Publications

Alberta is preparing for a lower emission future. The Hydrogen Roadmap is a key part of that future and Alberta's Recovery Plan. The roadmap is our path to building a provincial hydrogen economy and accessing global markets. It contains several policy actions that will be introduced in the coming months and years and it provides support to the sector as technology and markets develop.<br/>Alberta is already the largest hydrogen producer in Canada. We have all the resources expertise and technology needed to quickly become a global supplier of clean low-cost hydrogen. With a worldwide market estimated to be worth over $2.5 trillion a year by 2050 hydrogen can be the next great energy export that fuels jobs investment and economic opportunity across our province.

Single-atom catalysts provide an effective approach to reduce the amount of precious metals meanwhile maintain their catalytic activity. However the sluggish activity of the catalysts for alkaline water dissociation has hampered advances in highly efficient hydrogen production. Herein we develop a single-atom platinum immobilized NiO/Ni heterostructure (PtSA-NiO/Ni) as an alkaline hydrogen evolution catalyst. It is found that Pt single atom coupled with NiO/Ni heterostructure enables the tunable binding abilities of hydroxyl ions (OH*) and hydrogen (H*) which efficiently tailors the water dissociation energy and promotes the H* conversion for accelerating alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction. A further enhancement is achieved by constructing PtSA-NiO/Ni nanosheets on Ag nanowires to form a hierarchical three-dimensional morphology. Consequently the fabricated PtSA-NiO/Ni catalyst displays high alkaline hydrogen evolution performances with a quite high mass activity of 20.6 A mg⁻¹ for Pt at the overpotential of 100 mV significantly outperforming the reported catalysts.

Pathways leading to a carbon neutral future for the German energy system have to deal with the expected phase-out of coal-fired power generation in addition to the shutdown of nuclear power plants and the rapid ramp-up of photovoltaics and wind power generation. An analysis of the expected impact on electricity market security of supply and system stability must consider the European context because of the strong coupling—both from an economic and a system operation point of view—through the cross-border power exchange of Germany with its neighbors. This analysis complemented by options to improve the existing development plans is the purpose of this paper. We propose a multilevel energy system modeling including electricity market network congestion management and system stability to identify challenges for the years 2023 and 2035. Out of the results we would like to highlight the positive role of innovative combined heat and power (CHP) solutions securing power and heat supply the importance of a network congestion management utilizing flexibility from sector coupling and the essential network extension plans. Network congestion and reduced security margins will become the new normal. We conclude that future energy systems require expanded flexibilities in combination with forward planning of operation.

Human health is a key pillar of modern conceptions of sustainability. Humanity pays a considerable price for its dependence on fossil-fueled energy systems which must be addressed for sustainable urban development. Public hospitals are focal points for communities and have an opportunity to lead the transition to renewable energy. We have reimagined the healthcare energy ecosystem with sustainable technologies to transform hospitals into networked clean energy hubs. In this concept design hydrogen is used to couple energy with other on-site medical resource demands and vanadium flow battery technology is used to engage the public with energy systems. This multi-generation system would reduce harmful emissions while providing reliable services tackling the linked issues of human and environmental health.

The corrosion morphology in grade 2205 duplex stainless steel wire was studied to understand the nature of pitting and the causes of the ferrite phase’s selective corrosion in acidic (pH 3) NaCl solutions at 60 °C. It is shown that the corrosion mechanism is always pitting which either manifests lacy cover perforation or densely arrayed selective cavities developing selectively on the ferrite phase. Pits with a lacy metal cover form in concentrated chloride solutions whereas the ferrite phase’s selective corrosion develops in diluted electrolytes showing dependency on the chloride-ion concentration. The pit perforation is probabilistic and occurs on both austenite and ferrite grains. The lacy metal covers collapse in concentrated solutions but remain intact in diluted electrolytes. The collapse of the lacy metal cover happens due to hydrogen embrittlement. Pit evolution is deterministic and occurs selectively in the ferrite phase in light chloride solutions.

