increasing share means two problems – dead at night, feeble in winter. Wind power can be dead for weeks in some regions and that only adds to the problem. Lithium-ion batteries currently favoured for stationary storage self-leak over weeks let alone seasons and they are not the easiest to scale to GW levels or improve to 20-year life, easy recycling or even best safety,” Raghu Das, IDTechEx’s CEO, writes in the report.

SIEMENS GAMESA PROPOSES THAT ITS THERMAL ENERGY STORAGE USING VOLCANIC ROCKS CAN BE USED IN REPURPOSED POWER STATIONS, EMPLOYING THE BUILDINGS, THE STEAM TURBINE SYSTEMS AND THE POWER TRANSMISSION

Das points out the example of Spanish-German wind engineering firm Siemens Gamesa, whose management team has said that its thermal energy storage using volcanic rocks is best at GW levels and capable of storage for weeks. The company is proposing that it can be used in repurposed polluting power stations, employing the buildings, the steam turbine systems and the power transmission.

“At IDTechEx we also see large redox batteries used in such buildings with the existing power transmission,” Das writes. “Indeed, gravity storage that erects towers may be ugly in a city but acceptable at existing power stations or up the side of a hydro dam. Liquid-air storage can also go nicely into an obsolete power station. Additionally, the power station buildings and land can be covered in solar panels. Full write-offs are avoided. Permissions are more readily granted than is the case for new industrial sites.”

In the executive’s view, redox flow batteries (RFB) will produce a better-levelized cost of storage (LCOS) than lithium-ion in some of the new demand scenarios because they require fewer expensive materials, have a longer life, are repairable, and do not fade over the years.

“For stationary energy storage, RFB may have the second-largest sales in 2031 after lithium-ion batteries. The world is running short of pumped storage sites and their approval and erection are pitifully long. Lithium-ion batteries suffer ongoing shortages of raw materials and, like pumped storage, their environmental credentials are increasingly questioned. Lift-off in solar-house batteries and electric vehicles will aggravate lithium-ion shortages,” Das predicts.

Within this context, the analyst sees another solution in gravity storage, which works by using excess energy from the grid to raise a mass to generate gravitational potential energy, which is then dropped to convert potential energy into electricity through an electric generator.

Das believes that gravity storage solutions could even employ on-site the trashed smokestacks and cooling towers of obsolete power stations.

Lithium nationalism taking root in region with most resources
Bloomberg News | June 29, 2021 |

The Sal de Vida deposit lies within the “lithium triangle”, an area encompassing Chile, Bolivia and Argentina that contains a significant portion of the world’s estimated lithium resources. (Image courtesy of Galaxy Resources.)

Politicians in Latin America, a region that accounts for more than half the world’s lithium resources, are looking to increase the role of the state in an industry that’s crucial for weaning the world off fossil fuels.


In Argentina, state energy companies are entering the lithium business as authorities make a bid to develop downstream industries. In Chile, a leading presidential candidate wants to do something similar just as the nation drafts a new constitution that may lead to tougher rules for miners.


To be sure, no one in power is talking about expropriating assets in production and much of the anti-investor rhetoric in Chile is coming from opposition groups. Still, by exacerbating inequalities and exposing supply-chain vulnerabilities, the pandemic is stoking resource nationalism that could lead to less favorable conditions for producers just as they expand in a nascent lithium-ion battery boom.

“Country and resource reliability is something that auto and battery companies look at,” said BTG Pactual analyst Cesar Perez-Novoa. “So it is a risk.”

Argentina’s state-run oil driller YPF SA confirmed this month that it will explore for lithium and get involved in the bid for battery production through a new unit — a similar strategy as it used to diversify into renewable energy. In Mexico, the government is studying the possibility of nationalizing lithium prospects.


LITHIUM-PRODUCING COUNTRIES HAVE HAD LITTLE SUCCESS ADDING VALUE TO THEIR RAW-MATERIAL INDUSTRIES GIVEN THEIR DISTANCE FROM DEMAND CENTERS AND SOMETIMES ADVERSE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT.

Another state energy company, Ieasa, whose role President Alberto Fernandez is reinvigorating after the previous government sought to privatize many of its assets, has said it will incorporate lithium into its business strategy, without elaborating.

Lithium-producing countries have had little success adding value to their raw-material industries given their distance from demand centers and sometimes adverse business environment. In the case of Bolivia, requirements to invest downstream have been one of the barriers to it getting lithium out of the ground in the first place.

Argentina is banking on close ties with China, its lender of last resort, to open the door to the dream of local battery and electric-vehicle plants. Argentine officials have been in talks with Gotion High-Tech Co. and Ganfeng Lithium Co.

Adding fuel to the fire in Argentina is a bill drafted last year by lawmakers from ruling party Frente de Todos that looks to declare lithium a “strategic resource.” Still, the bill isn’t currently being considered, a party spokeswoman said.

