Berlin: Funding for ground power generation at airports + + + Vienna: New photocatalysts for solar hydrogen production + + + Australia: Consortium of First Nation and industry plan H2 production + + + Schöneiche: HPS inaugurates FlexE-H2Home + + + Norway: Hexagon Purus receives order for H2 filling stations +++ DISCOUNT promotion: Your ADVERTISING on the PtX portal
A selection of PtX topics summarized at the end of the week
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The BMDV awards funding for investments in ground power supply for aircraft. © Anikka Bauer / Berlin Brandenburg Airport GmbH
At airports, aircraft can be supplied with direct electricity, batteries or hydrogen more efficiently, with zero emissions and much more quietly than with the usual method of running on-board auxiliary turbines. The Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport is awarding prizes for the first time Investment grants for the procurement of mobile and stationary, environmentally friendly ground power systems to supply aircraft as well as the charging and refueling infrastructure required for operation. Natural and legal persons who become owners of the alternative systems to be supported in Germany are eligible to apply. The funding rate is up to 70 percent. Applications are possible from July 28th to August 31st, 2023. An online seminar provides information about the new funding call. Date: July 27, 2023 (with Registration).
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Group leader Dominik Eder (left) and first author of the study Pablo Ayala. © TU Vienna
Researchers at the Vienna University of Technology are developing a “layered photocatalyst”. Unlike industrial catalysts, the photocatalyst uses the energy of light to facilitate the splitting of water into green hydrogen at room temperature and ambient pressure. According to the scientists, the most promising candidates included “metal-organic frameworks” (MOF). These “consist of molecular inorganic building blocks that are held together by organic connecting molecules.” Together they form “highly porous 3D networks that have an exceptionally large surface area and excellent charge separation properties.” However, there are limitations. Among other things, most MOFs are only active under the influence of UV light, which is why the organic components are modified so that they can absorb visible light. In contrast, layered structures exhibited “significantly improved charge extraction”. In collaboration with other universities, the research team developed novel layered MOFs in a cubic shape just a few nanometers in size. The material has “already achieved record levels in photocatalytic hydrogen production under the influence of visible light.” You have to imagine the structure like a wafer slice, “where the wafer is the inorganic part and the chocolate is the organic ligand that holds it together,” says Pablo Ayala, lead author of the study. “You just have to make the waffle part conductive.” The results were published in the trade journal “Advanced Energy Materials" released.
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As part of the “East Kimberley Clean Energy” project, electricity from a solar farm near Kununurra (Western Australia) is used to produce hydrogen and transported via pipeline to Wyndham for further ammonia processing and shipping. © Aboriginal Clean Energy Partnership
A consortium involving indigenous communities wants to build a center for the production of hydrogen and ammonia from renewable energies in Kimberley, Western Australia. The project is being developed as part of a partnership in which the traditional owners of the land - MG Corporation and Balanggarra Aboriginal Corporation - together with the Kimberley Land Council and consultancy Pollination will participate as equal shareholders in the East Kimberley Clean Energy Project, it is said in a message. Planning, development and management are the responsibility of the new joint venture Aboriginal Clean Energy (ACE) Partnership. The first phase involves the construction of a 900 megawatt solar farm and a hydrogen production plant with a capacity of 50.000 tonnes per year on MG Corporation land near Kununurra. The hydrogen produced using solar power and electricity from the existing Ord Hydro hydroelectric power plant on Lake Argyle is transported by pipeline to the port of Wyndham, 120 kilometers away. Around 250.000 tons of green ammonia are then produced there every year. According to the plan, this could be used in agriculture and exported to Asia and Europe. Subject to the completion of the feasibility study and capital raising, construction could begin in late 2025 and production could begin by the end of 2028. Pollinaton Global Holdings Limited is a climate change investment and advisory firm committed to accelerating the transition to a climate-resilient net-zero future. The company was founded in 2019 and is present in 13 countries in North and South America, EMEA and Asia Pacific.
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Inauguration of the “FlexE H2Home” with representatives from politics and business (from left): Zeyad Abul-Ella (CEO of HPS Home Power Solutions AG), Claudia Herok (Head of the Energy and Raw Materials Department of the Ministry for Economic Affairs, Labor and Energy of the State of Brandenburg), Ralf Steinbrück (Mayor of the municipality of Schöneiche), Daniel Wolf (Project Manager “FlexE H2Home”) © HPS Home Power Solutions AG
In Schöneiche near Berlin, a “grid-friendly solar hydrogen house with full thermal and electrical supplies” was built and inaugurated. Electricity is only added to or taken from the general network if it contributes to its stability. This is “possible due to a significantly larger storage capacity compared to batteries and loss-free storage even over longer periods of time,” explains those involved in the project HPS Home Power Solutions AG. Their Picea long-term electricity storage system stores the excess electricity from the photovoltaic system in the form of hydrogen in the summer using electrolysis and makes it available again as electricity and heat in the winter via a fuel cell in conjunction with a heat pump. In order to document full supply and grid utility, the Technical University of Berlin is examining all energy flows in the almost 150 square meter house, which was rented by a family of four, for a period of two years. On the project “FlexE-H2HomeIn addition to HPS Home Power Solutions and TU Berlin, the heat pump manufacturer Vaillant, the house manufacturer Albert Haus GmbH and Transsolar GmbH are also involved. The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection is funding the research project with an undisclosed amount.
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Hexagon trailer for hydrogen delivery (m). © Hexagon Purus ASA
The Norwegian company Hexagon Purus ASA has received an order from an unnamed European customer to develop and supply mobile hydrogen filling stations for 700 bar commercial vehicles. The order is worth three million euros. Delivery is scheduled for the 4th quarter of 2024. Hexagon Purus is a provider of high-pressure hydrogen cylinders, battery packs and vehicle system integration for fuel cell and battery electric vehicles. The focus of our work is on emission-free solutions for light, medium and heavy commercial vehicles, buses, distribution vehicles, shipping, rail and aerospace. Hexagon Purus has offices in the USA, Canada and Germany.
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Photos
iStock / © Danil Melekhin
