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Category: sustainability

Carbon is not our enemy, but the system is out of balance. Too much as atmospheric gases and too little in the ground and soil in the simplest terms.

Biochar, although not new, has found a new lease of life. A process that generates heat, uses waste, locks away carbon and benefits almost every system to which it is introduced.

After reading it all about it, I just had to share the possibilities and so I compiled what I learnt into a short video for those interested.

Hope you enjoy and have a great day.

Biochar Carbon Capture And Storage.

Carbon is not our enemy.

As an element it forms the basis of life as we see it all around us but we have for too long squandered valuable resources with no respect for their true value, but that can change.

It almost seems too good to be true, to be able to combat climate change whilst getting better yields and reducing flooding and land degradation, and increasing cheap access to drinking water.

Well just watch this.

Why not see some other ways we can make tomorrow better by watching this next, These could be the golden years.

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Huawei hosted a Better World Summit recently in Dubai, that brought together telecom operators from around the world to share insights and discuss ways to achieve the objectives of 5G next-gen networks with environmental sustainability and reaching Net-Zero emissions.

Unlike predecessor technology, 5G is at least 10x faster at launch, unlocks many new use cases from edge computing and network slicing, to scaled IoT deployments not possible with 4G. GlobalData expects 5G services to exceed $USD 640 billion by 2026 and penetration will exceed 50 per cent.

There is a paradox. The rise in data traffic is increasing energy costs and carbon emissions. For example, if the average data traffic, per user, per month reaches 630 Gigabytes by 2030 (industry estimates) and if network efficiency stays the same, then the average power consumption from networks will also increase by at least 10-fold. This runs counter to the goals of the GSMA for Net-Zero by 2040 as well as many individual MNOs with their own ESG targets, often more ambitious than industry targets.

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Circa 2021

Decarbonisation of the iron and steel industry would require the use of innovative low-carbon production technologies. Use of 100% hydrogen in a shaft furnace (SF) to reduce iron ore has the potential to reduce emissions from iron and steel production significantly. In this work, results from the techno-economic assessment of a H2-SF connected to an electric arc furnace(EAF) for steel production are presented under two scenarios. In the first scenario H2 is produced from molten metal methane pyrolysis in an electrically heated liquid metal bubble column reactor. Grid connected low-temperature alkaline electrolyser was considered for H2 production in the second scenario. In both cases, 59.25 kgH2 was required for the production of one ton of liquid steel (tls). The specific energy consumption (SEC) for the methane pyrolysis based system was found to be 5.16 MWh/tls. The system used 1.51 MWh/tls of electricity, and required 263 kg/tls of methane, corresponding to an energy consumption of 3.65 MWh/tls. The water electrolysis based system consumed 3.96 MWh/tls of electricity, at an electrolyser efficiency of 50 KWh/kgH 2. Both systems have direct emissions of 129.4 kgCO2/tls. The indirect emissions are dependent on the source of natural gas, pellet making process and the grid-emission factor. Indirect emissions for the electrolysis based system could be negligible, if the electricity is generated from renewable energy sources. The levellized cost of production(LCOP) was found to be $631, and $669 respectively at a discount rate of 8%, for a plant-life of 20 years. The LCOP of a natural gas reforming based direct reduction steelmaking plant of operating under similar conditions was found to be $414. Uncertainty analysis was conducted for the NPV and IRR values.

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Solid Hydrogen Explained. Get Surfshark VPN at https://surfshark.deals/undecided and enter promo code UNDECIDED for 83% off and 4 extra months for free! Green hydrogen is touted to be one of the essential ingredients for the sustainable energy mix of the future. Yet, there’s an…invisible…yet big problem. Storage, transport, and operation is complicated and expensive, but what if we could create and store solid hydrogen for cheap? A start-up may have a solid technology that could speed up the energy transition. Spoiler: It’s so good it was banned!

Watch Solar Panels Plus Farming? Agrivoltaics Explained: https://youtu.be/lgZBlD-TCFE?list=PLnTSM-ORSgi5LVxHfWfQE6-Y_HnK-sgXS

Video script and citations:
https://undecidedmf.com/episodes/forget-solid-state-batteries-solid-hydrogen-explained.