In Chile, the top lithium supplier after Australia, a process to rewrite the constitution is expected to include a debate over how to capture more of the sector’s profits, stricter licensing requirements and the classification of water as a national asset for public use.


RELATED: Ganfeng Lithium mulls opening battery plant in Argentina

It’s unclear whether a new constitution could shake up property rights given the state is already the owner of minerals, said Renato Garin, a professor at the University of Chile’s law school, who was elected to the convention drafting the charter. The shift will likely lie instead in environmental rules as concerns grow about the impact of lithium mining in the Atacama salt flats.

“What the new constitution will push is a leap away from mining capitalism to encourage more investment in technology,” Garin, an independent left-leaning member of the assembly, said in an interview. “How to produce without destroying.”

The strongest comments have come from Mexico, where the government is studying state control of assets. Mexico doesn’t produce lithium yet and, according to BTG Pactual analysts, the rhetoric is unlikely to turn into action. But it still stokes uncertainty.

Bolivia is also trying to move forward with a state approach to developing its vast deposits. After rolling out a series of pilots over the past decade — including giant evaporation ponds to replicate the brine extraction method used in Chile and Argentina — the land-locked nation is turning to new technologies.

Bolivia has called for bids to test direct lithium extraction techniques, or DLE, with the winners scheduled to be announced in the coming weeks just as the state lithium company and its partners wrap up work on prototype processing and battery plants. Still, Bolivia’s DLE and downstream experiments hold no guarantees for a significant increase in production anytime soon.

(By Jonathan Gilbert and Daniela Sirtori-Cortina, with assistance from Jorgelina do Rosario and Sergio Mendoza)

Most Belarus potash exports not affected by EU sanctions – analysts
Reuters | June 28, 2021 |

Port of Klaipėda. Credit: Wikipedia

The European Union’s ban on imports and transit of potash from Belarus will not affect most exports of the crop nutrient from the world’s top producer, provided the restriction stays in its current form, potash transporters and analysts said.


The curbs apply to Belarus Potash Company (BPC) which exports potash — Minsk’s main foreign currency earner — mostly via the Baltic port of Klaipeda in EU-member Lithuania.

But its main export product, namely potash with 60% potassium content, is not on the EU’s list of sanctioned items, the industry analysts pointed out.

In total, the sanctions imposed on Belarus potash have put limits on only about 20% of exports of the product transported via Lithuania, the head of Lithuanian Railways said on Friday.

About 11 million tonnes of Belarus potash crossed the Lithuanian border last year, with about 2.5 million tonnes falling under EU sanctions, Mantas Bartuska told reporters.


IN TOTAL, THE SANCTIONS IMPOSED ON BELARUS POTASH HAVE PUT LIMITS ON ONLY ABOUT 20% OF EXPORTS OF THE PRODUCT TRANSPORTED VIA LITHUANIA

Klaipeda port shipped almost 10.7 million tonnes of Belarus potash last year via a terminal 30% owned by Belaruskali.

The ban was part of wide-ranging EU economic sanctions against Belarus, a month after Minsk scrambled a warplane to force a Ryanair flight to land in order to arrest a government critic who was on the aircraft.

Brussels imposed sanctions on Belarusian potash with a potassium content of less than 40% or more than 62% in the dry product.

“The measures do not cover the key Belarusian potash export, potassium chloride, which is 40-62% K2O by weight, and accounts for 80% of the country’s supplies to the EU,” analysts at VTB capital said in a note.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said the broader EU sanctions were “unacceptable” and promised a helping hand to Belarus.

“Russia, together with Belarus, intends to closely coordinate measures needed for sustainable and sovereign development of the brotherly country,” ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said in a statement.
Commitments to customers

“It seems BPC can largely run unaffected,” analysts at BMO Capital markets said in a note.

Worries about possible damage to European agriculture from the sanctions on the fertilizer, as well as a wish to keep space for further pressure on Belarus, limited the scope of the sanctions on potash, two diplomatic sources told Reuters.

The sanctions on potash agreed by member states’ leaders are wider reaching than were initially proposed by the European Commission, one of the sources said.

The ban on transit of production by state-run potash miner Belaruskali through the EU increases transportation costs, but this accounts for less than 10% of the current price, VTB Capital added.

BPC, Belaruskali’s export arm, whose supplies account for 20% of global potash trade, competes with Canada’s Nutrien and Mosaic among others.

“Every type of product is important to us, irrespective of the volumes supplied,” BPC said on Friday about the EU’s sanctions list, without providing details.

BPC will make every effort to meet its commitments to customers, which include China and India, it added.

The sanctions impact on Klaipeda port will not be major and is likely to be compensated by growth elsewhere, the port said in a statement.

Lithuanian Raiways’ Bartuska said Belarus is likely to export the sanctioned produce via ports in Russia and Ukraine, to buyers outside the EU.

