- A zero carbon future for our planet
- An alternative to coal fired power stations
- No necessity for nuclear power
- Solar Hydrogen fuel production for transport
- Solar electricity production anywhere on the planet
- A zero pollution future for our world
- An eternal energy solution

Overview

Carbon removal is a component of our renewable energy project.  The focus of the project is to firstly create, in principle, a zero emissions community which can then be multiplied and up-scaled to create a future zero emissions world.  The opportunity exists to do more; to achieve a negative emissions outcome, although this is not our first priority.  We believe that the best path forward must focus on zero emission energy generation for the whole world as quickly as possible, and negative carbon emission aspirations, whenever the opportunity presents, built on the back of a zero emissions initiative.  This path will have the greatest impact on atmospheric CO2.  We must understand that to capture CO2 emissions from industry and energy production is not overly difficult, and better than direct air capture, a minute later.

Big Picture

A zero emissions future is actually not the correct focus.  The correct focus needs to be to establish a 100% fully environmentally sustainable future for mankind on planet Earth.  This includes zero emissions renewable energy generation.  It also includes sustainable water management, food production, plastic waste management, and water waste management.  Solutions to all of these priorities together need to be established to create a universally complete 100% environmentally sustainable future.  Each of these issues need to be addressed in respect of each other.  A holistic approach must be implemented because individual priorities interact and impact one another.  Our focus therefore needs to be global, to address as many adjoining cross priority issues as possible with each initiative.

Economy of Scale

There are two ways to achieve economy of scale.  The first way is by size, to construct enormous plants.  Our vision of a successful renewable energy future is built on mass production principles.  We see a mass produced decentralised highly flexible future renewable energy network that can be rolled out ultimately at lightening speed by mass production.

A Zero Emissions World

100% Environmental Sustainability
The Overarching Mission

Annual total CO2 emissions currently stand at almost 40 billion tonnes per year.  This equates to 110 million tonnes per day, 4.6 million tonnes per hour, 76,000 tonnes per min, and 1,270 tonnes of CO2 per second emitted into the atmosphere, every second.  Looking at the chart at left, it is clear that these numbers are rising sharply with very little prospect of levelling out any time soon.

Irrespective of how we approach any mitigation strategy, global CO2 emissions will continue to follow this trajectory for some years to come as underdeveloped nations continue to grow seeking the prosperity and lifestyle that the use of energy provides them.

Any measure to have any impact on this trajectory needs to firstly identify the most effective and cheapest ways to either replace CO2 emissions by implementing renewable energy installations, or to capture CO2, either from current emissions, or directly from the atmosphere or oceans.  This also needs to be done in the cheapest, most cost effective locations.

In respect of capturing CO2, a good starting point is to look very closely at the energy requirements.  Economic costs are directly related to energy costs.  I'd like to thank Howard Herzog, Senior Research Engineer, MIT Energy Initiative, who has provided us a very important and valuable analysis of the Work of Separation of CO2 from a couple of relevant gas streams.  To gain a good understanding of the energy requirements, viewing of his presentation in detail is a must.

The table at right shows the actual work of separation for Direct Air Capture, DAC, as compared to Coal Flue Gas, CCS.  It shows that 4 times the amount of energy is required to capture CO2 from a dilute concentration of 410 ppm in air, as compared to a more concentrated Coal Flue Gas stream.  The figure of 1200 kWh/tCO2 already establishes DAC as an unlikely prospect.  Even if this amount of energy is provided from a 100% clean source, that clean source alternatively could have been applied directly to the grid and replace 1.2 tonnes of CO2 emissions from a coal fired power station.  Based on these energy figures, the 1 tonne of CO2 captured by DAC represents a nett loss.

According to the EIA, the combustion of 1 tonne of coal (78% carbon content) produces 2.86 tonnes of CO2 and delivers about 3600 kWh of electricity.

The figure of 320 kWh/tCO2 for CCS, Actual Work Total, represents 25% of the electrical output of the plant.  This is a significant energy cost.  Both of these Actual Work Total figures suggest that a path more energy efficient would be desired, and ideally a flue gas stream of pure CO2 would then require no work of separation.

The desire for a pure CO2 gas stream means that our best initial carbon mitigation strategy is to target certain industries that already provide this.  The first industry to target is cement production which accounts for 8% of global CO2 emissions.  Limestone CaCO3 + heat => CaO + CO2.

Another process would be the Steam Reformation of Methane, CH4, to produce Hydrogen H2.  CH4 + 2H20 <=> CO2 + 4H2  This process is mainly used in the production of Ammonia, NH3.  It could be expanded significantly to create a Hydrogen Economy effectively making Natural Gas, CH4, carbon neutral by converting it to Hydrogen.  The future might see hydrogen gas turbines generating electricity.  The UN could collect a carbon tax on all fossil fuels and pay industry for the CO2 captured, in order to cover the cost disadvantage.  This would apply equally to coal fired power stations, and make the capture of CO2 economically viable.  Such an approach would level the playing field for all energy players.  It would incentivise the capture of CO2 on a global scale.  I'm not sure that carbon trading schemes will deliver this.  We cannot continue to use the atmosphere as a free dumping ground, and base our economy on this principle.