In December 2019 the European Commission unveiled an ambitious project the European Green Deal which aims to lead the European Union to climate neutrality by 2050. This is a significant challenge for all EU countries and especially for Poland. The role of hydrogen in the processes of decarbonization of the economy and transport is being discussed in many countries around the world to find rational solutions to this difficult and complex problem. There is an ongoing discussion about the hydrogen economy which covers the production of hydrogen its storage transport and conversion to the desired forms of energy primarily electricity mechanical energy and new fuels. The development of the hydrogen economy can significantly support the achievement of climate neutrality. The belief that hydrogen plays an important role in the transformation of the energy sector is widespread. There are many technical and economic challenges as well as legal and logistical barriers to deal with in the transition process. The development of hydrogen technologies and a global sustainable energy system that uses hydrogen offers a real opportunity to solve the challenges facing the global energy industry: meeting the need for clean fuels increasing the efficiency of fuel and energy production and significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The paper provides an in-depth analysis of the Polish Hydrogen Strategy a document that sets out the directions for the development of hydrogen use (competences and technologies) in the energy transport and industrial sectors. This analysis is presented against the background of the European Commission’s document ‘A Hydrogen Strategy for a Climate-Neutral Europe’. The draft project presented is a good basis for further discussion on the directions of development of the Polish economy. The Polish Hydrogen Strategy although it was created later than the EU document does not fully follow its guidelines. The directions for further work on the hydrogen strategy are indicated so that its final version can become a driving force for the development of the country’s economy.

Storing renewable energy in chemicals like hydrogen can bring various benefits like high energy density seasonal storability possible cost reduction of the final product and the potential to let renewable power penetrate other markets and to overcome their intermittent availability. In the last year’s production of this gas from renewable energy sources via electrolysis has grown its reputation as one feasible solution to satisfy future zero-emission energy demand. To extend the exploitation of Renewable Energy Source (RES) small-scale conversion plants seem to be an interesting option. In view of a possible widespread adoption of these types of plants the authors intend to present the experimental characterization of a small-scale hydrogen production and storage plant. The considered experimental plant is based on an alkaline electrolyser and an air-driven hydrogen compression and storage system. The results show that the hydrogen production-specific consumption is on average 77 kWh/kgH2 . The hydrogen compressor energy requirement is on average 15 kWh/kgH2 (data referred to the driving compressed air). The value is higher than data found in literature (4.4–9.3 kWh/kgH2 ) but the difference can be attributed to the small size of the considered compressor and the choice to limit the compression stages.

This study aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere and effectively utilize wasted resources by converting methane the main component of biogas into hydrogen. Therefore a reactor was developed to decompose methane into carbon and hydrogen using solar thermal sources instead of traditional energy sources such as coal and petroleum. The optical distributions were analyzed using TracePro a Monte Carlo ray-tracing-based program. In addition Fluent a computational fluid dynamics program was used for the heat and mass transfer and chemical reaction. The cylindrical indirect heating reactor rotates at a constant speed to prevent damage by the heat source concentrated at the solar furnace. The inside of the reactor was filled with a porous catalyst for methane decomposition and the outside was surrounded by insulation to reduce heat loss. The performance of the reactor according to the cavity model was calculated when solar heat was concentrated on the reactor surface and methane was supplied into the reactor in an environment with a solar irradiance of 700 W/m2 wind speed of 1 m/s and outdoor temperature of 25 °C. As a result temperature methane mass fraction distribution and heat loss amounts for the two cavities were obtained and it was found that the effect on the conversion rate was largely dependent on a temperature over 1000 °C in the reactor. Moreover the heat loss of the full-cavity model decreased by 12.5% and the methane conversion rate increased by 33.5% compared to the semi-cavity model. In conclusion the high-temperature environment of the reactor has a significant effect on the increase in conversion rate with an additional effect of reducing heat loss.

Electrical power generation is changing dramatically across the world because of the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to introduce mixed energy sources. The power network faces great challenges in transmission and distribution to meet demand with unpredictable daily and seasonal variations. Electrical Energy Storage (EES) is recognized as underpinning technologies to have great potential in meeting these challenges whereby energy is stored in a certain state according to the technology used and is converted to electrical energy when needed. However the wide variety of options and complex characteristic matrices make it difficult to appraise a specific EES technology for a particular application. This paper intends to mitigate this problem by providing a comprehensive and clear picture of the state-of-the-art technologies available and where they would be suited for integration into a power generation and distribution system. The paper starts with an overview of the operation principles technical and economic performance features and the current research and development of important EES technologies sorted into six main categories based on the types of energy stored. Following this a comprehensive comparison and an application potential analysis of the reviewed technologies are presented.

To address the climate emergency France is committed to achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. It plans to significantly increase the contribution of renewable energy in its energy mix. The share of renewable energy in its electricity production which amounts to 25.5% in 2020 should reach at least 40% in 2030. This growth poses several new challenges that require policy makers and regulators to act on the technological changes and expanding need for flexibility in power systems. This document presents the main strategies and projects developed in France as well as various recommendations to accompany and support its energy transition policy.