Follow-up podcast:
Video version — https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4-aWB84Bupf5hxGqrwYqLA
Audio version — http://bit.ly/stilltbdfm.

👋 Support Undecided on Patreon!
https://www.patreon.com/mattferrell.

⚙️ Gear & Products I Like.
Tesla and smart home gear:
https://kit.co/undecidedmf.

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With a minimalistic design and H-shaped front panel, the new mtu hydrogen fuel cell is a complete solution for power supply in the megawatt range that will be produced in series from 2025. This modern-looking module will in the future deliver a net power output of around 150 kW – sufficient to power approximately ten homes. It can also be connected together into scalable fuel cell power plants with outputs in the megawatt range – capable of providing clean backup power for large data centers.

The fuel cell module is the result of collaboration between Rolls-Royce and cellcentric, a joint venture company set up by Daimler Truck AG and Volvo Group AB earlier this year. It is based on cellcentric’s fuel cell modules that emit nothing other than water vapor. This will enable CO2-free, climate-neutral generation of emergency power for data centers.

“Electrical generators based on fuel cells represent the next leap forward in the energy transition, both for our customers and us,” said Andreas Schell, CEO of Rolls-Royce Power Systems. “That’s why we’re investing a three-digit million amount in R&D over the next few years, and we hope that this strong commitment will encourage governments and politicians to promote and support this pioneering, extremely climate-friendly technology. When they run on green hydrogen, meaning hydrogen made using renewable energy sources, fuel cells are climate-neutral. For this reason, and also because we’re simply convinced by fuel cell technology, we also want to look into how green hydrogen can be produced cost-effectively in the quantities we need.”

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Beats road traffic any day.

As the world progresses towards electric vehicles and flying cars, a team of researchers from the Washington State University is working with ZEVA Aero, a Tacoma-based start up to test different components to create a single passenger, electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft.

It’s interesting to note that ZEVA Aero has already completed a functional prototype of a very futuristic looking eVTOL vehicle which has been assigned to use by first responders and emergency services before the general public. The prototype is capable of flying at 160 mph for up to 50 miles (80km). When it takes off from the ground, it hovers just like a helicopter and then tilts horizontally to fly more efficiently like a plane. This enables it to take advantage of the reduced drag and travel at faster speed as compared to other eVTOL vehicles.

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What do the founders and leaders of Tesla, YouTube, and LinkedIn have in common? They all started their early careers at PayPal, the online payment company. This group of highly ambitious twenty and thirty-year-olds has been dubbed the “PayPal mafia” and once even dressed up as mafia members for the cover of Fortune magazine.

They went on to found or run some of the largest tech companies in the world. Elon Musk was absent the day of the shoot because of a scheduling conflict. This is by no means all of them. Peter Thiel estimates that the “mafia” is around 220 people.

Thiel is a famous start-up investor often referred to as the “don” of the PayPal mafia. PayPal began when Thiel and Max Levchin created software company Confinity as a way to transfer money through the once-popular Palm Pilot.

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The noise barriers built in Switzerland can supply up to 101 gigawatt hours of solar electricity every year. The prerequisite is that all noise barriers are covered with solar installations, as far as this is possible and economical. This would be possible with a solar capacity of 111 megawatts. This is the result of a study commissioned by the Swiss Federal Council at the instigation of Bruno Storni, a member of parliament from the Swiss Social Democratic Party.

This potential is far below what is technically feasible. However, the authors of the study subtracted the potential that would hardly be economically feasible according to the current state of the art. In addition, they had to take into account site conditions such as shading of the walls or safety aspects.

101 gigawatt hours sounds a lot. But this is only 0.15 per cent of the usable solar potential on roofs and facades used for comparison in Switzerland. For the federal road administration Astra and the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB), however, it is nevertheless a major step towards climate neutrality. After all, solar installations on noise barriers near road tunnels alone cover eleven per cent of the potential on Astra’s total surfaces.

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