How Emerging Markets Are Helping To Slash Methane Emissions

By Oxford Business Group - Nov 06, 2021, 2:00 PM CDT

• Joe Biden’s final speech at COP26 focused on methane emissions and the Global Methane Pledge, a pledge which was endorsed by multiple emerging economies
• There are multiple technologies and practices already available for these emergy economies to use, especially in the methane-heavy agriculture sector
• There are still multiple diplomatic barriers to achieving the ambitious methane emissions goals set out in the Global Methane Pledge, notably a lack of support from the Developing Countries Group

With world leaders meeting this week at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, a number of emerging markets have demonstrated their willingness to work with international partners on the matter of reducing methane emissions.

US President Joe Biden’s final speech in the context of the summit focused on methane emissions, and specifically the Global Methane Pledge.

Launched in September and led jointly by the US and the EU, the Global Methane Pledge represents the first coordinated international effort to address methane emissions. Its goal is to precipitate a 30% drop in global emissions – relative to 2020 baseline levels – before the end of the decade.

Methane emissions are the second-biggest cause of global warming after carbon dioxide.

According to the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, methane was responsible for approximately half of the 1°C net rise in global average temperatures since the pre-industrial era.

Action to reduce emissions is thus a key element of broader decarbonisation efforts. If the pledge’s targets are met, it could potentially result in a reduction of 0.2°C in global warming by 2050. While this may not sound like a huge difference, it would play a significant role in reducing the frequency and force of extreme weather events.

In light of this, signing up to the Global Methane Pledge has been called the most significant single action that world leaders can take in the context of COP26.

Alongside richer nations, the pledge has garnered the endorsement of a number of emerging economies, among them Argentina, Indonesia, Mexico and Nigeria. Brazil, which is one of the world’s top-five biggest emitters of methane, has also signed the pledge.

The complete list of supporting countries now totals more than 100, and together accounts for around half of global methane emissions, as well as 70% of the global economy.

Approaches to cutting emissions

The technology required to meet the pledge’s goals already exists. The UN Environmental Programme’s recently released Global Methane Assessment underlines that nearly half of the methane released through human activities could be cut by the end of this decade and that affordable tools to do so are already available.

In addition, advances in satellite technology have made it easier to detect and address methane leaks, providing what the European Space Agency has called “an important new tool to combat climate change”.

Alongside technological solutions, there is a range of practice-based solutions available to countries seeking to reduce their emissions.

Agriculture is a major contributor to global methane emissions, with rice cultivation representing 10% of total anthropogenic emissions and livestock farming 30%.

Given that agriculture remains the backbone of many emerging market economies, innovations on this front could significantly reduce global emissions without leading to the destruction of agricultural industries.

Thankfully, there are various tried-and-tested solutions. In the case of rice cultivation, alternating irrigation considerably reduces emissions, as well as increasing yields. This method has seen notable success in West Africa, Tamil Nadu in India, and southwest Asia.

Meanwhile, the “methanisation” – or transformation into biogas – of animal manure and other agricultural waste products can considerably reduce emissions.

In Thailand, for example, biogas is produced from the waste streams of its cassava starch sector and pig farms.

Diplomatic hurdles

While the Global Methane Pledge is indicative of a growing political will to leverage such technologies and practices in the fight against methane emissions, there is still some way to go in terms of global diplomacy.

Notable in their absence from the pledge’s list of supporters are China, India, and Russia, three countries that together account for around one-third of methane emissions. Australia has similarly refrained from signing up.

In an indication of some of the difficulties facing those who are working towards a multilateral consensus on emissions, a statement released in mid-October by the Like-Minded Developing Countries group – which includes China, India, Egypt, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, and Vietnam – described the goal of net-zero emissions by 2020, which has been pushed by some developed nations, as being “anti-equity and against climate justice”.

The group accused richer nations of refusing to address their historical responsibility for initiating climate change, and of trying to shift responsibility onto developing nations.

Indeed, the absence of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin from the COP26 meeting was seen by many as an indication of how difficult it could be to achieve any global consensus.

By Oxford Business Group

Jeffrey F. Collins: Without plan for new submarines Canada faces defence gap in the Arctic

A plan for new submarines needed imminently

Author of the article: Jeffrey F. Collins, 

Special to National Post
Publishing date: Nov 07, 2021

PHOTO BY POSTMEDIA FILES

DON'T BUY USED

A Department of National Defence briefing note identifies the urgent need to “kick off without delay” a replacement project for the Royal Canadian Navy’s (RCN) four Victoria-class submarines. The British built vessels, acquired second hand in 1998 by the Chrétien government in a nearly $900 million lease-to-buy contract, are due to be retired or “paid off” 15 years from now, between 2036 and 2042 . At that point the submarines will be 50 years old.

