2 CONTENTS Carbon Capture and Storage 4 Digital Twins 14 Floating Solar Stations 30 Blue Hydrogen 44 Catalytic Methods for Processing Carbon Dioxide from 54 Coal-Fired Generation into Useful Products High-Quality Motor Fuels from Vegetative Raw Materials 75 High Temperature Heat Pumps 85 Technologies for Managing Oil Field Wastes 100 Ultra High Voltage Power Transmission Technology 108 Power to E-Fuel 116 3 Dear friends! This is the second annual selection of Coal-Fired Generation into Useful Products”, the most promising groundbreaking energy “Technologies for Managing Oil Field Wastes”, technologies of the decade published by the and “Industrial Carbon Capture and Storage”. Global Energy Association. The technologies in development that are Some of these solutions are already still to become competitive and take their place changing our everyday life, while the others are among conventional sources make another still prospective for the long term. cluster. Here “High-Quality Motor Fuels from The technologies in this report are united Vegetative Raw Materials” and “Power to by their anticipated effect on the human life in E-Fuel” can be named. the current decade. Some topics are so interesting and vast Sometimes, when looking ahead, we are that they moved over from last year’s report waiting for extraordinary technologies that to be analysed even more deeply and from a have not yet been discovered, to be created. different angle. Those are “Blue Hydrogen”, However, we should not forget about things we “Industrial Carbon Capture and Storage”, and can do already. That is the reason this report “Digital Twins”. comprises solutions that are not particularly There are also chapters that will be viewed groundbreaking, but their development is for the first time: “Ultra High Voltage Power essential here and now. Transmission Technology” and “Floating Solar Here a legitimate question should Stations”. be asked – what can be considered I wish everyone who would like to study groundbreaking? the new report of “10 Breakthrough Ideas in It is no wonder that the report leans Energy for the Next 10 Years. 2021” by the considerably towards technologies “cleansing” Global Energy Association an exciting and the available resources (which will stay an useful reading. integral part of the energy balance for quite some time), as well as sustainability and recycling of the products that can be used With best regards, opportunely instead of being wasted or harming the environment. Deputy Prime Minister Such group of solutions includes “Catalytic of the Russian Federation Methods for Processing Carbon Dioxide from A. Novak 4 CARBON CAPTURE AND STORAGE Andrew Smallbone Director of the EPSRC Network+ on the Decarbonisation of Heating and Cooling, Durham University INTRODUCTION We now see more industrialised nations generated on a sector-by-sector basis. Given the mandating net-zero emission targets. In-practice, scale of our collective emissions (~40GtCO2/year delivery on these commitments means the deep Le Quéré et al (2020)), we urgently need to bring decarbonisation of all aspects of our heavily forward both technically and economically viable industrialised society. The chart presented in net-zero compliant solutions for power, transport, Figure 1 sets out globally where carbon dioxide is industry, buildings and more. FIGURE 1. Direct carbon dioxide emissions by sector in 2017. Source - IEA (2019) Underpinned by a massive R&D investment that the industrial sector faces unique challenges, across the industrialised world, a growing which may require bespoke solutions even on an consensus has developed around a portfolio of industrial plant by plant basis. net-zero compliant pathways for delivering price This chapter sets out how this can be competitive power and transport. As shown in achieved through industrial carbon capture Figure 1, the decarbonisation of industrial emission clusters or integrated networks underpinned by sources has an equivalent importance in terms of a new generation of industrial processes its scale globally. However, it is widely recognised and plants. 5 THE DECARBONISATION OF INDUSTRY The International Energy Agency (IEA), economic and social development are continuing have estimated that industrial sources including to increase consumer demand for industrial petroleum refineries are currently responsible for a products themselves. Furthermore, natural market quarter of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions forces have historically reduced the price of these and around 40% of energy demand (IEA (2019)). products through a transition to ever-larger scale Holistically, the industrial sector is fundamental mass manufacturing, with multiple generations of to the world economy as it brings together optimisation and efficiency savings taking place multinational supply chains to manufacture the in each plant. The issue now is that the market world’s commodities and products. However it is naturally drives down costs to the consumer but now the case (YouGov & Sky News 2020), that both not necessarily corresponding carbon dioxide consumers and policymakers are now going beyond emissions. Hence they are considered by many to seeing carbon dioxide as something produced at a close to their maximum potential efficiency (ZEP power station or a vehicle exhaust pipe and asking 2013). This means that carbon dioxide reduction “how sustainable day-to-day products really are?” with a focus on energy saving has limited potential and are increasingly making informed choices for delivering on net-zero targets. based on their environmental impact. Indeed many of these process plants are In a world now developing more detailed plans unique in terms of a) the chemical or manufacturing and deploying solutions which can unlock our to process and product itself and; b) the economies transition to net-zero emissions, the industrial of scale at least regionally. The latter is also of sector is now facing the reality that it must find cost significance as large process or manufacturing effective ways to be compliant with both mandated plants are an integral part of the industrial regional targets and growing consumer expectations. or national infrastructure, regional supply chain At the same time, factors such as world and are responsible for employing many local population growth, increased urbanisation, citizens. THE CHALLENGE OF DECARBONISING THERMAL ENERGY Data shows that in the UK, the final energy option, for example using a combination of demand for industrial processes is driven mostly renewable electricity combined with heat pumps. for a requirement for thermal energy (>70% — BEIS, However, the opportunity is limited by the practical 2016). The chart presented in Figure 2 sets out realities of a high capital cost of heat pumps the temperatures of thermal energy required for and the challenge that heat pumps are most industrial process across the European Union. This effective for lower temperature processes. As chart clearly sets out the requirements for thermal presented in Figure 2, almost three quarters of energy demand across all industrial processes, thermal energy demand is high-grade process it shows the relative space and process heating heat with a working temperature in excess and cooling demand in terms of the working fluid of 100oC and thus it must be recognised temperature. that it is solutions which address the higher Decarbonisation of some of these processes temperature challenge that are required and by installing electrified heating sources is an at scale. 6 FIGURE 2. Industrial final energy demand in the European Union (2015). Source: HeatRoadmap. Industrial CO2 emissions in the European Union intermittent impact of the energy demands of the are dominated by iron and steel production (19%), plant on the wider energy network. chemicals industry (15%), petroleum refining (14%), The decarbonisation of industrial processes and cement/lime production (11%) (UNFCCC 2012). will result in fundamental changes to all of the Historically, high temperature process above processes, however many of them will conditions requiring high-grade thermal energy in need bespoke solutions. It is also recognised that excess of 200-5000C have been relatively easy to many are embedded into the local industrial and obtain through access to an abundance of fossil social infrastructure and are operating very cost fuels, low-emission combustion aftertreatment effectively, so political leadership in supporting our technology, and using what are generally quite transition is fundamental. simple boiler or furnace technologies. In addition, Industrial emissions are significant and will we have taken for granted the co-benefits of using need to be addressed directly if net-zero targets are fossil fuels in terms of its capacity for on-site, safe, to be delivered, however it may well represent the and long-term storage and thus have lessened the most challenging sector to decarbonise. A SOLUTION FOR AN INTEGRATED DECARBONISED INDUSTRIAL SECTOR Industrial carbon capture utilisation and storage Over the last 100 years, regional clusters of represents a set of technologies and processes by multiple directly and in-directly coupled industrial which carbon dioxide emissions can be captured at process plants have been established around the world. source, transported usually via compressed pipeline Through common transport infrastructure, resources, to a storage location, and then stored on a permanent skills, symbiotic process streams etc., collectively they