Rogue909
Mechanical
- Mar 6, 2018
- 43
Getting my 'wait for the coffee to kick in to do my real job technical reading' in for a morning I ran across the Sabatier reaction. Effectively it uses hydrogen + carbon dioxide to create methane + water with a theoretical limit of 80% efficiency. The benefit being that hydrogen may be provided by electrolysis powered by excess renewable energy. The methane is then burned as a replacement for extracted gas in power generation/heating applications. Pending the source of carbon dioxide the reaction can end up carbon neutral (pulling carbon dioxide from the air or other carbon producing process) or significantly increasing the energy/carbon dioxide production by using carbon rich feed oils as feeders and ending up with gas of a greater overall energy. (I realize second part of that sentence reads as breaking law of thermodynamics, its not; feed oils converted to methane by adding energy from sabatier reaction > burning feed oils themselves.)
The reaction is a bit more complicated than this. It needs to be done hot (600-750f) and under pressure (400psi). But none of these requirements are beyond what is normally accomplished in refining business.
Overall this seems great - utilize the existing nat gas infrastructure to burn fuel which is generated when excess wind/solar is sitting around. All without needing to deal with H2 fuel and it's propensity for running around and embrittling things or leaking. Surely the system isn't as efficient as setting up enormous battery banks but it requires a lot less investment and ecological issues regarding material sourcing to produce enough batteries to power the world. Or any of the pumped concepts and the limitations with that.
I am not so naive as to think my wikipedia reading on a Tuesday morning is enough to solve the global energy crisis. So why is this not more popular?
Good article on it's discussion...
The reaction is a bit more complicated than this. It needs to be done hot (600-750f) and under pressure (400psi). But none of these requirements are beyond what is normally accomplished in refining business.
Overall this seems great - utilize the existing nat gas infrastructure to burn fuel which is generated when excess wind/solar is sitting around. All without needing to deal with H2 fuel and it's propensity for running around and embrittling things or leaking. Surely the system isn't as efficient as setting up enormous battery banks but it requires a lot less investment and ecological issues regarding material sourcing to produce enough batteries to power the world. Or any of the pumped concepts and the limitations with that.
I am not so naive as to think my wikipedia reading on a Tuesday morning is enough to solve the global energy crisis. So why is this not more popular?
Good article on it's discussion...