Mirroring an assessment produced in a recent Macdonald-Laurier Institute report, the January 2021 note, obtained through an access-to-information request, makes clear that from start to finish it will take a “minimum” 15 years to deliver a new submarine. This estimate jumps to twenty-five years depending on which procurement model the DND adopts: 1) buy new from overseas; 2) build in Canada with a foreign design; 3) or build in Canada with a new design.

Should delays in deciding on a new submarine fleet emerge, both the note and the institute report state that Canada will encounter a capability gap. Simply put, with the vessels removed from service and the replacements not yet delivered, RCN crews would be without any operational submarines for a period of time.

Such a scenario is not mere conjecture. In 2015-16 , the RCN lost its two aging supply ships due to hull erosion and a fire, respectively, forcing Ottawa to rent sea days on Chilean and Spanish ships and lease a converted container ship as interim solutions given the delays in building new supply ships. Unfortunately, there are no surplus submarines available from any of Canada’s allies. Getting a new replacement, spending billions more on a total overhaul, or losing the RCN’s submarine force altogether are the only options.

Well publicized accidents and mishaps, like HMCS Corner Brook hitting the ocean floor in 2011 , have given Canada’s Victoria-class submarines a bad imagine (to say the least). Yet despite this narrative and the general secrecy surrounding undersea operations, submarines are a proven critical tool in Ottawa’s ability to monitor and patrol Canadian sovereignty.

Representing a quarter of the RCN’s advanced war-fighting fleet, Canada’s submarines are viewed as integral to deterring “potential adversaries or trespassers” in the country’s vast maritime domain — currently constituting the world’s longest coastline, second largest continental shelf and fifth largest exclusive economic zone. It is not for nothing that the RCN in its own 2016 strategy, Leadmark 2050 , regards submarines as its “ultimate warfighting capability.”

Given Canada’s continental defence alliance with the United States through NORAD, submarines are a “uniquely stealthy, persistent, and lethal capability set” that give Ottawa the ability to conduct surveillance and intelligence gathering operations at home and abroad. Although some parts of the note are “blacked out,” and no discernible references to China and Russia appear, it’s clear the Canadian military sees the prospects of more foreign submarines in the country’s maritime domain as a likely scenario. Submarines, the department advises, will probably “grow in significance.”

The purpose of the note — to formally establish a “Canadian patrol submarine project” office — corresponds with news reports this past summer of the DND examining its options on a submarine replacement. As the note admits, “significant analysis” is needed to determine the submarine design, fleet size, and procurement model.

Tellingly, the note does not exclude the option of nuclear power submarines, a subject last seriously considered in the Mulroney government’s 1987 defence white paper. Unlike Canada’s 2400 tonne diesel-electric Victoria class submarines, which need to periodically surface to recharge their batteries, nuclear-powered submarines like the 7400 tonne British Astute-class remain the only safe means to both travel under the Arctic ice and, given their larger displacement and hull designs, punch through it.

The RCN has been clear that it sees an Arctic ice capability as necessary for a future submarine replacement. But without significant advances in diesel-electric submarines or new air independent propulsion hybrids that can recharge batteries through fuel cells, nuclear remains the only game in town.

The previous attempt at nuclear partially failed over American reluctance to transfer nuclear submarine know-how to Canada. However, with the creation in September of the AUKUS defence pact, the US and UK are set to assist Australia in procuring nuclear-powered submarines. Of course, the cost of this acquisition will likely prove significant for Australia.

Irrespective, this deal indicates a willingness on Washington’s part to invest in partners that are willing to pull their weight in international affairs. The question for Ottawa is, are we?

National Post

Jeffrey F. Collins is author of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute paper “Deadline 2036,” and an assistant professor of political science at the University of Prince Edward Island.

EXPLAINED: WHAT IS A HYDROGEN INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE, AND CAN IT BE A REAL ALTERNATIVE TO BATTERY EVS?

Toyota is pushing the pace on the development of hydrogen internal combustion engines for mass production, but how does it work and is it a feasible concept?


AMAAN AHMED

NOV 07, 2021 04:23:19 IST

In a world faced with more uncertainty than ever, the only well-documented certainty is that fossil fuels will soon be ditched in favour of alternative energy sources for mobility applications worldwide. Most automakers have already climbed aboard the promising electric mobility vessel, and are working to transition from internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles to ones powered by lithium-ion batteries. However, not every player wants to head down that route, and some prominent names are evaluating other forms of power sources for future vehicles, including using hydrogen as a fuel in an ICE vehicle.
Haven’t hydrogen-powered vehicles been around for years?

Yes, the world has seen a variety of hydrogen-based fuel-cell electric vehicles (FCEV) – both in concept and production forms – over the last few decades. However, despite several attempts, no carmaker has been able to push FCEVs into the mainstream spotlight, and as such, they continue to be a rarity. At this time, the only FCEVs in production are the Hyundai Nexo crossover and the Toyota Mirai, with Honda recently having pulled the plug on the Clarity FCEV. Both the Hyundai and the Toyota use hydrogen to power the fuel cell, which turns the energy into electricity via a chemical reaction and powers an electric motor to propel the vehicle.