For coal and gas fired power stations the best way to achieve a pure CO2 gas stream is by pure oxy combustion.  Assuming that liquid oxygen can be produced for a similar price to liquid nitrogen, as it is produced in the same process, it looks cost prohibitive currently.  As part of our project, I do believe that there is a good possibility to make our own liquid oxygen at zero energy cost.  This is based on the fact that gaseous oxygen at room temperature actually contains more energy than liquid oxygen at -183C.  In other words, we need to take energy out to liquefy it.

LEILAC

Low Emissions Intensity Lime And Cement

The M Solar Hydrogen Renewable Energy System is based upon a design and initiative to create a full efficiency turbine.  In order to achieve this the turbine needs to condense the working fluid within the turbine as part of it’s operation.  In a conventional steam turbine, steam exhausted is condensed back to water in an independent energy operation outside the turbine system.  This component of input energy, the latent heat of vaporisation is typically rejected in conical cooling towers.  This design and practise results in an overall system energy efficiency of only 30% - 40% which is quite disappointing and highly limiting, particularly in view of applying to a renewable energy future.

A Natural Full Efficiency Energy Cycle

We do have an example of a full efficiency turbine principle that occurs naturally on Earth.  It is a hurricane.  A hurricane takes a drop of water from the surface of the ocean and vaporises it.  It then draws this water vapour into a central vortex, elevating it into the atmosphere where it encounters lower pressure and temperature and expands adiabatically.  This vapour condenses back to liquid falling down to Earth as a droplet of water with the same energy status as it began.  This is a full efficiency energy cycle as opposed to a theoretical Carnot cycle, which looks only at the expansion of a gas.

Our initiative to create a full efficiency turbine is therefore an effort to replicate a hurricane, and in particular, reproduce what is happening inside the cloud.  At the end of the day, the turbine must be able to condense the working fluid back to liquid.  If the turbine can do this, like a hurricane, then a full efficiency cycle turbine becomes achievable.

Tesla Turbine

We have chosen to adopt Nikola Tesla’s flat disc turbine design he patented over 100 years ago.  Our turbine impeller is mounted on opposing neodymium ring magnets, therefore suspended almost frictionless in space.  The entire turbine system is enclosed within a cylindrical vacuum cabinet.  These initiatives will almost totally eliminate friction losses as well as heat losses.

Our plan is ultimately to use liquid nitrogen as the working fluid in the turbine.  Liquid nitrogen offers 3 great advantages.  Firstly, nitrogen is 100% environmentally safe.  Secondly, liquid nitrogen is cheap and readily available.  Thirdly, nitrogen boils at -196C.  This provides a huge temperature differential to any potential heat source.  A block of ice will make nitrogen boil vigorously.

Solar Collector

This project began in 2007.  At the time I was involved in some personal research into climate change and global warming.  I wanted to know and quantify how much energy we actually receive from the sun.  I found very little data online at the time so decided to make a solar collector myself and measure.  I made the collector from a piece of rectangular steel tube.  I welded on two ends and fitted a standard glass thermometer.  I painted it matt black and insulated it, back and 4 sides with polystyrene foam.  This left one wide face of the tube exposed.  I then filled the tube with water and placed it on a table on my back veranda aligning the face directly to the sun.  I chose to do this experiment at the December Solstice southern hemisphere maximum.  I then measured the temperature rise in the water over a given time and calculated how much solar energy my collector had absorbed.  I was quite amazed to find that my collector was absorbing as much as 1100 Watts per square metre.  I also found that my collector was absorbing this amount of energy 3 ½ hours either side of the sun’s highest point in the middle of the day.  I then paced out the house and realised that the roof area of 200 m2 is effectively receiving around 200 kW through a 7 hour window, potentially 1400 kWh on a clear summer’s day.  Now this is a substantial amount of energy!!!  I also realised that this was the amount of energy I had collected within the water.  This amount of energy had made the transition from radiant light to heat now captured within the water.  I could potentially deliver this quantity of energy to a turbine.  This meant that I needed a working fluid that had a low boiling point, like a refrigerant.  Ultimately I realised that nitrogen offered the best solution if this could be made to work.

A factory roof provides an ideal catchment area for rainfall as well as a huge solar collector for the sun's energy.

