Network Build-out : EPC and B-O-O-T Project Opportunity
District Heating Utility Plants
powered from Thermal Energy Storage Batteries
which are to be regularly charged, AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE using (innately Intermittent)Wind / Solar Curtailment-Excess GREEN ENERGY, AND (with each TBDAC unit)
Staging a ConjoinedDIRECT AIR CAPTURE Plant.
Note that all of the technologies discussed here – are independently validated, and many, if not most, are already being used successfully on standalone bases.
The effort here is to cobble several of them together – to create a new work process / Industrial Template / Best Practice.
The objective is to Reduce the Cost of Direct Air Capture, and make it so that Distributed DAC becomes Ubiquitous, greatly accelerating the pace of Decarbonization ... DEFOSSILIZATION, i.e., Removal of FOSSIL-Sourced CO2from the atmosphere –Globally, and allowing humanity to more aggressively and combatively Counter Climate Change / maybe even Reverse Global Warming, before it is too late.
NOTE: The terms Decarbonization and Defossilization are often used interchangeably, although perhaps they shouldn't be.
To understand this, one first has to internalize how Life has evolved on our planet, and its relationship to Climatic Conditions over the ages. Below is a 'Cliff Notes' version of (the relevant aspect of) the Climate Change Story of Life on Planet Earth – the over-simplified rendition.
All Life-form (which obviously includes us Humans) is Carbon-based, as is all our food, and much of what we must consume, just to be Alive! That Carbon, which is essential to life, Cannot and Should Not be eliminated. It is NOT the problem.
When living beings die, their collective physical body-mass slowly degrades back to the constituents from which it was originally formed – (mainly) Carbon. For millions of years, the carbonic mass of the dead plants and animals, consigned to the ground, sank deep into the earth, where it was fossilized and under conditions of high pressure and temperature – was eventually transformed into carboniferous matter like Peat (Lignite), Coal, Petrolem and Natural Gas, i.e., Fossil Fuels.
And for millions of years, all this Carbon, buried deep in the bowels of the earth, remained Sequestered from the atmosphere, doing no harm. Over very long periods, the proportion of Carbon Dioxide (and other Greenhouse Gases) became more or less constant, with small variations across Time and Space, but within certain limits of tolerance. A Natural Equilibrium was established.
Over hundreds of thousands of years (at a Minimum) – ALL Living Beings, including Humans, evolved around this Equilibrium, and are adapted to survive under the physical conditions fostered by said Equilibrium, and largely Only under these conditions.
On multiple occasions in Geological Time, the said equilibrium has been breached. Each such time, this has resulted in Devastating Climate Change – the onset of an Ice Age and/or other physical conditions not conducive to Life on Earth (for most life-forms). And during these epochs, most Species were unable to survive, becoming Extinct! An example of this would be the Dinosaurs.
However, we think, each such time, a few members of a few species survived, and underwent significant trauma-induced evolutionary adaptation.
The current Human civilization emerged after the last major Ice Age, and is thought to have become the most scientifically and technologically advanced.
But as human civilization has advanced, human activity over the last few centuries rapidly dug up a very large amount of the subterranean fossil mass beneath our feet, mostly to burn as fuel by Oxidation. This process creates Carbon Dioxide gas, CO2, which has strong Heat-Trapping properties. And over all that time, this CO2 has just kept on entering the ambient air of our atmosphere, and just remaining there, accumulating, this proportion of CO2 growing bigger and bigger.
Nature – Forests and Oceans routinely dispose of this Excess Carbon, but that Natural process is slow. Now, the speed at which New (De-Sequestered) Carbon is entering our Atmosphere – is far outpacing the rate at which Nature can dispose of it!
Over millenia, and particularly the last few centuries, since the Industrial Revolution (Thomas Newcomen 1712, James Watt 1764), the Net Proportion of this CO2 in our atmosphere just kept on increasing, and kept on heating the atmosphere. And as the human race keeps burning more and more fossil fuels, more and more and more CO2 keeps entering, and further heating up our planet.