The Toyota Mirai is one of just two hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles on sale at this time. Image: Toyota

But it’s a complex process, and the application is expensive. Now, Toyota is proposing a more direct (and nearly as clean) solution in the form of an internal combustion engine that runs on hydrogen.

What’s different about a hydrogen combustion engine? Does it bring any benefits?

With an FCEV, there’s a lot to account for – the vehicle carries hydrogen tanks, the fuel cell as well as the electric motor or motors (depending on the vehicle configuration), all married into one cohesive unit. It also uses platinum, a rare ingredient that’s also quite expensive, for the oxygen reduction reaction in the fuel cell.

A hydrogen internal combustion engine can be produced by simply making a set of modifications to existing petrol and diesel engines. 

A hydrogen ICE, like the name suggests, simplifies the hardware, as it is essentially the good old combustion engine converted to run on H2. Existing engines can be adapted by changing certain components – such as the fuel delivery system and spark plugs – to use hydrogen instead of petrol or diesel, which means carmakers have a proven, time-tested base to build on and refine to further suit hydrogen applications, without making heavy investments on electric powertrains.

The primary purpose of using hydrogen would be to turn a car into an ultra-low emissions vehicle. With the combustion of hydrogen, the vehicle would mostly emit water vapour only. The reason why it isn’t a zero-emissions application is because a minute amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) is also emitted because of the burning of engine oil, and the combustion process in a H2 ICE leads to the emission of nitrogen oxides (NOx). While these emissions are significantly lower than a petrol/diesel vehicle’s, FCEVs better H2 ICEs on this front, as they are true zero-emissions vehicles.
What has Toyota done to push development of the hydrogen combustion engine?

Earlier this year, Toyota converted the 1.6-litre, three-cylinder turbo-petrol engine from the Toyota GR Yaris hatchback to use compressed hydrogen, and plonked it into a Corolla hatchback racer.

Motorsport, said Toyota, would be the best place to give the hydrogen combustion engine a shot at life, as learnings from the track would expedite the development process and help realise mass adoption of the powertrain at a much quicker pace. The Japanese auto giant tossed the hydrogen-fuelled Corolla into its toughest test right away, entering it into the Super Tec 24-hour endurance race at the Fuji Speedway, in May.


Toyota plonked the GR Yaris' 1.6-litre, three-cylinder turbo-petrol modified to run on hydrogen, into the Corolla race car and entered it into the 24-hour endurance race at the Fuji Speedway. Image: Toyota

Admirably, the Corolla – driven by former F1 racer Kamui Kobayashi and Toyota Motor Corporation chief Akio Toyoda, among others – managed to finish the race in one piece. That said, it was off the pace – over 24 hours, the Corolla H2 could only log in 358 laps of the Fuji Speedway, which was almost half that of other conventionally-powered vehicles on the circuit. The Corolla – which logged a lowly average speed of 68 kph – also made more refuelling stops (35 in total) compared to the average of 20 for other participants, and each fuel stop also took longer (around six to seven minutes), meaning it had to stop for fuel roughly every 42 minutes, and of the 24 hours, spent close to four hours receiving refills.

In more promising showings, the Corolla H2 has since raced at the five-hour-long Super Taikyu endurance races at Autopolis and Suzuka, with Toyota claiming the hydrogen race car is now as powerful as the petrol-powered racer (which wasn’t the case previously), with acceleration boosted by 10 percent and fuel flow rate increased to slash the refuelling time to just two minutes. Performance is said to have improved in a big way, and enthusiasts will love the fact that it sounds more or less like a conventional race car, which is a refreshing change from the super-quick but dead-silent EVs. All this, while largely emitting water vapour.

Sounds great – but there has to be a catch, surely?

There isn’t just a catch – there are many of them, as things stand.

The reason why the Corolla H2 had to make as many refuelling stops as it did during the 24-hour endurance run was because of the reduced efficiency of hydrogen fuel as compared to petrol. Stored in high-pressure tanks in gaseous form, hydrogen – which isn’t as dense as petrol – suffers from volumetric inefficiency and requires higher amounts of storage and combustion capacity than conventional liquid fuels. The Corolla’s rear seats were thrown out to make space for the hydrogen tanks, which were stacked to the roof, completely blocking the view through the rear windscreen. With a road-going vehicle, the required storage for hydrogen tanks that would give a vehicle an acceptable travel range would eat into masses of interior space, rendering the vehicle largely impractical.

Rearward visibility in the Corolla race car was zero due to the rear seating area being occupied entirely by large hydrogen storage tanks, without which the car simply wouldn't have the required range. Image: Toyota

Compared to conventionally-powered ICEs, hydrogen ICEs only offer between 20–25 percent efficiency, power output varies basis the energy density of the hydrogen/air mixture and hydrogen ICEs are also prone to knocking, which can negatively impact engine durability as well as fuel efficiency. However, the last issue can be overcome with the help of an exhaust gas recirculation system.