The best way to implement these ideas and achieve good economy of scale would be to make the entire roof area of a factory one big solar collector.  A 1,000 m2, factory could potentially generate 1 MW.  I have designed a double skin steel roof section with perhaps 25mm cavity.  Pure water would not be ideal as a heat transfer fluid in many locations due to freezing.  We propose to use a water, calcium chloride CaCl2 solution.  A 20% solution will lower the freezing point of water to -20C.  The reason I have chosen CaCl2 is because it can be made as a by product down stream in the Hydrogen, H2 electrolysis process.

Modular Building System

I have also designed a steel reinforced concrete, modular building system factory.  The idea is that all components can be manufactured in factories, designed to optimally fit in standard shipping containers.  We can then make use of low cost economy countries like Ukraine to manufacture the components.  I have earmarked Mariupol as a prime location because it is a steel making city near large iron ore and coal reserves, and a major shipping port.  The average salary in Mariupol is 1/10 of what it is in Melbourne, Australia.  The biggest part of the cost of building this solar factory is in the manufacturing of the steel reinforcing components.  Although it is not practical to ship concrete, all the metal work and other components can be made and shipped by container together with casting moulds, to a solar site, anywhere on the planet with railway access.  Concrete can be poured at the solar site, and individual pieces of the factory screwed together nearby.  All components of the factory are screw together including floor slabs, reinforced concrete wall sections, and roof sections.  It is like a flat pack factory.

Wall sections have external and internal reinforced concrete panels with perhaps as much as 1 metre wall cavity.  This allows for plastic rainwater tanks to be fitted within the wall cavity.  A 1,000 m2 factory roof area provides a valuable catchment area for rainfall, and 500 m3 of rain water could potentially be stored in wall cavity tanks.  This is of particular importance in locations with lower rainfall.  Every drop of water needs to be maximised as a valuable resource.  Solar factory sites ideally need cheap land, a flat site, and plenty of sunshine, as well as direct railway access.  A 1 metre wall cavity is also ideal to house the turbines and additional process equipment such as hydrogen electrolyser.

It would also be desirable to achieve clean gas and clean coal power generation.  If we burn natural gas, predominantly methane CH4, in pure oxygen, the only products are water vapour and CO2.  If we can condense out the water vapour with any soluble acids, we will be left with an almost pure stream of CO2.  CO2 can then be liquefied, and stored in a vacuum insulated shipping container tank.  It should be noted that if a full efficiency turbine is achieved, the process can be applied to recoup the energy spent to liquefy the CO2.  Compression heat can be chilled, recycled and turned back into electricity.

Liquid CO2 Shipping Container

CO2 container tanks have a 20 tonne liquid CO2 capacity within standard 20’ container dimensions.  The approach is much the same as the handling of LNG.  CO2 containers can then be shipped for carbon sequestration.

Base Load Power & A Balanced Electric Grid

The reason we wish to pursue clean gas and clean coal capability is that a solar factory can then be fitted also with a pure oxy combustion furnace.  Circulated water through the solar roof could also pass through the clean gas/coal furnace.  Both heat sources can then power turbines or a central turbine.  The advantage of this is that a consistent base load power generation can be established between both energy sources, together also with a variable power H2 electrolyser.  The whole system can be computer controlled to provide a perfect power generation matching with the electric grid.  When solar power generation is at maximum, the variable electrolyser makes hydrogen.  The factory is designed with a services channel at the foot of each wall with access panels to H2, O2 and CO2 gas lines as well as other services.  Clean gas/coal capability also helps to supplement electricity generation in high latitude locations where solar insolation is less.

Waste Plastic... An Energy Resource?
40 Mj/kg

Waste Plastic Recycling 

Another reason we wish to have a clean gas/coal capability is because it provides us the opportunity to also incinerate waste plastic and combustibles, and utilise these resources to generate electricity.  If we think about it... what is gasoline made from?... oil!... and what is plastic made from?... the same stuff... oil... and what do we do with gasoline?... we burn it!!!

If we analyse the most commonly used plastics, they are predominantly carbon/hydrogen chains.  Plastics have similar heat of combustion to oil and gas.  We could therefore put a price on waste plastic as an energy resource, perhaps $50 to $100 per tonne.  The UN could subsidise this price with funds collected from a carbon tax on gas, oil and coal.  All we have to do is effectively deal with the nasty products of plastic combustion.  If we can, we can potentially fix a major problem.  These nasty products are much the same as the products of coal combustion.  It may also evolve that pyrolysis is a better option to this aim.

I have analysed my own kitchen rubbish contents and found that almost 100% could be recycled on this basis.  I divided the contents into two piles, organic and combustibles.  All organic scraps can go to organic compost recycling.  All combustibles like plastics, paper and wood can be fed through a shredding machine.  Shredded material can then potentially be mixed with biomass, coal, maybe pelleted, and placed in a feed hopper which is then fed into the furnace.  I believe that with such initiatives we can achieve an almost zero land fill society.  The flue gas would need to go through a fly ash separator and catalytic converter to deal with dioxins and furans.  A scrubber would remove all soluble acids.  The acid solution can be combined with ash from the furnace, which is highly alkaline, to neutralise.  Neutralised ash with harmful heavy metals components can potentially be dealt with in concrete mix or similar.  I visualise making concrete coal ash aggregate balls, maybe the size of a golf ball or a bit bigger.  These balls could then be used in road base fill.  I think this approach would prevent heavy metals from leaching into ground water.