At the start of the Industrial Revolution, the carbon dioxide concentration in the Earth's atmosphere was about 270 parts per million (ppm).
This was a 39 percent increase from the pre-industrial time.
Scientists believe that the Safe level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is (Maximum) around 350 parts per million (ppm).
The concentration of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere is currently at nearly 412 ppm, and RISING – Well PAST the Danger mark!.
This represents a 47 percent increase since the beginning of the Industrial Age.
Exhaustive scientific research over the last many decades has incontrovertibly established that this increase in carbon content is largely because of the burning of fossil fuels, deforestation, and other human-caused factors.
This EXCESS of Carbon (Dioxide) in our atmosphere is considered to be the Main Ongoing Causal Event that continues to result in (man-made) Global Warming, ergo, Climate Change.
Scientists have repeatedly and conclusively proved that our Earth's Land and Ocean temperatures vary in direct proportion to the concentration of carbon dioxide in the Earth's Atmosphere (not the subterranean carbonic mass). If we are able to reduce this proportion of carbon in the Atmosphere, then it will directly reduce Global Warming!
When we speak of Decarbonization, we are really referring to the human effort to reduce the Proportion of this EXCESSFOSSIL-Sourced Carbon (Dioxide) in the atmosphere – in other words, Defossilization – to Combat / Counter / Reverse Climate Change.
And it is this Last – Climate Change – that humanity is now trying to battle, to survive, and to save Planet Earth in its current form, so as to be habitable by the various Species (including Humans) that live on it now.
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This Proposal focuses on the development of a new and innovative type of industrial plant concept, 'TBDAC', which would anchor at the intersection of the following constituent nodes.
A.
Over-Generation of (natively Intermittent) Wind / Solar (Green) Power, already sometimes undergoing Curtailment.
B.
Ongoing Massive FURTHER Build-out of Wind / Solar Power generation capacity, and linked Power Grid improvements to transport the same.
C.
Ubiquitous presence of District Heating Utility Plants (and other Industrial Heating Plants) across the target market, many / most (historically, and still currently) burning Fossil Fuels to generate Heat.
D.
Revolutionary recent technological advances in the development of relatively Low-CapExThermal Batteries which can very inexpensively store and deliver Heat over extended periods.
E.
Emergent & Prevailing Urgent Social Imperative for the widespread and Ubiquitous deployment of Direct Air (Carbon) Capture, DAC, plants – which are veryEnergy-Hungry– to Decarbonize our planet and LIMIT Global Warming-induced rise in temperatures to 1.5°C by 2040 A.D.
Elaborating further, this discussion / this author posits the development of "TBDAC", a conceptually new type of Composite Industrial Plant – based on the following:
(1)
TES (Thermal Energy Storage), also known as 'Tbat' = Thermal Batteries (hereinafter referred to as such),
focusing on inexpensive, fast and easy-to-implement
technology solutions for the Wholesale and Distributed Storage
of Heat
– utilizing (to the greatest extent possible) the anticipated and Ongoing Over-Generation of Green Power ...
NOTE: there is a phenomenon of Over-Supply of Wind Power (mainly from Offshore and generally in winter, e.g., in Northern Europe), and also Over-Supply of Solar Power (in Hot Summers, like Italy, Greece, Spain, Balkans, Türkiye, California, Texas, Florida, Arizona, New Mexico, Western Australia, Northern Territories, Queensland, Mexico, Brazil, India, MENA, etc.)
.... which Over-Generation is routinely 'Curtailed' to protect the Power Grid (during times when Electricity Generation outpaces Dispatchable Demand, AND available Battery / Pumped-Hydro / other Power Storage) ;
– and how these Thermal Battery installations can be coupled with Direct Air (Carbon) Capture or DAC plants – together co-opted to simultaneously build-out networks of these Combined Thermal Battery + Direct Air Capture facilities, hereinafter, "TBDAC" Plants –
(6)
All of which must boost (Un-OutSourceable) Local Jobs, Local Economic Activity and the Local Tax-Base, and
(7)
All of which will require partnering with Governmental Authorities / Support Agencies, for any eligible Financial / other Support, often available for projects benefiting the Environment, Energy Security and Social upliftment –
(8)
and the Business Opportunity this represents for an Entrepreneurial EPC Contractor who can earn a premium by connecting and combining these different pieces, and executing such cross-platform projects efficiently, rapidly and at a reasonable cost.