Then there’s the cleanliness of hydrogen fuel itself. At present, the process of creating hydrogen mainly involves the use of fossil fuels, which contributes greatly to CO2 emissions. This is a counter-productive solution, and the ideal and cleanest alternative, green hydrogen (produced by harnessing renewable resources), is significantly more expensive, costing anywhere between $3.5 to $6 per kg. Any significant drop in the price of green hydrogen is unlikely to happen before the end of this decade. Until that happens, running a hydrogen vehicle – on any other form of hydrogen – may actually be worse for the environment than running a fossil fuel vehicle. 

The number of hydrogen refuelling stations in most countries is negligible compared to the number of EV charging stations. Image: Mercedes-Benz

And then there’s the hydrogen fuel infrastructure itself. While charging stations for battery electric vehicles are being set up almost every day across the world, there are only a handful of hydrogen fuel stations in major countries, meaning movement in a hydrogen vehicle is hugely restricted. The cost of setting up a hydrogen station – which is said to range between $2 million to $3.2 million depending on the type of station – is prohibitively high in most markets, and with hardly any hydrogen vehicles on sale, investing in one doesn’t make much business sense at this point.

To further complicate matters, while filling up a hydrogen vehicle only takes a few minutes, there would still be a wait involved at a station – a wait of as much as 20 minutes, as there needs to be sufficient pressure in the storage tank to be able to supply hydrogen to the car’s tank, which otherwise can’t be filled up fully. In case of mass adoption, queues at stations would be serpentine and not every driver would have the time to spare.


Even Hyundai's recently revealed Vision FK hydrogen FCEV prototype can only do 0-100 kph in less than four seconds, which is notably slower than most high-performance EVs today, and the company itself admits the packaging of this prototype is "extremely complicated". Image: Hyundai

Safety also remains an area of concern for hydrogen storage facilities. High-intensity explosions at hydrogen refuelling and storage facilities in Norway and South Korea in the past have raised questions about how safe hydrogen – which is highly flammable – would be for mass uptake, and also led to resident groups opposing the establishment of new hydrogen refuelling stations and production facilities in their vicinities.

Lastly, hydrogen vehicles have been left far, far behind by BEVs on almost every front. Range anxiety is fast becoming a term of the past thanks to BEVs with larger, more efficient battery packs, and electric vehicles will always pip hydrogen vehicles when it comes to performance. Charging times continue to drop every year, and quick and constant evolutions in battery technology will almost certainly lead to batteries only needing as much time to charge fully as needed to fill up an ICE vehicle’s fuel tank.
Is India making progress on the green hydrogen production front?

The pursuit of green hydrogen is gaining pace in India. State-owned GAIL India Ltd has recently announced it will set up a 10 MW green hydrogen facility – the country’s largest such plant – over the next 12-14 months. Reliance Industries chief Mukesh Ambani has said the company, as part of its clean energy business, is striving to bring down the cost of green hydrogen down to as little as $1 per kg by the end of this decade.

The Indian government has already outlined safety standards for the production of green hydrogen, and Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has, on multiple occasions, advocated the uses of hydrogen as an automotive and industrial fuel, the adoption of which would help cut the country’s fuel import bill substantially.

Will hydrogen engines find application anywhere – or even become a feasible concept?

There does exist a use case for hydrogen combustion engines – specifically on the commercial vehicle side. Vehicles that have significantly higher uptimes than private use vehicles – such as heavy-duty trucks, buses and heavy machinery – are a perfect fit for hydrogen ICEs, as they need to operate for a set number of hours (and cannot afford to stop for long durations to charge their batteries), have fixed journey points and would struggle with the added weight of extremely large battery packs. Within a controlled environment and with a small number of hydrogen refuelling stations, such vehicles can easily make the switch to H2, and a number of manufacturers – including heavy machinery specialist JCB – are on their way to adopting a hydrogen ICE for their commercial vehicles.

Hydrogen will be better suited to commercial vehicles and heavy machinery.

 Image: Mercedes-Benz

A case could also potentially be made for hydrogen in motorsport. Races are conducted within a controlled environment where hydrogen fuel could be made available as needed, costs wouldn’t be as big an issue and viewers would be excited to hear the sound of combustion engines again, unlike in the pure-electric Formula E race series, deemed dull because of a lack of sound from the race cars.

Toyota and Hyundai are the two main carmakers who continue to press forward with their idea of a hydrogen-powered society, but some fundamental, game-changing technological breakthroughs would be needed for the hydrogen combustion engine to hit the big time, and even if those do occur in the coming years, BEVs will likely already have moved the game beyond the reach of H2.