Solar Site Intermodal Train Factory

A Solar Factory site needs direct railway access.  With large volumes of containers with factory components arriving by freight train, it makes best sense to allow the whole train to divert to a rail siding undercover intermodal container handling area.  A semi robotic overhead lifting crane, or cranes, can travel along the full length of the train unloading and loading containers to each side.  As well as a train lane, a truck lane, container load and unload lanes, and additional rail siding lane for storage of railway cars could be provided.  The robotic lifting cranes can traverse the full width, covering all lanes, and service the full length of the train, handling all possible container movement operations.  Individual assembly factories branch at right angles off one side of the train unload area.  Individual containers could then be repositioned 90 degrees by the crane and wheeled by some type of trolley jack forklift unit straight into assembly factories.  Steel reinforcing components can then be unloaded from containers and placed in moulds on trolleys around an assembly line.  Concrete can then be poured at one end of the factory, slabs surface finished, and moved to curing areas.  After curing, slabs can be loaded onto trucks to be transported to the solar factory site.

The big advantage of this layout is that the assembly factory complex has direct access to the railway line eliminating two truck container transport operations, both delivery and pick up.  The train intermodal handling area can be several kilometres long and form the flank of an entire solar city development.  The intermodal handling area can efficiently service the whole city for its' entire freight and container handling needs.  The factories adjoining the intermodal handling area are prime locations for any other container dependant industries such as recycling, steel warehousing, scrap metal etc.

Town Gas Supply for a Zero Emissions City

If we imagine a zero emissions city or community of the future, what town gas supply will we use?  We cannot use natural gas because of it’s CO2 emissions.  If we do wish to have a town gas supply, it needs to be hydrogen.  The first issue that this presents is that hydrogen gas has a very low volumetric energy density.  This means that a gas distribution network for hydrogen would require a bit more than 3 times the volume, meaning a bigger pipe system.

CO2 Capture

Because CO2 forms a weak acid in water, carbonic acid, it is readily absorbed in strong alkaline solutions such as Sodium Hydroxide NaOH, Potassium Hydroxide KOH, and Calcium Hydroxide Ca(OH)2.

I think the most obvious choice for CO2 absorption would be Sodium Hydroxide NaOH because of the huge abundance of Sodium in salt water as common salt NaCl.  The chemical equation for CO2 absorption is:  2NaOH + CO2 => Na2CO3 + H2O.  CO2 will be vigorously absorbed into a strong alkaline solution.  At right is an important video to demonstrate this process.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWvroZtaXco

Sodium Hydroxide NaOH is commercially produced by electrolysis of salt water producing Hydrogen H2 gas at the cathode, and NaOH in solution.  If H2 gas is produced by salt water electrolysis using clean renewable energy, for every 1 mole of H2 gas produced, 1 mole of CO2 can potentially be absorbed and sequestered.  A future hydrogen economy therefore becomes an important priority and a potential pathway to carbon removal on a global cost effective scale.  The cost to achieve this is minimal because the carbon removal initiative is married into the broader initiative of renewable energy production without adding significant cost.

Sodium Hydroxide produced by the Hydrogen H2 electrolyser could be used for direct air carbon capture.  It could also be used to capture CO2 from Coal Flue Gas.  The resulting product of Sodium Carbonate, Na2CO3 could be put straight into the ocean with some ph benefit.  This approach would not require the high work of separation set out above because the CO2 is not being stripped from the sorbent and then liquefied.

Sodium Hydroxide produced by the electrolyser can also be marketed and sold commercially as “Green” Sodium Hydroxide because it is derived entirely from solar electricity, a clean source.  This applies also to Chlorine gas produced at the anode.   World production of Sodium Hydroxide is 58 million tonnes per year and Chlorine 62 million tonnes per year.  Uses for Chlorine include the production of Hydrochloric Acid, and Ammonium Chloride for use as fertiliser.   Another use for Chlorine would be to make Calcium Chloride, CaCl2, which can be used as an anti freeze agent.  As mentioned above a 20% solution in water will lower the freezing point to -20C and be an ideal heat transfer fluid to circulate through solar roofs.

In this analysis, we will look at a Clean Coal Calculation assuming no energy losses.  We expect a full efficiency turbine to enable and deliver numbers approaching these.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration, EIA, quotes: "Coal with a carbon content of 78 percent and a heating value of 14,000 Btu per pound emits about 204.3 pounds of carbon dioxide per million Btu when completely burned. Complete combustion of 1 short ton (2,000 pounds) of this coal will generate about 5,720 pounds (2.86 short tons) of carbon dioxide".