In the back-drop of the Climate Crisis emergency, the intelligent world has been
moving fast, for decades now, towards 'Green' resources and processes – to contain the worst impacts of Climate Change and LIMITGlobal Warming to 1.5°C, a goal many respectable scientists are still struggling to deem achievable, though only with MAXIMAL effort.
In the EU, and in most of the (historically) "Colder" / Temperate Climate 1st World countries, the per capita consumption of Energy is very high.
After exhaustive research by the world's most learned scientists and engineers, spanning many decades, Energy has been identified, objectively, as the most urgent and relatively 'easily' addressable battlefront within this war. So, much of the race towards 'Green' – has been towards sustainable and eco-friendly
energy sourcing and deployment, and distancing itself from the usage of Fossil (and Fissile) Fuels
– traditionally the mainstay of Energy generation.
In the months
following 2022-02-24,
much of the pipeline system transporting Russian Natural Gas
into Europe was
substantially destroyed, decisively ending any prospect of revival
in the near future.
All this caused a large upward spike in Global Fossil Fuel prices, at least temporarily
– partially helping to push many of the world's economies into
recession, and some, mainly (but not exclusively) poorer countries – into bankruptcy,
and
the Most Vulnerable – Towards Starvation. This led to Europe (with US-Canada, AU-NZ, India, Japan-S.Korea, etc., and perhaps no small measure of Divine Justice / Manifest
Destiny)
setting up an entire alternative ecosystem of energy
strategies – focusing in a major way (though not exclusively) on:
1)
Accelerated build-out of Wind, Solar and other available Eco-friendly Renewables, ...
Analysis: Could Israel-Hamas war lead to another winter energy crisis for Europe?
07
Green Energy or Bust!
A POTENTIAL MITIGATIVE ACTIONABLE SOLUTION WE CAN DEPLOY!
The world today is very focused on the Electricity-generation component of the
solution to this ongoing Global Energy Transition (particularly towards Sustainable /
Ecologically Sound sources like Wind and Solar, the main thrust areas). In Europe,
particularly Northern Europe around the Baltic and North Seas, which experiences
cold and very windy winters, there has been a massive build-out of Wind Energy
generation capacity, both offshore and onshore – and it is still continuing, for
example
with countries like Denmark building new ‘Energy Islands’ or other forward-thinking
projects in the Orkney Islands.
So much so, that the last few winters have seen a massive over-production of Wind
Energy. Winters in Northern Europe are extremely and consistently windy, and the
build-out of Wind Farms, particularly around the North Sea and the Baltic has been
arguably excessive (NOT a criticism). On multiple occasions the last few years, the
production of Wind energy was so great that the grids were unable to absorb or
deploy
it all. Electricity prices have gone negative a few times, with Energy
consumers being
offered an incentive to consume more and pay less to do so (e.g., in the UK).
So, it could be said that
this Excess Wind Energy doesn’t always have very many
good use-cases mission-critical to society, yet.
With the ever-increasingly hot summers, the case of Solar Energy would be similar in
Southern Europe and North Africa in the coming summers.
But one problem with Solar and Wind (the current main thrust areas for Renewable
Energy Generation) is that they are Natively / Intrinsically INTERMITTENT Sources. And the times at which
we see the most energy being generated are (most commonly) NOT the times of peak
consumption.
Watch below Video:
The 'Duck Curve' is Solar Energy's Greatest Challenge
This necessitates the creation and deployment of efficient, eco-friendly,
inexpensive and ubiquitous Power Storage solutions. An enormous amount of
interest,
effort, resources and more – are being, and already have been, directed
towards this.
There is a very robust focus on the development of Power Storage tech, both
mechanical and (mostly) electro-chemical, both Lithium-based and non-Lithium batteries
(widely seen as being more sustainable in the long-term than solutions dependent
on
the supply chains of Lithium, Cobalt, Nickel, Manganese or other raw materials which have toxic / problematic supply chains).
