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Romanian Researches preparing the New Era Energy Challenges - A physicist point of view Mihai Varlam 22-23 of september 2010 Bucharest Discussion Overview 1. 2. The necessity of the change Hydrogen – a challenging option for the future energy carrier 3. The promise of superconductibility 4. Fusion future - Romanian participation to ITER 5. New Romanian research facility supporting future energy technologies Ask a physicist what physics is all about and he or she might reply that it’s something to do with the study of matter and energy. Matter’ is dispensed with quite swiftly—it is stuff , substance, what things are made from. But ‘energy’ is a much more difficult idea. The physicist may mumble something about energy having many different forms, and about how it is convertible from one form to another but its total value must always remain constant. She’ll look grave and say that this law, the law of the conservation of energy, is a very important law— perhaps the most important law in all of physics. But what, exactly, is being conserved? Are some forms of energy more fundamental than others? What is the link between energy, space, time, and matter? The various forms and their formulae are so seemingly unrelated—is there some underlying essence of energy? The scientific challenge at the beginning of the 21th century will include further significant clarifications of deep physical and chemical issues, such as the mechanism of high-temperature superconductivity and the physical implementation of powerful quantum computers In terms of investments, it was clear that there is no single research area that will secure the future energy supply. A diverse range of economic energy sources will be required – and a broad range of fundamental research is needed to enable these. Many of the issues fall into the traditional materials and chemical sciences research areas, but with specific emphasis on understanding mechanisms, energy related phenomena, and pursuing novel directions in, for example, nanoscience and integrated modeling. The projected doubling of world energy consumption within the next 50 years, coupled with the growing demand for low- or even zero-emission sources of energy, has brought increasing awareness of the need for efficient, clean, and renewable energy sources The nations face a three-fold energy challenges: • Energy security and national independence - growing dependence on high-cost imported fossil fuels, for almost all industrialised countries • Environmental sustainability – necessity to reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases emissions that accelerate climate change • Economic opportunity : the national economies (including romanian ones) are thretened by incresing high-costs of imported energy . Every nation are focused to create its own next-generation clean energy technologies that do not depend on imported fossil fuels. Expansion of existing carbon-intensive energy resources is not the solution ! Solar and wind energy Enhanced electricity delivery and efficiency A host of new technology is needed to provide renewable, sustainable and low carbon energy-technologies that should be robust and cost competitive with existing fossil fuel based approaches. Carbon sequestration Advanced nuclear energy Solid state lighting Batteries and biofuels Hydrogen & fuel cell Need for science support All these technologies are in their infancy, like the steam engine in James Watt’s day ! Clean energy technologies perform far bellow their potential, not for lack of engineering effort, but often for lack of basic understanding of the phenomena, materials, and chemistry that govern their operation or limit their performance. For the time being, clean energy technologies – solar photovoltaics, solid-state lighting, batteries for plug-in vehicles, are advancing in an incremental way, based on scientific understanding coupled with engineering. Here is the action area we are trying to do something !!! Hydrogen & fuel cell Low temperature physics superconductibility National R&D Institute for Isotope and Cryogenic Technologies Basic research and technology development Fuel cycle for fusion technology Lithium-Polymer batteries and energy storage Situation now – In 2008 primary worldwide energy consumption was about 15.3 Gtoe, whose distribution according to sources, transformation processes and network uses is plotted in Figure. Eighty-two percent of this energy has been transformed into heat, electricity or movement by means of fossil fuel combustion processes, which has produced CO2 emissions to the Atmosphere equivalent to 8.5 Gton of carbon . In a no-change scenario (base scenario of the International Energy Agency, IEA) CO2 emissions in 2050 can be expected to reach 14 Gton of carbon The so-called hydrogen economy is a long-term project that can be defined as an effort to change the current energy system to one which attempts to combine the cleanliness of hydrogen as an energy carrier with the efficiency of fuel cells (FCs) as devices to transform energy into electricity and heat. As an energy carrier, hydrogen must be obtained from other energy sources, in processes that, at least in the long term, avoid or minimize CO2 emissions. The main advantage of hydrogen as a fuel is the absence of CO2 emissions, as well as other pollutant emissions (thermal NOx ) if it is employed in low temperature FCs. This is especially important for the transport sector, which is responsible for ∼18% consumption of primary energy worldwide. Also, hydrogen can be expected to allow the integration of some renewable energy sources, of an intermittent character, in the