14,000 Btu per pound = 32.56 Mj/kg

1 tonne coal produces 32,560 Mj = 9,044 kWh and 2.86 tonnes CO2.

For brine electrolysis: 32,560 Mj / 141.7 Mj/Kg (H2) => 229.64 Kg (H2) @$10:00/kg retail = $2,296  (Our solar community has hydrogen H2 town gas supply)

For 1 mole of H2 produced at the cathode, 2 moles of NaOH is produced in solution and 1 mole of CO2 can be captured:  2NaOH + CO2 => Na2CO3 + H2O

CO2 absorbed = 229.64 Kg x 44/2 = 5,052 Kg (CO2).  This is more than the CO2 produced by combustion.  Assume that we add CO2 captured from another source.

Na2CO3 produced = 229.64 Kg x 106/2 => 12,171 Kg (Na2CO3) @ $225 per tonne bulk market price = $2,738

Chlorine Cl2 produced = 229.64 x 70/2 => 8,037 Kg (Cl2) @ $175 per tonne bulk market price = $1406

Current coal price = $147 per tonne.  Salt required for electrolysis = 229.64 Kg x 58 = 13,319 Kg (NaCl) @$30 per tonne bulk market price = $400

Total revenue = $6,440  Total inputs = $547           Nett = $5,893

These figures demonstrate that a full efficiency turbine would make coal power 100% Green, and a gold mine!  They also demonstrate that CO2 is a resource that can potentially be used to create high value added 100% Green products.

In a conventional coal fired power station using steam turbines, the system energy efficiency is about 40%.  60% of input energy is effectively rejected in cooling towers.  Current electrolysers are about 70% energy efficient.  70% of 40% = 28%  These losses compound significantly.

The last product in this process that we need to consider is coal ash.  I tonne of coal produces about 225 Kg of coal ash.  1.5 billion tons of coal ash are currently stockpiled in the U.S. without plans for usage.  Coal ash is essentially cement.  The main components of coal ash are SiO2 (sand) 51%, Aluminium Oxide (Al2O3) 29%, Ferrous Oxide (Fe2O3) 11%, plus smaller amounts of other oxides.  Just add water, some recycled sand and aggregate, and we can produce coal ash concrete aggregate to use in road base.  This should ensure that nasty heavy metals components, lead, arsenic, cadmium, selenium, will not leach into ground water.

The production of Green Hydrogen also enables the production of Green Ammonia, NH3.  World annual production of ammonia is 240 million metric tonnes.  85% of ammonia production is used for fertiliser to grow food.  Ammonia is currently made mostly by Steam Reformation of Natural Gas which is a major CO2 emitter.  As well as energy production and transportation, a Green Hydrogen economy can potentially bring the world's chemical industries towards zero emissions also.

Cement Production

As already demonstrated at the LEILAC (Low Emissions Intensity Lime And Cement) plant in Belgium, zero emissions cement production is achieved "without significant energy or capital penalty as the furnace exhaust gases are kept separate enabling pure CO2 to be captured".

Blue Planet Ltd have a very effective system of Carbonate coating recycled aggregate used in concrete mix.  The coating consists of synthetic limestone [CaCO3] crystallized on the surface of recycled aggregate, giving it a smoothened surface finish. Each ton of CO2-sequestered limestone traps 440 kilograms of carbon dioxide, preventing it from accumulating in the atmosphere.

Blue Planet Ltd

CO2-Sequestered Aggregate

Ocean Heat Power Station

The greatest opportunity to collect solar heat or energy is the Earth's oceans or waterways.  This is due to the fact that water has a very high specific heat capacity.  The oceans are storing, as heat, mind blowing quantities of solar energy.  The Ocean Heat Power Station concept, very simply, has an input pipe sucking water from a source, extracts heat, and returns colder water via an exhaust pipe.  Based on an arbitrary flow of 1m³ per second, 60m³ per minute, if we were to extract 10 degrees of heat from this flow of water, we would be extracting 42Mw of power.  With a successful full efficiency cycle N2 turbine we could potentially deliver perhaps 40Mw.  The beauty of the Ocean Heat Power Station concept is that it can run non stop generating base load grid connected electricity 24 hours per day.

Heat is extracted from the input water flow by heat exchangers with perhaps the same water/CaCl2 heat transfer fluid as proposed for the solar roof.  Maybe ethanol might be a better choice of heat transfer fluid because of is low freezing point, -114C.  It also does not expand like water upon freezing which is a consideration.  Perhaps sea water itself can be passed through the nitrogen boiler.