Too many to mention.
Not discussed in this context.
NOTE:
Nordische (above) has some very
promising
innovations
on improving
legacy Lead-acid battery tech.
So, this is all very encouraging and exciting, right?
But it should also be noted that, generally, 50% or more of the typical annual Energy
consumption (in the Temperate and/or Industrial countries) is actually in the form of
HEAT, rather than ELECTRICITY !!!!
This includes not only heating for homes and commercial
establishments, but also the Industrial Heating market, where industry requires vast
quantities of Heat for manufacturing, storage, transportation and other processes.
This
is particularly important in the larger and more heavily industrialized economies,
i.e.,
Germany, US, France, India, Japan, South Korea, China, etc. Without a continuous, uninterrupted supply of input HEAT, much of the manufacturing, technology, and other industry in these countries will have to close down, effectively ending their economies and/or quality of life.
Given that Solar and Wind Energy Generation are INTERMITTENT, and Battery / Pumped-Hydro-based Power Storage have certain challenges, there is an urgent
need to develop inexpensive and ubiquitous sources of HEAT STORAGE.
THERMAL ENERGY STORAGE (TES), also known as THERMAL BATTERIES (Tbat) or Heat Batteries are a (fantastic) way to Store Heat, and sometimes also Electricity. They are nothing new –
Below is a short list of Companies that have, in the recent past, developed very inexpensive
and quite revolutionary Industrial
Thermal (Heat) Battery technology solutions:
I generally like what I have been able to understand about PNE’s tech,
with
one exception. PNE’s design is to build their (highly insulated) Thermal
Batteries at and ABOVE Ground-level – cylindrical tanks encased in sheaths of
insulated steel, initially sized 4 meters wide, 7 meters high, containing 100 MTs of
sand; progressing later to tanks 20 meters across and 10 meters high,
resulting in one gigawatt hour of storage capacity (equivalent to One Million
kWh).
•
I would prefer to have the same or larger UNDERGROUND cylindrical structures housing the Thermal Battery’s Sand /
Gravel / Brick-based core content chamber(s), where actually the
Heat is held, and then released very slowly in a controlled manner.
If underground, the natural insulation from the ground surrounding the
structures would be more advantageous.
Also, the structural engineering and civil-work components might cost
less.
The ground above the Thermal Battery could now be used for something
else, for example – a customer’s Factory, or a Solar or Wind farm, or
a Greenhouse, or just urban Buildings, or Agricultural Fields, or even
Airplane Runways or Military Bases.
Also importantly, the underground solution would be much more
tenable from a security perspective. In the event of an Air- or other
Terrorist attack from Russia / China (or another analogous regime / actor), an
underground structure (not containing any explosive materials) would
be much more secure.
In the case of Finland itself (Polar Night Energy’s home market),
which has huge underground stores of spent nuclear waste, there may
even be ways to deploy said nuclear waste to source some portion of
the heat which might be used to charge the Thermal Batteries.
One important consideration is – how long can these Thermal Batteries store the heat (maintaining an useful temperature gradient, and at a viable cost)? The estimates vary widely, from 3 months, to 24 months and beyond.
Obviously, this will depend on the level and quality of insulation used to encase the tanks, and the heat exchange hardware.
(In the case of UNDERGROUND installations, the cost of the insulation envelope might be less.)
This in turn affects the CAPEX cost of the Thermal Battery.
Another corollary would be to look into the possibility of giving each (underground) Thermal Battery a boost from perhaps a (closed-loop ground-source / non-seismicity-inducing and non-cost-prohibitive) geothermal source (or even a Waste Heat Recovery source), to maintain the temperatures inside the tanks.
There are also a number of companies focusing on the Residential / non-Industrial Heating market (great opportunities, but less interesting in this particular context), including:
Although a few players have already developed technologically sound Thermal Batteries, they seem to be focused currently on improving / streamlining their respective technologies. The thrust seems to be on producing the best curated tech solution, which is of course understandable and laudable.