Firstpost is part of the Network18 group. Network18 is controlled by Independent Media Trust, of which Reliance Industries is the sole beneficiary.

THE TRUE GREEN METAL

Visualizing copper demand for renewables

Visual Capitalist | November 3, 2021 |


Visualizing Copper Demand in a Renewables Powered Future

Renewable energy is considered one of the most effective tools to reduce global carbon emissions and fight climate change. However, building technologies like solar and wind power plants or electric vehicles (EVs) can be mineral-intensive.


Copper is considered an essential metal for renewables. The metal is highly conductive, can easily be shaped into pipes, wires, or sheets, and can remove heat far more rapidly than other metals. In fact, copper itself is a sustainable material. The metal is 100% recyclable and can be used repeatedly without any loss of performance.


The Wind and Solar Boom

Copper has long been a common component in most electrical wiring, power generation, transmission, distribution, and circuitry because of its high conductivity and durability.

New energy technologies, however, require even more copper. Photovoltaics (PV) solar power systems contain approximately 5 tonnes (t) per megawatt (MW) of copper, while grid energy storage installations rely on 2.7 to 3.6t per MW.

Solar isn’t the only renewable energy source that relies on copper, as a wind farm can contain between 4 million and 15 million pounds of copper.

Copper Drives EVs

The clean transport sector also consumes lots of copper. In fact, the metal is used in every major EV component, from the motor to the inverter and the electrical wiring.

While an average gasoline-powered car uses about 20 kg of copper, mainly as wiring, a fully electric car has roughly 80 kg of copper. Therefore, copper demand for EV batteries alone is expected to jump from 210K tonnes in 2020 to 1.8M tonnes in 2030.

[Click here for an interactive chart of copper prices]

But demand for the metal won’t just come from the cars themselves. Copper used for EV charging stations is also expected to rise more than 1,000% by 2030, compared to 2020.
Meeting the Copper Demand

As the world moves towards alternative energy sources, copper will remain in high demand.

Even though the metal is 100% recyclable, recycling alone will not be enough to meet demand and ensure a stable supply of copper. Continued mining for new copper will be needed.

(This article first appeared in the Visual Capitalist)

Why does copper turn green? A look at the patina process

https://crescentcitycopper.com/why-does-copper-turn-green

Over time copper will naturally change colors – transforming from a shiny brown color to darker browns, then blues and finally greens after a number of years. When exposed to the natural elements such as wind and rain, copper develops this “ patina ” which actually …

Singapore to Curb Greenwashing With Stress Tests, Technology

Chanyaporn Chanjaroen and Haslinda Amin
Sun, November 7, 2021, 

IF ANYONE CAN IT IS THE AUTONOMOUS CITY STATE

(Bloomberg) -- Singapore’s financial watchdog is turning to regulation and technology to tackle so-called “greenwashing,” which it considers the weakest link in the push to expanding sustainable finance.

Banks in Singapore will have to undergo stress tests from next year while making regulatory disclosures to ensure they’re managing risks related to climate change and other environmental issues, Ravi Menon, managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, said in an interview. Data verification using technology that can attest to the provenance of green products will also be required, he added.

Menon said the potential for greenwashing is on the rise as more funds are allocated for sustainability projects. Stocks and funds highly rated on environmental, social and governance metrics have attracted trillions of dollars of investments in recent years.

The introduction of stress tests means banks will have to get a better handle on the climate risks tied to their borrowers, their customers and supply chains, said Menon, who also heads the city-state’s central bank. “That will increasingly become a supervisory expectation,” he said.

Singapore launched a national program that will use artificial intelligence to help with risk analysis for the financial industry at its annual fintech festival Monday. Part of the program is a partnership between local lenders and fintech firms to assess companies’ environmental impact and identify emerging environmental risks, as well as check against greenwashing, Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat said at the event.

Mandatory Disclosure

The MAS is joining other central banks in the U.K., Europe and Canada in putting their financial institutions through assessments that scrutinize the impact of climate change on everything from real estate to corporate loans.

Starting next year, all listed firms in Singapore, including banks, will need to publicize information in line with recommendations from the Group of 20’s task force on climate-related financial disclosures. Mandatory disclosure will also extend to ESG fund products sold to retail investors, Menon said.

In Europe, the flow of cash into ESG funds picked up last quarter following the introduction of new disclosure requirements to help restore confidence in a market hit by greenwashing accusations. The ESG market has been dogged by allegations of inflated and even false claims about the benefits that investments bring. The EU adopted in March what’s known as SFDR, for Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation, an historic measure that’s setting the pace for global requirements.

In line with major global banks, lenders in Singapore have started to reduce their exposure to some of the industries linked to climate change, such as coal. DBS Group Holdings Ltd., Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. and United Overseas Bank Ltd., the three major Singapore banks that are also the largest in Southeast Asia by assets, pledged to stop financing new coal-fired power projects, honoring only previously committed ones.