I live in Melbourne, Australia, on Port Phillip Bay.  Port Phillip Bay offers a perfect opportunity for Ocean Heat Power.  Melbourne receives a quoted solar insolation of 1600 kWh/m² per annum.  The entire surface area of Port Phillip Bay is collecting this amount of solar radiation making it a huge solar energy collector and potentially an enormous source of solar power.  A city like Melbourne could easily cover its’ entire energy needs, including electricity, all transportation and heating, entirely from onsite solar renewable sources.

The Ocean Heat Power Station is a mass produced, screw together, modular factory using the same factory components as outlined above.  It is filled with turbine generators probably of a capacity of each 100Kw to 1Mw based on size, handling and operating convenience.  The building could  be completely buried in the foreshore behind the beach.  This would satisfy two requirements, firstly to minimise environmental cosmetic impact and secondly to allow the water circulation system to be close to sea level.  The only evidence of the power station would be a driveway into the dunes somewhere.

If environmental concerns do not favour this, the ocean heat power station could be a solar factory a distance behind the beach.  Excavation to sea level might not be a major task.  It might also be beneficial in such an environment to use a closed loop fresh water heat transfer circulation system.  It could extend a good distance from the shore.  This would lessen local sea water temperature impacts, and double as a ground source collector, the same approach as heat pump system ground source arrays.  This would be beneficial in frozen winter locations.

Ocean Heat Power Station Hydrogen Electrolysis

It might make sense to immediately use much of the electrical output of the ocean heat power station to make hydrogen.  It might also make sense to use some of the flow of sea water as the electrolyte fluid for electrolysis if this can be done practically.  It would be nice to alkalise the seawater through electrolysis on the way through.  This would naturally lead to CO2 absorption from the atmosphere.  By monitoring input ph, output ph and flow rate, we would have an accurate idea of how much CO2 would be absorbed from the atmosphere.  The energy efficiency of the electrolyser in such a set up is not particularly relevant.

Researchers at Leiden University have discovered a catalyst that minimises the production of chlorine gas during salt water electrolysis.  Layers of Iridium Oxide and Manganese Oxide "minimise the formation of chlorine gas in favour of oxygen formation" at the anode.

If a full efficiency turbine is achieved it would also open the door to a number of additional possibilities.

Because a full efficiency turbine can condense the working fluid, it can be applied to the distillation of sea water for close to zero energy cost.  Sea water could potentially be distilled at reduced pressure and temperature as is already done for ship's fresh water supply.  The advantage of desalination by distillation is that it produces a fresh water supply as good as rain water.  Desalination by Reverse Osmosis does not remove all contaminants potentially present in sea water.

A full efficiency turbine could also be applied to collect any process waste heat.  In the electrolyser, our electrolyte fluid is not a perfect conductor.  This means that the fluid has an electrical resistance and heats up as we pass electric current through it.  Electrolysers are only about 70% efficient for this reason.  If we provide a heat exchanger cooling coil in the electrolyte fluid we can capture this heat loss and turn it back into electricity in a full efficiency turbine.  This applies also to the compression and liquefaction of CO2 mentioned above.  Any waste heat could be recycled and turned back into electricity, making each process close to full efficiency also.  Although, perhaps not practical, it may even be theoretically possible to have a solar power station on the South Pole.  An air source heat exchanger could collect heat and boil liquid nitrogen even at -70C air temperature.

A full efficiency turbine would also likely replace internal combustion engines and hydrogen fuel cells (50% efficiency) for use in vehicles.  A future hydrogen oxygen turbine, hybrid electric vehicle would be possible.

Another potential benefit of a full efficiency turbine is that it would provide free air conditioning, or more precisely free cooling.  In our solar factory design we envisage a roof temperature as cold as possible.  Because our turbine hot temperature might be around 200K, -73C, a roof temperature ideally might be 0C.  This would allow the roof to act as a radiant solar collector, but also as an air source collector absorbing heat from the surrounding air, even at 3:00 AM.  This would apply to the interior of the factory also, providing cooling for interior spaces, even in the Sahara.

The Industrial Mega Plant concept begins with an Ocean Heat Power Station.  We'll consider a sea water flow of 10 m3 per second, 600 m3 per minute, and heat extraction of 20C.  This implies a tropical location.  This plant would generate 800 Mw of electricity.  It may be preferential to increase the flow and decrease the temperature differential.  It would be ideal to source ocean heat from the tropics for two very good reasons.  Firstly, lowering tropical ocean surface temperature mitigates hurricane formation which requires 26.5C water temperature for hurricane propagation.  Secondly the main cause of coral bleaching and reef destruction is due to ocean surface temperatures approaching and exceeding 32C.  The Gulf of Mexico could be a good location.