Today the second winter of our discontent since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine 'hot war' is upon us, with no end in sight. Europe needs Heat in the winter months, preferably from Green sources, not just 2023-24, but for all the future, divorced from Russian Fossil Gas!
And yet, I don’t hear much chatter as yet about the ubiquitous deployment of these types of Thermal Batteries across Europe, which bothers me, and not a little.
Therefore, I think that today an attractive business opportunity exists for an entrepreneurial EPC Contractor to enter this arena, tie-up technical collaboration with one or more of the technology-owners above mentioned, and start reaching out to the myriad District Heating Utility providers (and other wholesale Heat producers and consumers) throughout Europe, with proposals to build out a network of these Thermal Batteries, located as per customer demand AND favorable Green Energy Production / Supply parameters (amongst other commercial / regulatory support framework criteria).
The target customers (e.g., District Heating / Industrial Heating plants) would already have in place the Heat distribution hardware and fully operational customer-base, and most likely also the statutory permits, land-and-buildings, and other necessary infrastructure.
District Heating Cos. in Europe | Links to a few resources
Many of these District Heating Utility companies, particularly smaller and regional players, would likely currently be using Furnace-based Heat production plants, most likely (at least mainly) burning Peat (Lignite), Coal, Natural Gas / Bio Gas, Wood chips / Pelletized Biomass, Agri- / Urban Waste, or other CO2-emitting processes. Such companies might be the best ones to target, as customers, to get this venture started.
Once the subject Thermal Battery (herein proposed) is built and operational, the customer (District Heating Utility, etc.) would have to switch to supplying their retail / wholesale customers – the Heat piped from their new Thermal Batteries – instead of from the legacy fossil fuel-burning Furnaces / heating plants – which latter would be relegated, initially, to the role of Backup Heat-Sources.
Energy Source for Thermal Battery: Green Energy CURTAILMENT
What would be the source(s) from which the Thermal Battery operators would obtain the Energy to charge their Heat Batteries?
1.
PRIMARILY, it should be from the Excess Wind Energy in winter (and Excess Solar Energy in summer) – the over-generation of which is frequently having to be Curtailed.
Geothermal-Volcanic There are a few special cases, like Naples, Italy (near the base of Mt. Vesuvius), or Catania, Sicily (near the base of Mt. Etna) – both Active Volcanos. By (indirectly) accessing the volcanos' Magma Chambers, from points close to the Volcanic Caldera(s), there are ways to continuously extract (extremely large amounts of) Heat, using sophisticated Heat Exchange and Evacuation mechanisms.Apparently this process of draining the Heat energy from the Volcanic cores – can actually cool down the Volcanoes being tapped, significantly diminishing their seismicity, i.e., greatly decreasing the probability of an eruption!
This should be explored, and ONLY IF it is found that this heat can be harnessed safely and viably – then this resource could also be exploited.
2-D.
Nuclear Waste-based
In another few very special cases, like Onkalo, Finland, where there exist plentiful Spent Nuclear Waste Sequestration Repositories, which typically continually exude small quanta of energy emanating outbound as heat, and ONLY IF this heat can be harnessed safely and inexpensively, perhaps using some very secure heat-exchange mechanisms – then this resource could also be exploited.
3.
Beyond these, TERTIARILY, low-cost Off-Peak Grid Power could be used also, but Only IF UNAVOIDABLE.
I propose that there should be an initiative NOT to Curtail the seasonal Excess Energy Production from Wind and Solar (a practice that has become the norm in recent years, out of necessity), but rather channel all of the excess energy into these new-tech Thermal Batteries whenever possible.
The Thermal Batteries of the District Heating Utilities should try to intake as much Energy from the Excess Wind (and other Green) sources as physically possible, not only what they need to service their District Heating customer-base completely, but ALL green energy available, that is not otherwise spoken for.
(NOTE: Basically, we want these Thermal Batteries to act as the Default Storage Nodes for Green Energy in the Power Ecosystem.)
This should result in there being far more energy than the Thermal Batteries can possibly deploy to their legacy customers.