He added that Lithuanian Railways, which has a transportation contract with Belaruskali until the end of 2023, stands to lose 14 million euros in income per year due to the sanctions, which could result in it asking for about 10 million euros of state support for its infrastructure arm.

(By Polina Devitt; Editing by Katya Golubkova)

Unrelenting coal demand poses challenge to climate goals
Bloomberg News | July 2, 2021 | 

Isaac Plains mine in Queensland, Australia. Image: Golding Contractors

Coal prices across Asia are surging to records, underscoring a challenge for governments seeking a faster energy transition: the dirtiest of fuels they’re racing to phase out is enjoying booming demand.


Power plants are rushing to secure adequate electricity supplies as a hot summer adds to demand from the region’s post-pandemic industrial revival. On top of that, output in some key producer nations has been hurt, while high natural gas costs mean there’s no cheaper alternative for utilities to turn to.

All that has sparked a coal rally in Asia, the center of demand for the fossil fuel. The price of physical coal cargoes in Australia’s Newcastle and China’s Qinhuangdao ports have soared more than 50% this year to their highest ever. Futures are also up, with those in Australia jumping almost 50% and prices in China more than doubling.

“Coal prices just keep on punching higher,” said Sydney-based Peter O’Connor, an analyst at Shaw & Partners Ltd. “We’re close to the top in terms of pricing, but I don’t think we’re there yet.”


The rally is highlighting coal’s enduring role in the world’s energy mix, particularly in Asia’s large and growing economies, despite a broader push for more aggressive action to tackle climate change. Coal accounted for more than a third of global electricity generation in 2019, according to BloombergNEF. The top three consumers — China, India and the U.S. — are all forecast to burn more this year.

“We can see fairly robust pricing toward year-end,” Sakkie Swanepoel, group manager of marketing at Exxaro Resources Ltd., the South Africa-based miner and coal producer, said on a Tuesday conference call. “We do not see prices just falling off the cliff.”

Here’s what’s driving the rally in key markets:
China

Much of the tightness in the market can be traced back to China, which produces and burns half the world’s supply. Power demand is surging as factories take on orders to supply rebounding economies, and domestic mine output has been slowed by safety inspections after a series of deadly accidents and extra scrutiny because of the Chinese Communist Party’s 100th anniversary celebrations.


Power plants are looking to imports to fill the gap, with June deliveries expected to top 30 million tonnes for the first time this year before rising again in July and August, according to analysts at Fengkuang Coal Logistics. The country still refuses to allow Australian purchases amid a geopolitical rift.

Even with government efforts to cool the market — such as releasing stockpiles and pressuring state-owned suppliers not to let bidding get out of hand — prices will hold at elevated levels this summer, especially as the spot market is facing a “pretty serious” shortage, said Huatai Futures Ltd. analyst Wang Haitao.
Australia

Producers have shrugged off the loss of a key export market after diplomatic tensions saw China halt Australian coal purchases from late last year. Cargoes of premium thermal coal have quickly found alternative buyers, while suppliers of mid-quality power station fuel and steel-making coal are poised to benefit as India and parts of Southeast Asia ease Covid-related restrictions, Australia’s government said in a report this week.

Benchmark prices for higher-quality physical coal at Australia’s Newcastle port have jumped 66% this year to a record of $136.38 a tonne, according to China Coal Resource. Newcastle coal futures on Thursday rose to $131.45 a tonne, the highest since March 2011.

Those gains haven’t translated into advances for some Australian producers. Yancoal Australia Ltd. has declined 18% this year to Thursday’s close, while Coronado Global Resources Inc. has slumped 20%. “Coal is going up, and yet people don’t want to invest in coal,” O’Connor said. “There is a dislocation between coal prices and equities.” Companies including Whitehaven Coal Ltd. have also faced lengthy legal battles over expansion plans.
Japan

Some Japanese utilities have boosted spot coal purchases after the country’s Ministry of Energy, Trade and Industry ordered them to be prepared for summer demand after winter shortages sent power prices rocketing.

Tohoku Electric Power Co. had to agree to a 60% price bump for its annual coal supply through March 2022 from Glencore Plc. Still, the sky-high coal prices are nowhere near the level they would need to be to cause utilities to switch to liquefied natural gas, where prices have risen by 500% in the past year.


Even in the middle of summer, buyers are already negotiating October-loading cargoes as they seek to secure supplies ahead of winter.
Indonesia

Heavy rains in Indonesia in the beginning of the year curtailed supply in the world’s biggest exporter of power plant coal. The government in April gave miners permission to produce an extra 75 million tonnes for export, on top of the 550 million tonnes it had set as a production quota, but so far supplies are behind pace.


“We don’t know yet if the export target can be achieved,” Indonesia Coal Mining Association Executive Director Hendra Sinadia said in an interview. “Even if prices are good it will also depend on demand and economic recovery in buyer countries amid this pandemic situation.”
India

India, the second-biggest coal user, burns the fuel for about 70% of its power needs and higher prices could ripple across the economy, accelerating inflation, according to Rupesh Sankhe, vice president at Elara Capital India Pvt. in Mumbai.

