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CSIRO Media Release |
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29 September 1998 |
Ref 98/235 |
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Plans to research a revolutionary clean energy process to power Australia's cities and industries into the 21st Century have been given the green light by a technical feasibility study.
A team of CSIRO scientists is preparing to demonstrate that clean urban and regional power can be produced on a large scale by a hybrid solar-fossil generation system that has the potential to emit minimal greenhouse gases.
The project will see the construction of a demonstration facility which uses solar, natural gas and water. It generates electricity from hydrogen, while the carbon dioxide is separated out so that it can be safely stored away.
The chief executive of CSIRO, Dr Malcolm McIntosh, announced that the $7.5 million project would involve construction of a 20 kilowatt demonstration plant at one of CSIRO's Sydney sites.
"A feasibility study has shown the CSIRO hybrid energy concept to be technically feasible, and capable of being completed within three years. It has been verified independently by engineering consultants Sinclair Knight Merz PL," Dr McIntosh said.
"Opinion research indicates that Australians expect CSIRO to deliver sustainable energy as a high priority, and this is a very large scientific project which addresses that expectation."
The Chief of CSIRO Energy Technology, Dr John Wright, says the solar-fossil hybrid system is at the leading edge of world clean energy technology. "If successfully demonstrated and taken up commercially it will make a major contribution to meeting Australia's national greenhouse targets agreed to at Kyoto in 1997," he says.
Project Leader Mr Jim Edwards says the demonstration facility will show that fossil energy can be "decarbonised" using solar power to produce a fuel gas composed of hydrogen and carbon dioxide.
Electricity will be generated from the hydrogen in two ways -- by using a fuel cell or a micro-gas turbine. It is hoped that the solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) developed by CSIRO and Ceramic Fuel Cells Ltd will be incorporated into the system.
"The beauty of fuel cell technology,"says Dr Sukhvinder Badwal of CSIRO Manufacturing Science and Technology who lead the CSIRO's SOFC program, "is that the technology can be scaled up. It can be used to power several homes, a factory, a whole suburb, a remote community or even, if you have enough units, an entire town."
The primary energy source for the hybrid system will be gases which contain methane (CH4). These may come in the form of natural gas, coal-seam gas, coal gas or gas emitted by landfills and processing of organic waste or even methanol derived from coal.
"The process uses solar thermal energy from a large dish to combine the gas with water (H2O) and, after an intermediary stage, produces a mixture (H2) and carbon dioxide (CO2)," Mr Edwards explains. "We separate these, then use the hydrogen to make electricity, and because the CO2 is concentrated, we can dispose of it."
The carbon dioxide can be recovered in a concentrated state and permanently disposed of. Disposal may take several forms:
- injection into subterranean reservoirs such as depleted oil or gas fields and aquifers
- injection into deep coal beds which supply methane gas to
power the process
disposal in the deep ocean.
Mr Edwards and Dr Badwal have sourced the necessary pieces of equipment - a locally-made 100-square-metre solar dish and fuels cells and microturbines from Australian and overseas companies. These will be installed and commissioned over the next two years.
More information:
Dr Malcolm McIntosh, CSIRO 02 6276 6621
Dr John Wright, CSIRO Energy Technology 02 9490 8610
Mr Jim Edwards, CSIRO Energy Technology 02 9490 8950
Dr Sukhvinder Badwal, CSIRO Manufacturing Science & Tech
03 9545 2719
Chris Thompson, CSIRO Energy Technology 02 9710 6816
(Australia's largest scientific research organisation)
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