current energy system. Thus, it is already working a system with a photovoltaic solar panel (or a windmill) linked to a reversible FC, which uses a part of the electricity to produce H2 during the day (or in windy conditions), and consumes the hydrogen during the night (or in the absence of wind) to produce electricity Hydrogen research is an expensive activity, but for Romania it is far more expensive to not do anything than to invest in this area! Possibility to develop large demonstration projects Connection with the European JTI-JU Experience acquired in the area starting with 2000 It is difficult to predict the long-term panorama due to the uncertainty about the future of the energy system. To reach the goal we first need to overcome a number of social obstacles (the development of codes and worldwide standards, consumer reticence, lack of public support for scientific research, etc.) macroeconomic difficulties and technological challenges (mainly related to the development and implementation of clean and efficiency production systems and to the decrease of cost of hydrogen storage systems and FCs). If these difficulties are overcome, beyond 2050, when the world is expected to consume more than 25 Gtoe of primary energy [9], the energy supply and transformation will be managed as indicated in Figure. How a potential Hydrogen Future might appear! Heat would be generated by a next generation, failsafe nuclear power plant and directed to the thermochemical processing plant to produce hydrogen through a series of chemical reactions. Biomass, wind and solar power are other option to that. Hydrogen could then be stored or provided as needed directly to industrial hydrogen users or to supply a hydrogen fueled future for distributed power or for transport fuel. Small-scale production line for PEMFC stack development National Center for Hydrogen & Fuel Cell Hydrogen station – pilot project Mobile platform for high pressure liquid hydrogen storage – experimental testing vehicle Peak power management system – concept unit The promise of superconductibility However, the growing demand for electricity will soon challenge the grid beyond its capability, compromising its reliability through voltage fluctuations that crash digital electronics, brownouts that disable industrial processes and harm electrical equipments and power failures. Superconductivity is able to offer new opportunities for restoring the reliability of the power grid and increasing its capacity and efficiency. Superconductors are capable of carrying current without loss, making the parts of the grid they replace dramatically more efficient. Superconductivity laboratory - Starting status State-of-art second-generation (2G) superconducting wires based on YBa2Cu3)7 are capable of carrying five times the current of copper wires havind the same cross-section at dramatically higher efficiency. While their performance compete favorably with cooper for transporting current, it fails significantly in the magnetic fields requested for transformers , fault current limiters, reactive power generators and motors. Technologically we have ( as knowledge) the materials, engineering design for medium and high-capacity cables that could trasnport electricity at no loss for smart power-control devices Although present superconducting technology provides proof of principle and can be deployed for some of the grid functions, significant barriers remain to achieving the full potential of superconductivity for transforming power grid. Performance barriers Cost barriers Materials barrier • The current-carrying performance of superconducting wires in magnetic field of 0.1 – 5T must be increased by a factor of 5-10 •The costs are too high to compete with conventional technology •The major contributor to the 2G wires high cost is the multilayered arhitecture, which requires sequential deposition of up to seven layers on a flexible substrate •Research and investigation to find new superconducting materials with higher transition and operating temperatures are needed. •The ultimate material challenge is to find a room-temperature superconductor with no intrinsic anisotropy. Instrumental analytical systems Testing facilities • SQUAD Magnetometer • PPM – electrical and thermal parameters measurements • Large Liquid helium and Hydrogen production In the simplest case only the inner conductor is superconducting, whereas the return conductor is normal conducting. In this case only the inner conductor is cooled with liquid nitrogen. The “cryostat” consists of evacuated, concentric, and flexible metal tubes and is located directly next to the conductor. The outer flexible tube is surrounded by a warm dielectric medium, and this in turn is surrounded by the return conductor and the outer insulation. Declared Targets of the Laboratory Superconductivity support for energy applications • Superconductivity power distribution • Developing a demonstrative technology which use high temperature superconductivity to transport electricity and hydrogen within the same distribution line • Experimental activity in the field of use of HTS materials for power distribution lines. Technological and economical evaluations • SMES – experimental system for superconductivity magnetic energy storage – development of new experimental configurations • storage by using rapidly rotating flywheels • Public awareness and outreach activity for low-temperature technologies Project going to be developed at Ramnicu Valcea A new concept which is strongly motivated in the last period, and would like to create a complex system which could “transport” energy as hydrogen and electricity within the same structure, is proposed to