The facility would need to be close to a port and limestone source with railway links.  The bulk of generated electricity could be used to make hydrogen and oxygen in an electrolyser.  If divided by a membrane, the H2 cathode side will become high concentration alkaline, NaOH, which can then be fed direct into the output flow.  The anode side becomes acidic, HCl.  The acidic side can be neutralised by ground limestone to make Calcium Chloride, CaCl2 which is ph neutral.  I understand that there is also the opportunity to neutralise the acidic solution with certain mining rock tailings.  The high ph alkaline output seawater flow will absorb CO2 direct from the atmosphere using natural energy processes, wind and waves, to provide the Work of Separation for air carbon capture as discussed earlier.  The addition of limestone to the acidic solution will give off pure CO2 which is collected and earmarked for sequestration.

It makes sense for the plant to also manufacture cement which is the primary necessity for a source of limestone.  The cement plant could be powered by hydrogen or natural gas using pure oxy combustion.  A cryogenic air separator could also provide pure oxygen as well as liquid nitrogen.  The furnace gas exhaust, together with the gas products of the calciner will produce an almost pure stream of CO2, which is collected for sequestration.

It also makes sense for the plant to produce Anhydrous Ammonia, NH3 from hydrogen produced by the electrolyser together with nitrogen from the cryogenic air separator.  Other fertilisers can also be made, such as Urea, CO(NH2)2 and Ammonium Chloride, NH4Cl.  The list of potential chemical products is long.  Because it is made on site, hydrogen would probably be the preferred gas used, however the opportunity to decarbonise natural gas is a benefit also.  If chosen, Steam Reformation of Methane could be included.

The next important component of the Mega Plant is to include steelmaking.  Hydrogen Direct Reduction, H-DR Steel uses hydrogen to reduce iron ore to steel instead of coke, or carbon in a blast furnace.  The blast furnace process emits 1.9 tonnes of CO2 per tonne of steel product.  The H-DR steel making process emits only 2.8% of blast furnace CO2, which means 50kg CO2 per tonne of steel produced.  This CO2 could be collected for sequestration.  We can then practically consider H-DR Steel to be zero emissions.

All vehicles, trains and plant equipment can ultimately be powered by hydrogen produced.  The entire Mega Plant will not emit one molecule of CO2, making all CO2 produced and collected available for sequestration.  The plant would effectively capture close to 10 million tonnes of CO2 per year from the atmosphere due to the high ph of the output seawater.  100 such mega plants around the world could approach gigatonne CO2 removal from the atmosphere... 40 gigatonnes in view.  Every product of the mega plant could then be considered Carbon Negative, 200% Green.

Carbon Sequestration Options

Founder and CEO of Blue Planet Ltd, Dr Brent Constantz, quotes a sequestration capacity of 1 tonne of CO2 per cubic metre of concrete produced using his patented process of mineralised limestone carbonate coated sand and aggregate for use in concrete mix.  With zero emissions cement used, concrete produced using this process will be 1 tonne CO2 per concrete cubic metre, carbon negative.  If zero emissions cement were to be used world wide, it would provide about 3.2 gigatonnes per year reduction in CO2 emissions.  Based on a world production of concrete figure of about 10 gigatonnes, this equates to 4.2 billion cubic metres.  This volume of concrete represents 4.2 gigatonnes potential carbon negative sequestration.  H-DR steel production, if applied world wide, would provide another 3.2 gigatonnes potential CO2 emissions reduction.  I see a future of electric and hydrogen/electric hybrid vehicles.  Aviation could use jet fuel made from bio-oil.

The opportunity exists to continue to use captured CO2 for sequestration in deep underground formations.  CO2 can also continue to be used for Enhanced Oil Recovery.  I personally consider CO2 sequestration above ground is better than below ground.

Algae Bioreactor

Another future path for carbon sequestration is to see CO2 as a resource.  CO2 can be fed to micro algae in an Algae Bioreactor.  I think it makes sense to turn much of our CO2 resource into biomass.  Algae bioreactors can produce up to 200 tonnes of biomass per hectare per year.  This figure vastly exceeds any other biomass crop.  Algae production does not require arable land, and therefore does not compete with food production.  Algae production can utilise land of no commercial value.  We have vast tracts of such unused land with abundant sunshine on our planet. It is ideally suited to capture the sun’s limitless energy through photosynthesis.  Algae represent the beginning of the food chain, the source of ancient oil and gas reserves on our planet.

Algae biomass can be used to make biofuel.  The big advantage of biofuel is it’s high energy density similar to crude oil.  Other options for clean solar derived fuels such as ammonia NH3 or even liquid Hydrogen have less than half the energy density of biooil.  This makes them not so cost effective at a container size transport level.

Biomass remaining after oil extraction can be used as animal feed.  Large areas of Brazilian rainforest are being destroyed for cattle grazing and soy bean cultivation for animal feed.  Algae biomass is high in protein, 50%, and perfectly suited as stock feed.  This approach can reduce the pressure for deforestation and provide countries like Brazil an alternative.  This approach would have double the CO2 reduction impact by turning CO2 into animal stock, and ultimately hamburgers.  At the same time cleared forest land can be re-allocated to restoring rainforest areas.  New growth rainforest restoration offers the greatest CO2 sequestration potential.

