Understanding Global Warming Our Energy – Beyond Oil and Gas
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Understanding Global Warming Our Energy – Beyond Oil and Gas George Andrew Olah was awarded a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1994. In 2011, he accepted our invitation as an honorary member of the Danish Methanol Association. He died at his home in Beverly Hills on March 8. 2017, but the association still honors him and his visions. From the association's foundation in 2011, the introduction of methanol economy has been our key issue - and in Denmark, of Figure 1. During his career, Olah authored or co-authored 20 books and close to 1,500 course, as renewable scientific publications. He held 160 patents from seven countries, including four for the methanol. transformation of natural gas into gasoline-range hydrocarbons. First EUDP project. I In 2018, the Danish Methanol Association took the initiative to promote methanol in the transport sector. Together with the Danish Technological Institute, we equipped a Peugeot 107 with a French Plug'N Play box that extends the gasoline injectors opening time in order to supply enough fuel to the motor. The kit turns the car into a flex fuel vehicle – hyperlink. This is necessary because methanol has only Figure 2. Our Peugeot 107 City Car with full equipment mounted for Real half the calorific value of gasoline – hyperlink. Driving (RDE) measuring using mobile PEMS-instruments. Second EUDP-project. The first project was a success - so great that we asked the EUDP to support a demonstration with over 100 ordinary petrol cars running on metanol (M85) over a two-year period. Two municipalities supply cars for the trial and our largest petrol companies will manage the supply - hyperlink. In Denmark we have enough straw and manure to replace our entire consumption of gasoline with biomethanol. By involving wind and solar energy, our entire transport sector can be run on electrofuel (renewable methanol). The first step in utilizing the immense solar 1 and wind resource that will inevitably come Page Danish Methanol Association, c/o Agro Industries A/S, Agro Food Park 13, DK-8200 Aarhus N, Denmark will be the conversion of the electricity into hydrogen by electrolysis. Hydrogen is difficult to handle and store, but it can react with carbon dioxide to form methane or methanol directly - hyperlink. Methanol is a liquid electrofuel easy to store and handle and we do not need to reverse the conversion but can use the methanol as is for transportation. Third EUDP-project. The major fleet trial mentioned in our September newsletter deals with 105 Octane M85, but we are already in the pipeline with chemically pure methanol Mpure. It is not smart to use 15% gasoline all the time to solve a cold start problem lasting a few seconds. Furthermore, Mpure can be used directly in a methanol fuel cell. This will be the driving power in our next test car in 2020. It will be an AIways U5 and in Aalborg they have already started the construction of the factory that will manufacture the car's fuel cell – hyperlink. With its own power plant on board, a range of 1000 km per refueling is achieved, and even the battery does not have to be quite large, only 15 kW against 65 kW in a dedicated all electric car. Figure 3. The new AIways U5. Will be available 2020 with a methanol fuel cell on board extending the range to 1000 km The smaller battery draws less on our scarce resources of rare earths, cobalt etc. A smaller battery, however, that does not need to long-term store electricity, but merely serves as a short transition layer between the fuel cell and the electric motor, can be built with a completely different technology that does not need any of these precious and sparse raw materials. Pairing the battery with a supercapacitor is obvious. lt January 4, 2021 2 Page Danish Methanol Association, c/o Agro Industries A/S, Agro Food Park 13, DK-8200 Aarhus N, Denmark .