Coal India Ltd., the top global producer of the fuel, is seeking to win sales as customers switch to domestic sources from higher-cost imports. It’s also debating whether to lift prices for long-term contracts to reflect the surge in global benchmark rates, Chairman Pramod Agrawal said last month.

The producer “has a great chance to win back customers that had switched to imports,” Sankhe said.

(By David Stringer and Dan Murtaugh, with assistance from Krystal Chia, Rajesh Kumar Singh, Eko Listiyorini, Miaojung Lin, Tsuyoshi Inajima and Stephen Stapczynski)

IF AUSTRALIAN MINING COMPANIES DIG COAL IN ALBERTA AND SHIP IT TO JAPAN OR CHINA IT WILL BE LISTED AS AUSTRALIAN COAL

Naura puts UN on two-year deadline to make deep-sea mining rules
MINING.com Editor | July 2, 2021 | 

DeepGreen plans to extract cobalt and other battery metals from the seabed. (Image courtesy of DeepGreen.)

The small Pacific island nation of Nauru made waves this week when it notified a United Nations (UN) body of plans to start deep-sea mining, giving the International Seabed Authority (ISA) two years to complete long-running talks on rules governing the new and controversial industry.


Nauru planned to trigger the “two-year rule”, which allows for a mining plan to be approved after two years under whatever rules are in place at that time.

The ISA, headquartered in Jamaica, has drawn up regulations on exploration, but has yet to establish the rules for exploitation needed for mining to go ahead.

Nauru President Lionel Aingimea notified ISA about the mining plans to be carried out by a subsidiary of The Metals Co. in a letter dated June 25, Reuters reported.

Nauru is a sponsoring state for Nauru Ocean Resources Inc (NORI), a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Metals Co, formerly known as DeepGreen Metals, which plans to list on the U.S. Nasdaq in the third quarter in a merger with blank-check company Sustainable Opportunities Acquisition Corp (SOAC).

DeepGreen said it believes that producing critical battery metals from polymetallic nodules has the potential to eliminate or dramatically reduce most of the environmental and social impacts associated with traditional mining.

Nauru, with 12,000 inhabitants, said 80% of its land was uninhabitable because of colonial-era phosphate mining and deep-sea mining was more sustainable. The Metals Co has said deep-sea mining would have less impact than mining for battery metals on land.
“Sustainability conundrum”

Some environmentalists have called for a ban on deep-seabed mining that would extract resources including copper, cobalt, nickel, zinc, lithium, and rare earth elements from nodules on the ocean floor.

Sea floor nodules contain battery metals needed to fuel the world’s transition to clean energy, but trawling the sea floor for them is likely to disrupt ecosystems about which there has been scant research, as they are very difficult to reach, according a report commissioned by the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy.

The report authored by six academics said deep seabed mining was a “sustainability conundrum.”

The advanced exploration stage Nori Clarion-Clipperton polymetallic project, about 4,000-4,500 metres deep into the northeastern part of the Pacific Ocean is named after the seafloor zone between Hawaii and Mexico, and is part of international waters. The exploration contract is held by NORI, but DeepGreen Metals has exclusive access to the area.

The 4,000-kilometre swath of ocean is known for containing enough nickel, copper, cobalt and manganese to build over 250 million electric vehicle batteries.

The ISA, in a statement, acknowledged Nauru’s letter and said it aimed to resume this year work on mining regulations, which had earlier been delayed due pandemic travel restrictions.

(With files from Reuters)

Cameroon to build railway to Mbalam-​Nabeba project with China-linked firms

Stock Image

Cameroon signed a deal on Friday with two China-linked companies to construct a railway from the coast to a large cross-border iron deposit, the state broadcaster said, even as it faces legal action over the project from Australia’s Sundance Resources.


Sundance has filed for international arbitration and billions of dollars in damages, saying Cameroon and Congo Republic have violated contracts by developing the Mbalam-​Nabeba project with Chinese investors.

Cameroon’s mines minister and transport minister signed the memorandum of understanding to construct the rail link from Mbalam to the southern port of Kribi with representatives of Aust-Sino Resources and Bestway Finance, the state broadcaster CRTV said in a post on Twitter.

The ministries did not respond to a request for comment.

Bestway Finance is registered in Hong Kong. Mining company Aust-Sino is based in Australia, but some of its board members have close links to China, according to its website.

Aust-Sino, which was a major backer of Sundance until last year, did not respond to a request for comment. Bestway could not be reached.

Congo Republic revoked Sundance affiliate Congo Iron’s permit for the Congolese part of the project in December and awarded it to little known company Sangha Mining Development Sasu, which is backed by Bestway.

