building a secure energy future

8/6/2019 Building a Secure Energy Future

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Building a Secure Energy Future

Professor Steve Halls

Murdoch UniversityPerth, Western Australia

US Depart of Commerce andDepartment of Industry and Resources, Western Australia


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2100 Energy Situation 10 billion people roughly with the same standard of

living as a typical OECD citizen in 2006

Therefore, each person will use approximately

200GJ/year

This leads to an annual energy requirement of2000EJ (1 EJ = 1018J)

This is some 5 times current global energy supply.

How are we going to meet this need?


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Potential Energy Sources in 2100

Source

NegaWatts including

energy efficiency

Conventional Fossil

Fossil plus carbon

sequestration

Solar and wind

Biomass /Bioenergy

Total

Supply (EJ/yr)

1000

100

200

500

200

2000

Source - Adapted from Azar 2005


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Questions

What are the: biomass resource and modern bioenergy technologies to beused to provide heat, electric power and transport fuels atvarious scales from domestic to commercial applications?

environmentally sound indicators of most relevance to the

utilization of biomass? future development of bioenergy technologies for

greenhouse gas mitigation?

opportunities relating to the greater uptake of bioenergy

projects, particularly at the small scale?


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What is Biomass?A wide range of products originally derived from

photosynthesis which provide a chemical storeof solar energy.

What is bioenergy?Heat, light, power and transport fuels all derivedfrom biomass resources including organic waste

material (residues).


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Biomass Bioenergy

Wood process residues Forest arisings

Energy crops

Animal manures

Municipal wastes

Crop residues

Process steam Low grade heat

Electricity

Gaseous fuels

Liquid fuels

Chemical feedstocks

NOTE: Bioenergy involves a wide range oftechnologies some of which are moreenvironmentally sound than others.


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Bioenergy is a system consisting of:

a sustainably produced biomass resource; the collection and storage of the resource;

processing of the biomass to be ready for use;

conversion of biomass to useful energy forms;

useful application of the heat, power or bio-fuels produced;

any environmental emissions and resulting implications,including protection of indigenous forests and biodiversity;

social benefits and their implications for health, comfort,

rural employment, sustainable lifestyle, equity anddevelopment.


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Bioenergy is a mature technology

It provides 13 % of world consumer energy supply but mainly fromusing non-commercial firewood and animal dung in developingcountries.

Carbon sink and C arbon offset benefits are fairly well understood.

In the USA, for example 42,000 GWh of electric power is generatedyearly from wood waste etc.

4 billion litres (and growing rapidly) of bio-ethanol fuel is usedannually in the USA, as well as in Europe, Brazil etc.

600 service stations retail biodiesel in Europe.

Australian service stations are beginning to sell biodiesel

BP Australia in partnership with Primary Energy will be the largestethanol producer in Australia

Western Australia has the largest number of biofuel companies in thewhole of Australia


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Biofuels

Ethanol produced from sugar crops, whey and ligno-

cellulose by fermentation / hydrolysis / saccharification Methanol produced from biomass by gasification then

passing the Syngas over a catalyst at high pressure andtemperature

Biodiesel produced by the esterification of lipids (oils)that are derived from a variety of sources such asoilseed crops, palm oil, microalgae, animal and humanexcreta

Environmentally, biofuels have significantly lower CO2emissions.


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Bio-hydrogen and fuel cells

Fuel cells and hydrogen may be the future power

source for both vehicles and buildings followingthe growing trend towards distributed generation.

Biomass can provide fuels for fuel cells viamethane or methanol when using high

temperature fuel cells such as solid oxide designsor methanol reformers.

The biomass gasification route to produce CO andH is another option - but it must be clean gas.

Murdoch University in Western Australia hasdeveloped a bacterial battery that produces bio-hydrogen for use in miniature fuel cells


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1) Trees are grown in strips to reduce the soilsalinity problem by lowering the water table.

2) The biomass is used to produce activated

carbon, eucalyptus oils, and green electricityvia a gasification plant which earns renewableenergy certificates that can be traded .

3) A carbon sink can be claimed by the landowners.

Harvesting is the main problem yet to be solved.

The integrated oil mallee project in WesternAustralia an example of a win/win/win project.


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Conclusions Bioenergy includes a broad range of technologies used at large

and small scales in both developed and developing countries.

Bioenergy is determined by the source of biomass, land use,alternative treatments avoided for organic wastes, and the typeof energy conversion process involved.

Biomass derived energy will play a small (approximately 10

15 %), but significant contribution in meeting energy needs notonly in the year 2100 but in the near term (approx 100EJ/year in2005 = 0.5 current global food system).

A further 100 EJ/year could be derived from organic wastes also

giving rise to significant environmental benefits relating to wastedisposal.

Further technology development particularly in the area ofgasification is required along with research into distributed

generation applications.


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Thank you for your attention!

Contact details for Prof Steve Halls

E-mail: [email protected]: +61-404455943
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]


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Carbon reduction-strategies

Reduced energy use via technical energy efficiency

measures, lifestyle changes and slowed population

growth

Reduction in the emission of CO2 per unit primaryenergy supply via increased use of renewables

(including biomass, wind, solar and hydro), nuclear

and natural gas at the expense of coal and oil

Carbon sequestration from fossil fuels and biomass

Source - Adapted from Azar 2005


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Power generation cost ranges


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SolarPV

1000MW

Wind

18,000MW

Advanced coal

CCGT

Bioenergy - combustion

125,000MW

Cost reductions from power generation project experience curves 1985 to2001 leading to further uptake of renewable energy technologies.

Biomass combustion is amature technology compared

with wind or solar PV, but whatwill be the trends for:

Biomass gasification? Pyrolysis?

Methanol hydrogen?

Distributed generation?


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Small scale bioenergytechnologies can becompared for investmentcosts and performance

efficiencies, but a full lifecycle analysis comparisonhas yet to be undertaken.

building a secure energy future

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