Drax Power Station, UK's largest, has demonstrated the successful conversion of their plant from coal to biomass.  Biomass in the form of wood pellets are sourced from Louisiana, US.  Forest plantations are managed on a sustainable model by cyclical harvesting and allowing new growth to always equal or exceed harvest.  This approach needs to be applied to the Amazon rainforest.

A Chinese Greenhouse.
 A very clever design for high latitude locations.

Modular Building System Bubble Farm

To accompany a solar factory, we also have a design for a Bubble Farm.  Four external walls are constructed using the same design of components as the solar factory, with 1 metre wall cavity reinforced concrete panel sandwich and internal plastic water tanks.  Arched trusses spanning perhaps 30 metres or more with plastic greenhouse film can cover large areas for certain crop cultivation such as most vegetables.  Crops grown in bubble farms require only 10% of water usage.  This is required on a larger scale as conventional farming is depleting ground water reserves all over the world.  Conventional farming is also polluting our river systems with run off nutrients from crop fertiliser usage.  This is compounded by the effect of depleting river flows from water over use and drought, resulting in algae blooms and disastrous fish kills, all degrading our natural environment.  We need to take the destructive pressure off our river systems, and entire natural environment.

The bubble farm would be air tight and can be provided with a high CO2 concentration, 1200 ppm typically quoted, for higher crop growth.  Modular bubble farms could be built any length chosen, perhaps 500 metres if practical.  I believe it may even be feasible to grow lush pasture within large bubble farms and graze cattle.  As long as plenty of supplemental stock feed is available, this could work economically effectively.  Brazil has a large area of lower rainfall, economically poor regions in the North East of the country which could be ideally suited to such an approach.  As a global community, we must make greater use of large semi arid regions on our planet.  We must exploit low cost land, sunshine and economically poor regions instead of destroying the world’s forests, and prime lands for our short sighted immediate human needs.

Solar Community Waste Water System

I believe that we approach waste water management, sewerage systems in the wrong manner.  We use what I would describe as an “industrial scale chemical treatment” method, which has several disadvantages.  On planet Earth this is the wrong approach because it does not recognise and understand natural Earth processes.  The first thing to understand is that soil is a bio recycling organism containing a vast variety of microbes, bacteria, fungi, worms, critters and bugs, all looking for their next meal of bio matter to consume and recycle.

The problem begins at the beginning of our waste water approach, where we allow solids and liquids to combine and homogenise, presenting a huge volume to process containing tooth brushes, wipes and rubbish to waste water plants.  This presents the need to sift these foreign items from the waste stream which is then fed into large open ponds for various chemical treatment operations and results in obvious problems controlling odours.  Truck loads of sewerage sludge are transported to landfill.  In nature, decomposing matter needs to be covered.  The correct approach should be to honour established natural Earth processes.  This would mean underground septic tanks near the source which immediately separate settling solids from liquids.  Both waste streams need to be filtered at this point.  If there is a hair dryer blocking the tank outlet, it becomes the owners responsibility.  It means that 2 waste streams are required.

Organic Waste Recycling

Solid waste can be piped direct to our organic treatment plant, measured straight into organic compost enclosed bins with large volumes of other community organic waste.  As long as the compost process achieves around 65C heat generation, pathogens will be eliminated.  Additional heat source can be provided if necessary.  Probably, insulated bins would be sufficient.  Biogas can also potentially be collected quite easily from covered bins and utilised.  The video at right demonstrates the “Howard Higgins” method which I believe is the correct principle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmgHPyp3dLw

At the organic waste treatment plant, the liquid waste stream can first go through filtering and ultra violet radiation to eliminate pathogens.   The waste stream can then be fed to a micro algae bioreactor.  The waste stream is rich in nutrients, nitrates and phosphates.  These nutrients ideally need to be recycled and are perfect for algae cultivation.  Algae biomass from this path can be included in the compost process after bio-oil extraction.  Throughput water from this process can be used to water parks and gardens.

Howard Higgins Compost System

A Sustainable Future

I believe that all the initiatives outlined above, collectively can achieve a 100% environmentally sustainable future for our society and planet.  I believe that a carbon negative society and city can be realised.

The Earth is a precious treasure and the resource that sustains our lives.  The Earth is more than just a pale blue dot in space.  Now is the opportunity to fully understand our planet and our environment, to find a way to exist in full harmony with our terrestrial inheritance.   This is the time to consider our children's future and leave them the inheritance they deserve.  It is time to respect and reciprocate the life that this planet, our sun and solar system provides us.

Contact me Martin John: mrack@tpg.com.au
Telephone:  61 3 9754 8223