Many emerging economies in the region such as Vietnam and Indonesia still rely on coal, considered the world’s dirtiest fuel. Palm oil is another major industry in Southeast Asia often linked to deforestation and haze.

Asked whether the MAS would ask local banks to curb their financing for palm oil-related activities, Menon said the regulator never makes pronouncements on any particular sector.

“These are issues we study closely,” Menon said. “You don’t want to rush to say ‘this activity is brown, and you should not invest in it, or you should not make loans to finance it’.”

People need to be given “greener alternatives” to whatever they’re doing that isn’t so environmentally friendly, Menon said. Banks can offer financing that helps the industry transition to a replacement of palm, if and when there is one, he said.

“So if in five or 10 years’ time, the way in which palm oil cultivation is done is reformed, then the lenders need to pay more attention to it,” he said, adding they can work with borrowers to improve the way it’s harvested to minimize deforestation.

UNICORN TECH

Compact Fusion Power Plant Concept Uses State-of-the-Art Physics To Improve Energy Production

By U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY NOVEMBER 8, 2021

The Compact Advanced Tokamak (CAT) is a potentially economical solution for fusion energy production that takes advantage of advances in simulation and technology. Credit: Image courtesy of General Atomics. Tokamak graphic modified from F. Najmabadi et al., The ARIES-AT advanced tokamak, Advanced technology fusion power plant, Fusion Engineering Design, 80, 3-23 (2006).

Fusion power plants use magnetic fields to hold a ball of current-carrying gas (called a plasma). This creates a miniature sun that generates energy through nuclear fusion. The Compact Advanced Tokamak (CAT) concept uses state-of-the-art physics models to potentially improve fusion energy production. The models show that by carefully shaping the plasma and the distribution of current in the plasma, fusion plant operators can suppress turbulent eddies in the plasma. These eddies can cause heat loss. This will enable operators to achieve higher pressures and fusion power with lower current. This advance could help achieve a state where the plasma sustains itself and drives most of its own current.

In this approach to tokamak reactors, the improved performance at reduced plasma current reduces stress and heat loads. This alleviates some of the engineering and materials challenges facing fusion plant designers. Higher pressure also increases an effect where the motion of particles in the plasma naturally generates the current required. This greatly reduces the need for expensive current drive systems that sap a fusion plant’s potential electric power output. It also enables a stationary “always-on” configuration. This approach leads to plants that suffer less stress during operation than typical pulsed approaches to fusion power, enabling smaller, less expensive power plants.

Over the past year, the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine have released roadmaps calling for the aggressive development of fusion energy in the United States. Researchers believe that achieving that goal requires development of more efficient and economical approaches to creating fusion energy than currently exist. The approach used to create the CAT concept developed novel reactor simulations that leverage the latest physics understanding of plasma to improve performance. Researchers combined state-of-the-art theory validated at the DIII-D National Fusion Facility with leading-edge computing using the Cori supercomputer at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center. These simulations identified a path to a concept enabling a higher-performance, largely self-sustaining configuration that holds energy more efficiently than typical pulsed configurations, allowing it to be built at reduced scale and cost.

Reference: “The advanced tokamak path to a compact net electric fusion pilot plant” by R.J. Buttery, J.M. Park, J.T. McClenaghan, D. Weisberg, J. Canik, J. Ferron, A. Garofalo, C.T. Holcomb, J. Leuer, P.B. Snyder and The Atom Project Team, 19 March 2021, Nuclear Fusion.
DOI: 10.1088/1741-4326/abe4af

This work was supported by the Department of Energy Office of Science, Office of Fusion Energy Sciences, based on the DIII-D National Fusion Facility, a DOE Office of Science user facility, and the AToM Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing project.

Integrating hot cores and cool edges in fusion reactors

by American Physical Society

Overview schematic of a tokamak highlighting exhaust into the divertor region. The zoomed

 in region shows the narrow geometry of the divertor and the camera view from the

 experiments. Images from the experiments show that heat fluxes decreased during 

p powder injection, indicating the reduced heat fluxes during powder injection. 

Credit: F. Effenberg, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, T. Wilks, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Future fusion reactors have a conundrum: maintain a plasma core that is hotter than the surface of the sun without melting the walls that contain the plasma. Fusion scientists refer to this challenge as "core-edge integration." Researchers working at the DIII-D National Fusion Facility at General Atomics have recently tackled this problem in two ways: the first aims to make the fusion core even hotter, while the second focuses on cooling the material that reaches the wall. Protecting the plasma facing components could make them last longer, making future fusion power plants more cost-effective. 