Mining has yet to start at Mbalam-​Nabeba, which has an estimated 775 million tonnes of iron ore. Over 500 kilometres (310 miles) of rail needs to be built to transport the ore to the coast.

Projects requiring significant infrastructure investment have become more viable due to a surge in iron ore prices, which hit a record high in May as a rebound in demand for the key steel-making ingredient from top consumer China outpaced supply.

(By Josiane Kouagheu and Alessandra Prentice; Editing by Toby Chopra)

Reuters | June 25, 2021 |

Mars Has Amazing Auroras, Images Captured by Probe


Alec G., Tech Times 03 July 2021, 

(Photo : Photo by Lev Fedoseyev\TASS via Getty Images) MURMANSK REGION, RUSSIA - JANUARY 12, 2021: The Northern Lights.


A probe hot amazing photos of Mars' nightside aurora as it studied the Martian atmosphere.

Nightside Aurora Spotted

According to a report by Futurism, the probe was sent by the United Arab Emirates in hopes of studying the Martian landscape. Everything was going as planned, until the unexpected phenomenon shocked the researchers and immediately took still photos to immortalize the event.

The nightside aurora is said to be notoriously hard to detect and let alone take pictures of.

However, as luck would have it, instruments of the scientific vessel were able to catch a glimmer of the aurora that was otherwise proven very difficult to study.

The images were released on Wednesday, June 30, that showed the auroras looking like a shape of bright dots pitted against Mars' dark sky. The discovery only happened by coincidence and was not even part of the science vessel's observation mission.

This discovery sets up the Emirates Mars Mission to possibly encounter more discoveries later this year.

Justin Deighan, a planetary scientist at the University of Colorado as well as the deputy science lead of the mission spoke to Space.com saying, "They're not easy to catch, and so that's why seeing them basically right away with [Emirates Mars Mission] was kind of exciting and unexpected."

He went on and said that the discovery was on their radar but actually being able to witness it for the first time was "a lot of fun."

Read More: NASA Mars Curiosity Rover Detects 'Small Amount of Methane' on the Red Planet--But ESA's Trace Gas Spacecraft Could Not Find It

Auroras on Earth and Mars

Auroras are the creation of the planet's magnetic field as charged particles get sent out into the atmosphere. They alter their own trajectories sporadically, causing the particles to then ionize and create light that we see in a myriad of colors as they mingle with each other.

The auroras on Mars, however, are different to Earth as it doesn't happen in just the north and south poles but appears on every part of the planet.


This happens as the magnetically charged atmosphere of the Red Planet isn't the same as the one located on Earth.


Deighan came to explain it as if taking a bag full of magnets and sprinkling them over the planet, and all of the magnets are pointing in different directions with varying strengths. The scattered magnetic fields then cause the solar wind particles to blast off in different areas that interact with molecules and atoms in the upper atmosphere.
Emirates Mars Mission

The probe used its Ultraviolet Spectrometer to capture the reclusive phenomenon that was originally meant to study the gigantic halo of hydrogen and oxygen surrounding Mars.

The mixture of the two then dissipates towards the outer atmosphere.

Hessa Al Matroushi, the mission's leading figure, said that they didn't anticipate that the instrument could capture such a feat and went on saying that it wasn't designed for it.

However, the accidental mistake is an exciting one for the team as their mission was to capture different sides of the atmosphere of Mars.

The team is excited and hoping for new discoveries that could create newer doors for which they could study in terms of the Martian planet and how solar activity interacts with it regularly.

Read More: Mars Exploration Update: Chinese Rover Zhurong Sends Back First Audio and Video Clips

This article is owned by Tech Times

Proximity to Sun’s Magnetic Field Determines Composition of Rocky Planets, Study Says
Jul 2, 2021 by News Staff / Source



Terrestrial planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars) are differentiated into three layers: a metallic core, a silicate shell (mantle and crust), and a volatile envelope of gases, ices, and, for the Earth, liquid water. Each layer has different dominant elements (e.g., increasing iron content with depth and increasing oxygen content to the surface). University of Maryland’s Professor William McDonough and Tohoku University’s Dr. Takashi Yoshizaki have now developed a model showing that the density, mass and iron content of a rocky planet’s core are influenced by its distance from the magnetic field of the Sun.
A view of the planets of our Solar System. Image credit: Jenny Mottar / NASA.

The new model developed by Professor McDonough and Dr. Yoshizaki shows that during the early formation of our Solar System, when the young Sun was surrounded by a swirling cloud of dust and gas, grains of iron were drawn toward the center by the Sun’s magnetic field.

When the planets began to form from clumps of that dust and gas, planets closer to the Sun incorporated more iron into their cores than those farther away.

The researchers found that the density and proportion of iron in a rocky planet’s core correlates with the strength of the magnetic field around the Sun during planetary formation.

Their study suggests that magnetism should be factored into future attempts to describe the composition of rocky planets, including those outside our Solar System.