Deployment of Excess Energy
from Thermal Battery: CO2 Removal
HOW WOULD THE THERMAL BATTERIES UTILIZE THIS EXCESS ENERGY?
This takes us to the next part – Direct Air (Carbon) Capture, DACC, or DAC. Read on.
Backdrop to our Concept
It is now universally acceptedthat this (already extremely elevated, and still) excessively rising proportionate content of CO2, i.e., the elevated levels of Carbonization – is very obviously and visibly raising temperatures around the world, heating the oceans, with extremely negative outcomes for the habitability of our planet, for humans, and for many species of the animal and plant kingdoms. It is now universally recognized by the mainstream of the scientific community and credible opinion-leaders and decision-makers globally, that these elevated CO2 levels are a significant driver of (the Man-Made, 'Should-have-been-AVOIDABLE' Portion of) Global Warming –
•
making our seasonal temperature changes more extreme –
the last 8 years, as of 2023, have EACH, PROGRESSIVELY, been the HOTTEST on record!!!!
•
increasing the frequency and ferocity of Devastating Hurricanes,
now unfortunately a virtually Multi-Annual phenomenon in many parts of the world, e.g., the Gulf of Mexico / Florida / Caribbean islands and coastal areas.
•
Raising Ocean Temperatures and Sea Levels – causing many inhabited lands to start sinking below the sea
(very evident already in some countries, like the Maldives, Bangladesh, coastal Louisiana). Click here to know more.
Fortunately, our world is making rapid progress in moving towards new and improved social / cultural Best Practices, technologies and work processes that are less dependent on fossil fuels, and cause much less NEW Greenhouse Gas emissions (from the present time onwards).
But, one of our biggest challenges is how to deal with the excessive legacy amount of heat-trapping GreenHouse Gas, or GHG, (mainly CO2) emissions that Human Activity over the last few centuries has already flooded into the Atmosphere of Planet Earth.
In the hopes of limiting our rising ambient temperatures, and hopefully even reversing the past toxic Climate Change that has already occurred, we are struggling trying to figure out how to Decarbonize our atmosphere off of
CO2 (and other GHG) emissions continuing to enter our atmosphere anew,
PLUS
the legacy burden of excess CO2 extant in our atmosphere already.
Natural Decarbonization Solutions like planting trees are great, and very effective at removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, but they are very slow, and they need a lot of land (and water and other resources). All these constraints are ones we cannot afford, as we battle this emergency.
Artificial solutions also exist.
Like Forests, Oceans are Natural Carbon Sinks.
'Alkalizing' the Seabed selectively and in a controlled manner, to greatly expand the natural Oceanic Carbon Sink – is one such potential solution.
Specialized Artificial Photosynthesis-inducing Solar Panels are another attractive new technology which shows much promise.
But these solutions (and most others like it) are very expensive, slow, and involve technology that is not fully understood or developed yet, and (in the case of Seabed-Alkalization) pose the danger of our losing control, and having disastrously bad outcomes that may well be irreversible!
Ubiquitous distributed urban patches of Super-FAST-growing Algal strains (focusing on areas experiencing the worst GHG-proliferation / pollution) and Extensive underwater Seaweed Farming across the oceans are safer, cheaper, faster, completely proven and altogether better solutions, with many corollary benefits and payoffs!
But even using ALL such available natural and artificial solutions, cumulatively – it is still deemed "maybe not enough" to handle (and preferably reverse) the Climate Crisis.
One of the precious few tenable solutions left that the world currently still has – is Carbon Capture, and (Utilization or) Sequestration of the Carbon Dioxide captured, also known as CCUS. This is increasingly being deployed at the Emissions "Point-Sources", i.e., the Flue Stacks of industrial plants that CURRENTLY create large amounts of CO2 (and/or other undesirable) emissions. It is very effective – at curbing NEW EMISSIONS.