Just like the more familiar internal combustion engine, vessels used in fusion research must exhaust heat and particles during operation. Like a car's exhaust pipe, this exit path is designed to handle high heat and material loads but only within certain limits. One key strategy for reducing the heat coming from the plasma core is to inject impurities—particles heavier than the mostly hydrogen plasma—into the exhaust region. These impurities help remove excess heat in the plasma before it hits the wall, helping the plasma-facing materials last longer. These same impurities, however, can travel back into regions where fusion reactions are occurring, reducing overall performance of the reactor.

Past impurity injection experiments have relied on gaseous impurities, but a research team from the U.S. Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory experimented with the injection of a powder consisting of boron, boron nitride, and lithium (Figure 1). The use of powder rather than gas offers several advantages. It allows a larger range of potential impurities, which can also be made purer and less likely to chemically react with the plasma. Experiments using powder injection on DIII-D are aimed at cooling the boundary of the plasma while maintaining the heat in the core of the plasma. Measurements showed only a marginal decrease in fusion performance during the heat production.

This graph of plasma performance against divertor temperature shows the progress in

 core edge integration in Super H-mode plasmas. Black data points are standard 

Super H-modes with no external impurities introduced, while pink points inject nitrogen

 to cool the divertor and overlap the target core-edge integration target region shaded

 green in the upper left. Credit: F. Effenberg, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, T. Wilks

, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The experiments developed a balanced approach that achieved significant edge cooling with only modest effects on core performance. Incorporating powder injection or the use of the Super H-mode into future reactor designs may allow them to maintain high levels of fusion performance while increasing the lifetime of divertor surfaces that exhaust waste heat.  Both sets of experimental results, coupled with theoretical simulations, suggest that these approaches would be compatible with larger devices like ITER, the international tokamak under construction in France, and would facilitate core-edge integration in future fusion power plants.

Fast flows prevent buildup of impurities on the edge of tokamak plasmas

More information: GI02.00001. Mitigation of plasma-materials interactions with low-Z powders in DIII-D H-mode discharges

Provided by American Physical Society 

Unveiling the steady progress toward fusion energy gain

by American Physical Society

(Left) Record fusion triple products achieved by different fusion concepts over time illustrates progress towards fusion energy gain. (Right) Achieved values of Lawson parameter and temperature plotted against curves of scientific gain. Credit: Wurzel and Hsu

The march towards fusion energy gain, required for commercial fusion energy, is not always visible. Progress occurs in fits and starts through experiments in national laboratories, universities, and more recently at private companies. Sam Wurzel, a Technology-to-Market Advisor at the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), details and highlights this progress over the last 60 years by extracting and cataloging the performance of over 70 fusion experiments in this time span. The work illustrates the history and development of different approaches including magnetic-fusion devices such as tokamaks, stellarators and other "alternate concepts," laser-driven devices such as inertial confinement fusion (ICF), and hybrid approaches including liner-imploded and z-pinch concepts.

A minimum condition for developing fusion research into a viable energy source for society is the achievement of large energy gain—that is, much more energy released due to fusion reactions than the energy put into the system in the first place. In 1955, a British engineer named J.D. Lawson identified the requirements for achieving high levels of energy gain: high temperatures, and a high product of density and energy confinement (or burn) time. Multiplying all three parameters into a single value called the "fusion triple product" gives a metric that allows for the comparison of different fusion concepts along the axis of energy gain. By extracting data from dozens of fusion journal articles and reports over the last six decades, Wurzel shows that progress was rapid from the 1960s to the 1990s.

Past the nineties, however, the increase in fusion triple product did not grow as steadily, but has jumped significantly in recent years in laser-based ICF at the National Ignition Facility (NIF), which has achieved the largest fusion triple product values to date. Newer, lower-cost concepts pursued by private fusion companies, like the sheared-flow stabilized Z-pinch and the field-reversed configuration (FRC) and other novel configurations are showing progress and promise, surpassing the performance of early tokamaks.

The key figures from Wurzel's invited tutorial talk, based on the manuscript by Wurzel and Hsu, provide a comprehensive framework, inclusive of all thermonuclear fusion concepts, for tracking and understanding the physics progress of fusion toward energy breakeven and gain (Figure 1).Researchers report argon fluoride laser fusion research findings

More information: PT02.00001. Progress Toward Fusion Energy Breakeven and Gain as Measured Against the Lawson Criterion

Provided by American Physical Society 

Researchers at the brink of fusion ignition at National Ignition Facility

by American Physical Society

The fusion yield (megajoules) from 2011 to present. Credit: LLNL

After decades of inertial confinement fusion research, a record yield of more than 1.3 megajoules (MJ) from fusion reactions was achieved in the laboratory for the first time during an experiment at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's (LLNL) National Ignition Facility (NIF) on Aug. 8, 2021. These results mark an 8-fold improvement over experiments conducted in spring 2021 and a 25-fold increase over NIF's 2018 record yield (Figure 1).