The composition of a planet’s core is important for its potential to support life.

On Earth, for instance, a molten iron core creates a magnetosphere that protects the planet from cancer-causing cosmic rays.

The core also contains the majority of the planet’s phosphorus, which is an important nutrient for sustaining carbon-based life.

Using existing models of planetary formation, the scientists determined the speed at which gas and dust was pulled into the center of our Solar System during its formation.

They factored in the magnetic field that would have been generated by the Sun as it burst into being and calculated how that magnetic field would draw iron through the dust and gas cloud.

As the early Solar System began to cool, dust and gas that were not drawn into the Sun began to clump together.

The clumps closer to the Sun would have been exposed to a stronger magnetic field and thus would contain more iron than those farther away from the Sun.

As the clumps coalesced and cooled into spinning planets, gravitational forces drew the iron into their core.



Density of the rocky solar system bodies: uncompressed and solid densities are shown for terrestrial planets and chondrites (gray), respectively; bulk planetary densities are shown for asteroids (blue); for 1 Ceres, its bulk density is a lower limit of its solid density, given its high ice abundance and porosity; the red line shows a fit curve for the planets. Image credit: McDonough & Yoshizaki, doi: 10.1186/s40645-021-00429-4.

When the authors incorporated their model into calculations of planetary formation, it revealed a gradient in metal content and density that corresponds perfectly with what scientists know about the planets in our Solar System.

Mercury has a metallic core that makes up about three-quarters of its mass. The cores of Earth and Venus are only about one-third of their mass, and Mars, the outermost of the rocky planets, has a small core that is only about one-quarter of its mass.

This new understanding of the role magnetism plays in planetary formation creates a kink in the study of exoplanets, because there is currently no method to determine the magnetic properties of a star from Earth-based observations.

“The attributes of our Solar System may be equally applicable to exoplanetary systems,” the researchers said.

“The generation of a planetary magnetosphere, which nurtures life, shapes a planet’s habitability.”

“It is likely that life’s sustainability critically depends on being sited in the Goldilocks zone and having the right amount of metallic core, which contains an appropriate amount of a light element and is not cooling too fast.”

The team’s paper was published in the journal Progress in Earth and Planetary Science.

_____

W.F. McDonough & T. Yoshizaki. 2021. Terrestrial planet compositions controlled by accretion disk magnetic field. Prog Earth Planet Sci 8, 39; doi: 10.1186/s40645-021-00429-4

Were Scientists Wrong About the Planet Mercury? Its Big Iron Core May Be Due to Magnetism!

By UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND JULY 3, 2021


New research shows the sun’s magnetic field drew iron toward the center of our solar system as the planets formed. That explains why Mercury, which is closest to the sun has a bigger, denser, iron core relative to its outer layers than the other rocky planets like Earth and Mars. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

New research from the University of Maryland shows that proximity to the sun’s magnetic field determines a planet’s interior composition.

A new study disputes the prevailing hypothesis on why Mercury has a big core relative to its mantle (the layer between a planet’s core and crust). For decades, scientists argued that hit-and-run collisions with other bodies during the formation of our solar system blew away much of Mercury’s rocky mantle and left the big, dense, metal core inside. But new research reveals that collisions are not to blame—the sun’s magnetism is.

William McDonough, a professor of geology at the University of Maryland, and Takashi Yoshizaki from Tohoku University developed a model showing that the density, mass and iron content of a rocky planet’s core are influenced by its distance from the sun’s magnetic field. The paper describing the model was published on July 2, 2021, in the journal Progress in Earth and Planetary Science.


“The four inner planets of our solar system—Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars—are made up of different proportions of metal and rock,” McDonough said. “There is a gradient in which the metal content in the core drops off as the planets get farther from the sun. Our paper explains how this happened by showing that the distribution of raw materials in the early forming solar system was controlled by the sun’s magnetic field.”

McDonough previously developed a model for Earth’s composition that is commonly used by planetary scientists to determine the composition of exoplanets. (His seminal paper on this work has been cited more than 8,000 times.)

McDonough’s new model shows that during the early formation of our solar system, when the young sun was surrounded by a swirling cloud of dust and gas, grains of iron were drawn toward the center by the sun’s magnetic field. When the planets began to form from clumps of that dust and gas, planets closer to the sun incorporated more iron into their cores than those farther away.

The researchers found that the density and proportion of iron in a rocky planet’s core correlates with the strength of the magnetic field around the sun during planetary formation. Their new study suggests that magnetism should be factored into future attempts to describe the composition of rocky planets, including those outside our solar system.

The composition of a planet’s core is important for its potential to support life. On Earth, for instance, a molten iron core creates a magnetosphere that protects the planet from cancer-causing cosmic rays. The core also contains the majority of the planet’s phosphorus, which is an important nutrient for sustaining carbon-based life.