On an interesting (and indirectly related) segway, a group of scientists at the Rice University Dept of Chemistry conducting research (funded by the U.S. Army and the U.S. Air Forve) on the Flash-Joule Heat Treatment of Waste Plastic― have discovered a way to turn (Unsorted) Waste Plastic, and indeed, all manners of Organic (carbon-based) Waste into a number of very useful and in-demand products very valuable in commercial use. These include – Turbostratic Graphene, Carbon Nano Tubes, Green Hydrogen, and even feedstock for making Soap and Detergent products.
It is exciting to note that the process is very Climate Change Mitigation-friendly.
"A life cycle analysis of the production process revealed that flash Joule heating was considerably more energy-efficient and environmentally friendly than existing nanotube production processes."
“Compared to commercial methods for carbon nanotube production that are being used right now, ours uses about 90% less energy and generates 90%-94% less carbon dioxide,” ...
One may very safely assume that a plethora of CCUS projects and ventures will result from this discovery, and very shortly, due, of course, to the Urgency of Climate Change, but just as much because of the exploding commercial demand for Graphene, Carbon Nanotubes, Green Hydrogen, etc., AND the need to cope with the runaway proliferation of Plastics Waste and Pollution Globally.
But what about LEGACY(Ambient, non-Point-Source) Emissions that have already permeated the whole atmosphere,not just atfactories and industrial / emissions sites – but everywhere, in the air we breathe?
For that, perhaps the only solution is the remaining alternative –Direct Air Carbon Capture, DACC, also known as Direct Air Capture, DAC.
In the face of the Existential Emergency that Planet Earth is facing, this technology, DAC, is just now poised to take off and see explosive growth, with ubiquitous proliferation of DAC plants in the coming decades – the most likely deployment for optimal effectiveness!
Some of the most admired companiesin the world are starting to Bankroll Carbon Removal technology and Start-ups, including –Stripe (Global Payment Systems), Meta (owner of Facebook, Instagram, Threads & WhatsApp), Alphabet (parent company of Google), Microsoft, Shopify, McKinsey & Company, ExxonMobil, Chevron, Occidental Petroleum, Audi, ...
And then there is of course the "FRONTIER | Advance Market Commitment" Initiative – byStripe, Shopify, McKinsey & Company, Meta and Alphabet– to purchase USD 925 Million worth of Carbon Removal by 2030, from a whole host of nascent Carbon Removal companies, in an effort to accelerate Scaling and bring costs down!
A growing list of these most premium companies in the world are also starting to act as "Carbon Removal Partners" to actively engage in this effort –Stripe, Meta, Alphabet, Shopify, Hut8, ZenDesk, Pledge, Patch, MapBox, Wellington Management, ... and the list keeps increasing!
I INVITE SUGGESTIONS FROM ALL LEARNED COLLEAGUES / INFORMED READERS ABOUT OTHER COMPANIES TO INCLUDE IN THIS LIST.
One problem is that DAC is extremely expensive, at most locations. This is mostly due to the high Energy Costs of operating DAC Plants. So far – the progress has been pitifully small.
THIS PROJECT is about – the Build-out of large Networks of Green Energy-driven Thermal Batteries (conjoined / dedicated to serve local District Heating Utility / other Wholesale Heat Production plants) – Coupled and Co-opted with Direct Air (Carbon) Capture, in other words, Composite Plants, each composed of a Thermal BatteryPLUS a Conjoint / Adjacent DAC Engine = i.e., a " TBDAC " Plant!
Thermal Batteries, located to optimize logistical advantage, should be built corresponding to points of generation of Wind and/or Solar power – which might sometimes be getting Curtailed due to Over-Production.
Obviously Transmission infrastructure to transport Curtail-Excess power from points of generation to these Thermal Batteries must be in place.
It is proposed thatThermal Batteries should be built on-site or adjacent to District Heating Utility / other Wholesale Heat Production plants (to deliver Heat to said plants).
It is further proposed that Direct Air (Carbon) Capture plants should be built on-site or in close proximity to said Thermal Batteries, from whence said DAC units will off-take Any and ALL excess Energy dispatchable from the Thermal Batteries – any Heat that is NOT being dispatched to legacy non-DAC customers.