NIF precisely guides, amplifies, reflects, and focuses 192 powerful laser beams into a target about the size of a pencil eraser in a few billionths of a second. NIF generates temperatures in the target of more than 180 million F and pressures of more than 100 billion Earth atmospheres. Those extreme conditions cause hydrogen atoms in the target to fuse and release energy in a controlled thermonuclear reaction.

LLNL physicist Debbie Callahan will discuss this achievement during a plenary session at the 63rd Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Plasma Physics. While there has been significant media coverage of this achievement, this talk will represent the first opportunity to address these results and the path forward in a scientific conference setting.

Achieving these large yields has been a long-standing goal for inertial confinement fusion research and puts researchers at the threshold of fusion ignition, an important goal of NIF, the world's largest and most energetic laser.

The fusion research community uses many technical definitions for ignition, but the National Academy of Science adopted the definition of "gain greater than unity" in a 1997 review of NIF, meaning fusion yield greater than laser energy delivered. This experiment produced fusion yield of roughly two-thirds of the laser energy that was delivered, tantalizingly close to that goal.

The experiment built on several advances developed over the last several years by the NIF team including new diagnostics; target fabrication improvements in the capsule shell, fill tube and hohlraum (a gold cylinder that holds the target capsule); improved laser precision; and design changes to increase the energy coupled to the implosion and the compression of the implosion.

These advances open access to a new experimental regime, with new avenues for research and the opportunity to benchmark modeling used to understand the proximity to ignition.Unveiling the steady progress toward fusion energy gain

More information: Abstract: AR01.00001. Achieving a Burning Plasma on the National Ignition Facility (NIF) Laser

Provided by American Physical Society 

 

New Insights Into Heat Pathways Advances Understanding of Fusion Plasma

By PRINCETON PLASMA PHYSICS LABORATORY NOVEMBER 2, 2021

Physicist Suying Jin with computer-generated images showing the properties of heat pulse propagation in plasma. Credit: Headshot courtesy of Suying Jin / Collage courtesy of Kiran Sudarsanan

A high-tech fusion facility is like a thermos — both keep their contents as hot as possible. Fusion facilities confine electrically charged gas known as plasma at temperatures 10 times hotter than the sun, and keeping it hot is crucial to stoking the fusion reactions that scientists seek to harness to create a clean, plentiful source of energy for producing electricity.

Now, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have made simple changes to equations that model the movement of heat in plasma. The changes improve insights that could help engineers avoid the conditions that could lead to heat loss in future fusion facilities.

Fusion, the power that drives the sun and stars, combines light elements in the form of plasma — the hot, charged state of matter composed of free electrons and atomic nuclei — that generates massive amounts of energy. Scientists are seeking to replicate fusion on Earth for a virtually inexhaustible supply of power to generate electricity.

“The whole magnetic confinement fusion approach basically boils down to holding a plasma together with magnetic fields and then getting it as hot as possible by keeping heat confined,” said Suying Jin, a graduate student in the Princeton Program for Plasma Physics and lead author of a paper reporting the results in Physical Review E. “To accomplish this goal, we have to fundamentally understand how heat moves through the system.”

Scientists had been using an analysis technique that assumed that the heat flowing among electrons was substantially unaffected by the heat flowing among the much larger ions, Jin said. But she and colleagues found that the two pathways for heat actually interact in ways that can profoundly affect how measurements are interpreted. By allowing for that interaction, scientists can measure the temperatures of electrons and ions more accurately. They also can infer information about one pathway from information about the other.

“What’s exciting about this is that it doesn’t require different equipment,” Jin said. “You can do the same experiments and then use this new model to extract much more information from the same data.”

Jin became interested in heat flow during earlier research into magnetic islands, plasma blobs formed from swirling magnetic fields. Modeling these blobs depends on accurate measurements of heat flow. “Then we noticed gaps in how other people had measured heat flow in the past,” Jin said. “They had calculated the movement of heat assuming that it moved only through one channel. They didn’t account for interactions between these two channels that affect how the heat moves through the plasma system. That omission led both to incorrect interpretations of the data for one species and missed opportunities to get further insights into the heat flow through both species.”

Jin’s new model provides fresh insights that weren’t available before. “It’s generally easier to measure electron heat transport than it is to measure ion heat transport,” said PPPL physicist Allan Reiman, a paper co-author. “These findings can give us an important piece of the puzzle in an easier way than expected.”

“It is remarkable that even minimal coupling between electrons and ions can profoundly change how heat propagates in plasma,” said Nat Fisch, Professor of Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton University and a co-author of the paper. “This sensitivity can now be exploited to inform our measurements.”

The new model will be used in future research. “We are looking at proposing another experiment in the near future, and this model will give us some extra knobs to turn to understand the results,” Reiman said. “With Jin’s model, our inferences will be more accurate. We now know how to extract the additional information we need.”

Reference: “Coupled heat pulse propagation in two-fluid plasmas” by S. Jin, A. H. Reiman and N. J. Fisch, 4 May 2021, Physical Review E.
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevE.103.053201