Using existing models of planetary formation, McDonough determined the speed at which gas and dust was pulled into the center of our solar system during its formation. He factored in the magnetic field that would have been generated by the sun as it burst into being and calculated how that magnetic field would draw iron through the dust and gas cloud.

As the early solar system began to cool, dust and gas that were not drawn into the sun began to clump together. The clumps closer to the sun would have been exposed to a stronger magnetic field and thus would contain more iron than those farther away from the sun. As the clumps coalesced and cooled into spinning planets, gravitational forces drew the iron into their core.

When McDonough incorporated this model into calculations of planetary formation, it revealed a gradient in metal content and density that corresponds perfectly with what scientists know about the planets in our solar system. Mercury has a metallic core that makes up about three-quarters of its mass. The cores of Earth and Venus are only about one-third of their mass, and Mars, the outermost of the rocky planets, has a small core that is only about one-quarter of its mass.

This new understanding of the role magnetism plays in planetary formation creates a kink in the study of exoplanets, because there is currently no method to determine the magnetic properties of a star from Earth-based observations. Scientists infer the composition of an exoplanet based on the spectrum of light radiated from its sun. Different elements in a star emit radiation in different wavelengths, so measuring those wavelengths reveals what the star, and presumably the planets around it, are made of.

“You can no longer just say, ‘Oh, the composition of a star looks like this, so the planets around it must look like this,’” McDonough said. “Now you have to say, ‘Each planet could have more or less iron based on the magnetic properties of the star in the early growth of the solar system.’”

The next steps in this work will be for scientists to find another planetary system like ours—one with rocky planets spread over wide distances from their central sun. If the density of the planets drops as they radiate out from the sun the way it does in our solar system, researchers could confirm this new theory and infer that a magnetic field influenced planetary formation.

Reference: “Terrestrial planet compositions controlled by accretion disk magnetic field” by William F. McDonough and Takashi Yoshizaki, 2 July 2021, Progress in Earth and Planetary Science.
DOI: 10.1186/s40645-021-00429-4

Mining brines from dormant volcanoes could provide the metals needed for a sustainable future

Valentina Ruiz Leotaud | July 4, 2021 |

Volcano. (Image from Pxhere, CC0).

Scientists at the University of Oxford are proposing the idea of sustainably extracting copper, gold, zinc, silver and lithium from brines trapped in porous rocks at depths of around 2 kilometres below dormant volcanoes.


In a paper published in the journal Open Science, the researchers explain that the gases released by magma beneath volcanoes are rich in metals. As the pressure drops, the gases separate into steam and brine. Most metals dissolved in the original magmatic gas become concentrated in the dense brine, which in turn gets trapped in porous rock. The less-dense and metal-depleted steam continues up to the surface, where it can form fumaroles, such as those seen at many active volcanoes.

According to the team led by petrologist Jon Blundy, this trapped, subterranean brine is a potential ‘liquid ore’ containing a slew of valuable metals, including gold, lithium and several million tonnes of copper, all of which could be exploited by extracting the fluids to the surface via deep wells.

Employing this method could potentially reduce the cost of mining and ore processing. In addition to this, since geothermal power would be a significant by-product of this green-mining approach, operations would be carbon-neutral.

TRAPPED, SUBTERRANEAN BRINE IS A POTENTIAL ‘LIQUID ORE’ CONTAINING A SLEW OF VALUABLE METALS

“Active volcanoes around the world discharge to the atmosphere prodigious quantities of valuable metals,” Blundy said in a media statement. “Green mining represents a novel way to extract both the metal-bearing fluids and geothermal power, in a way that dramatically reduces the environmental impact of conventional mining.”

To reach this conclusion, the researcher and his team at Oxford joined forces with Russian colleagues and worked on drill cores from a number of deep geothermal systems located in Japan, Italy, Montserrat, Indonesia and Mexico.

Using volcanology, hydrodynamic modelling, geochemistry, geophysics and high-temperature experiments, they were able to confirm their predictions of metal-rich brines.

The scientists say that geophysical surveys of volcanoes show that almost every active and dormant volcano hosts a potentially exploitable ‘lens’ of metal-rich brine. This means that metal exploration may not be limited to relatively few countries such as Chile, the DRC, or the US, as it is currently because volcanoes exist all around the world.
The risks

There are risks to this proposal, though. The main ones are related to the technology that has to be used as the process involves drilling into rock at 2 kilometres depth and at temperatures of more than 450°C. On top of this, the extracted fluids are corrosive, which places limits on the types of drilling materials and they tend to dump their metal load in the well-bore, a problem known as ‘scaling.’

These limitations mean that more research needs to be done around the dynamics of fluid flow and pressure-temperature control in the well-bore and that there will be a need to develop resistive coatings to prevent well-bore corrosion.

Luckily, many of these challenges are already being addressed through deep, hot geothermal drilling projects. In some cases these projects have reached temperatures over 500 °C; and occasionally they have tapped into small pockets of molten rock, for example in Iceland and Hawaii.

