Researchers want to store excess renewable energy in the form of methane

Researchers want to store excess renewable energy in the form of methane

The only negative aspect of renewable energy is that it cannot be stored. In other words, electricity from wind power or solar panels can be used later and not stored later. 

In other words, if the wind is strong, electricity can be generated to meet the demand of the electricity grid, but the electricity cannot be stored for later use.

The solution to this problem is Tesla. Because many companies try to manufacture batteries quickly. Now Stanford University researchers are working on an alternative bio-battery. 

Experts believe that excess renewable energy can be converted into methane with the help of microbes. If needed, energy can be produced by burning methane.

 

Methane ocopase maripaludis

The only organism that emits methane using hydrogen and carbon dioxide. Now experts isolate the renewable energy of the hydrogen atom by adding water to the electrode. Hydrogen is used by microorganisms. Microorganisms evaporate carbon dioxide from the air and release methane.

Since this anil is insoluble in water, it can be stored in a container for reuse. If needed again, i.e. when there is no wind or when there are clouds in the sky, electricity can be produced from methane as a coal fuel. 

Some people think that burning methane gas is harmful to the environment. Methane is formed by the evaporation of carbon dioxide from the air, so it adds a large amount to the atmosphere.

The advantage of this method is that it can generate electricity using methane gas using the existing structure.

Expert work on this technology is in progress. 

It is very affordable. In this regard, the Ministry of Energy has not yet announced the fund. Researchers from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology  (KIT) in German have demonstrated a novel method of converting the outputs of biogas facilities into methane. The new type of methane plant can fit inside a standard shipping container, and could be combined with renewable energy production as a means of storing the excess and intermittent supply that is inherent to wind and solar power.

“As conventional methanation processes reach their limits at this point, we have developed a new reactor concept,” said Siegfried Bajohr, the leader of the new project, in a  Press relese . The concept takes the products of biomass gasification—hydrogen, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide—and uses a nickel catalyst to produce methane and water. The catalysis is done in a “honeycomb catalyst carrier,” already used as catalytic converters in cars, which are “characterized by a high thermal conductivity and mechanical robustness.”

When connected to the electricity grid 

Production facilities using wind or solar power, this mobile plant can use that power for electrolysis and production of additional hydrogen. That means almost all of the carbon stored in the initial biomass feedstock can be used, and the volume of the biomass plant can double. Even the waste heat produced by the catalyst could be used.

At its best, this idea would mean a clever linkage of the electricity and gas grids. By using the renewable energy to turn biomass outputs into methane, and then transporting the methane through the existing gas infrastructure, that renewable energy is not wasted as it would be without any form of storage available. The methane, in a way, becomes a battery. That gas can be sent along through impressive gas girds in the U.S   and Europe, say, where it could be used by any end-user or burned into electricity at natural gas power plants.

The pilot plant, known as Demo

SNG, has been fully tested at KIT and will now be moving to Köping, in Sweden, where it will connect with a biomass gasification plant that uses wood residues. “DemoSNG shows the way to storing green power and transporting it in our gas grids in the form of methane, “said Thomas Kolb, also of KIT.

Each plant is small, but that’s not such a bad thing: the European Biogas Association reports that there are MORE THAN 14500 biogas plants  in Europe alone, and that number is increasing. The small size and scalability of this idea means that even small facilities could pair with small wind or solar farms in decentralized fashion to produce methane. Of course, burning methane still produces carbon dioxide emissions, but those emissions are grabbed from the biomass gasification processes.

The other issue is that natural gas wells and pipelines end to leak like, and methane is a much more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.  Increased security on gas  infrastrcture though, could help remedythatissue,and any idea to make better use of increasing amounts of wind and solar power is worth a look.