be particularly investigated and developed at pilot level Use high temperature superconductivity to transport electricity and hydrogen within the same distribution line. The system, schematically represented in Fig., is aimed at providing a solution for large RES power transport and delivery regulation. When RES power exceeds grid demand, the system produces hydrogen by water electrolysis, which can be cooled down to 20.4 K for liquid storage. The stored LH2 can be reconverted into electric energy in periods of RES shortage. The exceeding part can be transported through the combined MgB2-superconducting LH2cryogenic pipeline. The superconducting line is operated in DC, in order to minimize losses. The SMES (superconducting magnetic energy storage) is used as a large inductance in order to reduce the line current ripple caused by power electronics (inverter for connection with AC grid, choppers for fuel cell, hydrolyzer and RES power conditioning). Fusion future – Romanian participation to ITER With the agreement to build the international ITER experimental fusion reactor in Europe, the EU is to host one of the largest scientific undertakings ever conceived by humanity. The ITER site at Cadarache, in southern France, will become the focus of world research on fusion energy. This project's outcome could have a profound impact on how future generations live, by showing that energy from fusion is a practical possibility. Fusion research offers the prospect of a future energy source of unlimited scale that is safe, environmentally responsible and economically viable. It will benefit from an almost limitless supply of raw materials for fuel, widely distributed around the globe. Fusion research in the EU is coordinated by the European Commission. Funding comes from the Community’s EURATOM Research Framework Programme and national funds from the Member States and Associated States. Coordination and long-term continuity is ensured by ongoing partnership contracts between EURATOM and all the national bodies. The long-term objective of fusion R&D in the EU is “the joint creation of prototype reactors for power stations to meet the needs of society : operational safety, environmental compatibility, economic viability ”. Currently, the most successful and the largest fusion experiment in the world is JET (the Joint European Torus). The basic design of ITER is derived from that of the JET device. The European Fusion Development Agreement (EFDA) provides the framework for research, mutual sharing of facilities and the European contribution to international projects such as ITER. De-tritiation system in ITER have been designed to remove Tritium from liquids and gases for reinjection into the fuel cycle. Remaining effluents will be well below authorized limits: gaseous and liquid Tritium releases to the environment from ITER are predicted to be below 10µSv per year. This is well under ITER's General Safety Objective of 100µSv per year and 100 times lower than the regulatory limit in France of 1000µSv per year. Scientists estimate the exposure to natural background radiation to be approximately 2000µSv per year. Hydrogen isotope cryogenic distillation is the major method for water detritiation technology, essential part of the entire fusion complex Where is our contribution ? The fusion reaction in the ITER Tokamak will be powered with Deuterium and Tritium, two isotopes of Hydrogen. ITER will be the first fusion machine fully designed for Deuterium-Tritium operation. Commissioning will happen in three phases: Hydrogen operation, followed by Deuterium operation, and finally full Deuterium-Tritium operation. Water Detritiation System - WDS is a major facility which should be developed related to the fuel cycle in the fusion reactor. An integrated facility comprising a WDS based on combined electrolysis catalytic exchange (CECE) employing a liquid phase catalytic exchange (LPCE) column and an Isotope Separation System based on cryogenic distillation (CD) is currently being developed at Ramnicu Valcea. Until now, this test facility was used for process performance studies to measure different isotope separation factors and to validate the design and operation of such systems for fusion application. Visual representation of Hydrogen Isotope separation experimental system by cryogenic distillation In the reference design of ITER, the 280 mol/h of detritiated (tritium mol fraction <10−7) protium extracted at the top of the ISS were to have been released to the environment. This would result in a chronic tritium release of ∼1 Ci/h, or close to 1 g per year of tritium. In order to reduce this release, it was proposed to process this top product stream from the ISS in the WDS so that the WDS will be a final barrier for the tritiated protium waste gas stream discharged from ISS. In the development programme outlined here the research basis for it is planned to be developed at Ramnicu Valcea. An integrated facility comprising a WDS based on combined electrolysis catalytic exchange (CECE) and an ISS based on cryogenic distillation (CD) is currently being developed at the NRDICIT. This test facility will be used for process performance studies to validate the design and operation of these systems for ITER. Looking Ahead New Romanian research facility supporting future energy technologies On the way to create a scientific basis to support new energies Building stage Lowtemperature Laboratory National center for Hydrogen & Fuel Cell Hydrogen isotope Separation Pilot facility NRDICIT Ramnicu Valcea On the project development stage development Batteries – research laboratory Business development & Inovation Incubator Thank you for your attention !