The latter challenge, however, is being addressed already as the Oxford team has patented an idea for fluid extraction that guarantees that the fluids continue to flow into the well once drilled, taking into account the permeability and porosity of hot, ductile rock.

Whether there is a risk of triggering volcanic eruptions, the researchers say it is very small, but must be assessed even though they are not planning to drill into magma itself, but into the hot rocks above the magma chamber, which greatly reduces the risk of encountering magma.

The scientists have spent the last five years de-risking the concept, and are now ready to drill an exploratory well at a dormant volcano. This will clarify many of the risks and challenges associated with the technique and will herald a new advance in the understanding of volcanoes and their bounty of energy and metals.

In their view, a working ‘brine mine’ could be 5-15 years away, depending on how well the challenges can be addressed.

 

NASA Continues to Try to Rescue Failing Hubble Space Telescope

TOPICS:Hubble Space TelescopeNASA

By MATT WILLIAMS JULY 4, 2021

This illustration shows the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope in its high orbit 600 kilometers above Earth. Credit: European Space Agency

Things are not looking very good for the Hubble Space Telescope right now. On Sunday, June 13^th, the telescope’s payload computer suddenly stopped working, prompting the main computer to put the telescope into safe mode. While the telescope itself and its science instruments remain in working order, science operations have been suspended until the operations team can figure out how to get the payload computer back online.

While attempting to restart the computer, the operations team has also tried to trace the issue to specific components in the payload computer and switch to their backup modules. As of June 30th, the team began looking into the Command Unit/Science Data Formatter (CU/SDF) and the Power Control Unit (PCU). Meanwhile, NASA is busy preparing and testing procedures to switch to backup hardware if either of these components are the culprit.

The payload computer is part of the Science Instrument Command and Data Handling (SI C&DH) unit, where it is responsible for controlling and coordinating the scientific instruments aboard the spacecraft. The current issues began when the main computer stopped receiving the “keep-alive” signal from the payload computer – which lets the main computer know that everything is working.

That’s when the operations team began investigating different pieces of hardware on the SI C&DH as the possible source. Based on the available data, the team initially thought that the problem was due to a degrading memory module and tried to switch to one of the module’s multiple backups – but met with failure. On the evening of Thursday, June 17^th, another attempt was made to bring both modules back online, but these attempts also led to failure.

At that point, they began looking into other possibles sources of the shutdown, like the Standard Interface (STINT) hardware. This component is responsible for bridging communications between the computer’s Central Processing Module (CPM), which they began investigating as well. Now, the team is investigating the Command Unit/Science Data Formatter (CU/SDF) and a power regulator within the Power Control Unit (PCU).

Whereas the CU/SDF sends and formats commands and data while the PCU is designed to ensure a steady voltage supply to the payload computer’s hardware. If either of these systems is responsible for the shutdown, then the team must once again go through an operations procedure to switch to the backup units. This time, however, the procedure is more complex and risky than the ones the team executed last time.

Mainly, switching to the backup CU/SDF or backup power regulator requires that several other hardware boxes need to be switched to their backups because of the way they are connected to the SI C&DH unit. The last time the operations team performed this task was back in 2008, which was the last time the CU/SDF module failed. This is what prompted the final servicing mission in 2009, which replaced the entire SI C&DH unit.

Given the complexity of switching multiple systems over to their backups, the operations team is currently reviewing and updating all of Hubble‘s operations procedures, commands, and all other items relating to switching to backup hardware. When they are finished (expected for next week) the team will run a high-fidelity simulator to test their plan of execution and see if they can pull it off.

Since Hubble first launched in 1990, it has taken over 1.5 million images, and more than 600,000 of those were taken since its last servicing mission in 2009. These images are some of the most breathtaking views of the Universe ever taken and have led to substantial discoveries about the nature of our Universe. Here at home, it has deepened our understanding of the Kuiper Belt and Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs) like Pluto and Eris.

In 2014, it also observed the farthest object to ever be visited by a spacecraft – the Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) Arrokoth, which the New Horizons mission made a close pass with on Jan. 1^st, 2019. It also observed aurora in the atmospheres of Jupiter, and Saturn, as well as Jupiter’s moon Ganymede. Hubble is also responsible for providing the data that led astronomers to conclude that Ganymede likely contains a large saltwater ocean in its interior.

Beyond the Solar System, Hubble has aided in the first atmospheric studies of exoplanets, helped constrain the size and mass of the Milky Way, the evolution of galaxies over time, revealed the accelerating expansion of the Universe (leading to the theory of Dark Energy), and aided in the study of Dark Matter. These and other accomplishments are all part of Hubble‘s legacy as it celebrates being in space for 31 years, 2 months, and either days.

I think I speak for everyone when I wish Hubble a speedy recovery and hope it has a few more years left in her!

Originally published on Universe Today.