Each TBDAC plant should operate (initially) based on how much excess energy their corresponding / conjoint Thermal Battery can offload to the DAC portion of the plant – without negatively impacting required supply to the Thermal Battery’s primary / legacy customers.
A Note on DAC costs.
Unlike Thermal Batteries, which can be relatively inexpensive (for example compared to, say, Lithium batteries) to operate and to build (particularly in the case of Sand / Gravel batteries), DAC plants are quite expensive, especially to operate, and the main OPEX cost component is the Energy Cost to keep the DAC machines and process running.
In the scenario described here – co-located adjacent / conjoint to a Thermal Battery Plant, routinely intaking low-cost (Renewables Curtailment-Overage) Green Energy / other Off-Peak Grid Power – that Energy Cost may be able to be kept low.
This scenario then should unfold as follows:
A.
When the TBDAC Thermal Batteries are dispatching all or most of the Heat in their storage to their Primary (District Heating Utility / other Wholesale Heat) Customers, the conjoined DAC Plants get little or no power, to operate, and may have to lie dormant.
But,
B.
When the Thermal Batteries are intaking (hopefully from Green sources) and storing Heat (possibly much more than they need to dispatch to their Primary / non-DAC[District Heating Utility / other Wholesale Heat] Customers) – they dispatch all the surplus Energy to the conjoined DAC Plant, which rapidly ramps up DECARBONIZATION operations!
Routinely, there are times (of year / season / week / day) – when District Heating Utility customers need NO Heat.
At some of these times, Wind / Solar may still be over-generating power (potentially destined for Curtailment)!
But our Thermal Batteries (with enough spare / redundant capacity) should be designed to be able to absorb this over-generated energy (which might otherwise have had to be CURTAILED).
Having intaken this above excess energy, at very low costs, our Thermal Batteries can turn around and dispatch that energy, each to their respective corresponding DACs!
For the purposes of this discussion, the legacy excessive CO2 / GHG content in the ambient atmosphere is assumed to be largely omnipresent – NOT really affected much by the time of year / season / week / day.
Therefore, unlike other (energy) customers, DACs should be able to (accept the above additional energy, and) swing into operation at any time – Decarbonizing the ambient air, whenever the inexpensive power comes online!
And THIS – herein PROPOSED – ... is the Catalyst / Path to boosting the world's currently flailing efforts to (deploy DAC tech to) Decarbonize on a War Footing!
Voila!
The CAPEX of these TBDAC Plants, particularly the DAC Plant portions, will likely still be quite substantial, and shall almost certainly benefit from Subsidies from (EU / National / State / Local) government sources, perhaps financing through (Capital Markets) Issues of some Green Bonds / Debentures.
To execute these TBDAC projects, the B-O-O-T Model could be explored.
The EPC Contractor discussed hereinabove, or any project-owner for this kind of project – will have to establish Technical Collaboration with one (or more) of the Specialized DAC Tech companies for the latter's Intellectual Property – and have the bandwidth to generate / compile all the (Basic and Detailed) Engineering Process Documentation – to start building the DAC Plant, as soon as Financing and Permitting are tied up.
Incidentally, I recently found out about a company called SOLUNA AC Computing – click here for their website. Soluna is already successfully implementing projects and a Business Model somewhat conceptually analogous to what I have proposed here (i.e., harnessing Green Energy Curtailment Excess to bolster extremely energy-intensive Direct Air Capture, to counter Climate Change).
But instead of harnessing Green Power Curtailment Excess to bolster Direct Air Capture, Soluna is focused on harnessing Wind Farms Curtailment Excess power to run extremely electricity-hungryComputing Data Centers, also aiming to counter Climate Change.
But it IS doable, and congruent with the goals of the EU and member / country governments – environmental, economic, security-wise, employment, strategic, etc., ... even tactical!
This is why I’m putting this idea out there(on my namesake website, social media, etc,)for my learned colleagues, Advisee clients, etc. – for discussion, brain-storming, comments.
Would love to hear what people think about this.
Thanks in advance for taking the time and effort to read, analyze, think-through and soberly and seriously consider this humble idea, and for – sending me your Comments, Thoughts. or Business Propositions.
