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Supplying energy safely requires powerful energy buffers But it makes no difference how lightweight a vehicle can be made through structural measures or how much CO 2 can be eliminated: in the end, the most important consideration when it comes to tomorrow‘s mobile and stationary energy supply is still energy storage. The reason for this is that renew able energies generate extremely uneven loads on supply networks, which are currently compensated by regulatable power plants and, to a lesser extent, pumped-storage power plants, which have limited potential. Accumulators and supercondensers are the only highly effective means for storing electrical power. Prof. Martin Winter of the Institute for Physical Chemistry at the Uni versity of Münster believes that lithium-ion technology will play a key role in this technology. As he sees it, there are four reasons for this: high cell voltage, high energy and power densities, low self-discharge rates, and the ability to exploit the battery‘s entire capacity without damaging it. “The lithium-ion battery is an evolutionary technology, because so many different materials can be used to produce it. It’s ideal for quickly buffering power spikes in a matter of hours,” said Winter. Suitable for small- to medium-sized decentralized energy buffers, lithium-ion technology will probably also play a role in future vehicle-to-grid designs, for which the batteries of electric vehicles would serve as temporary buffers for power spikes. This would take advantage of the fact that many vehicles are not moved for most of the day. But there are also clear ideas for stationary applications: the LESSY (lithium electricity storage system) prototype, made up of about 5,000 individual lithium ceramic cells, will be developed this year at <strong>Evonik</strong>‘s coal-fired power plant in Völklingen, Saarland. With an input and output of 1 MW and a storage capacity of about 700 kWh, LESSY is slated to provide primary regulation. <strong>Evonik</strong>’s partners on the project include its own subsidiary Li-Tec Battery GmbH, a joint venture with Daimler AG, and the University of Münster, under the direction of Winter, among others. The Federal Ministry for Education and Research is funding the project under its LIB 2015 research initiative. Prof. Martin Winter of the Institute for Physical Chemistry at the University of Münster Hydrogen as a future primary energy store? Compared to lithium-ion technology, the sustainable production of hydrogen is still in its infancy. The volatile gas would be an attractive source of primary energy because it contains more energy per weight units than any other chemical fuel. “Currently, however, 96 percent of hydrogen is generated from fossil energy sources. Renewable energies would be preferable so that hydrogen could play a larger role in sustainable energy concepts,” said Dr. Henrik Junge, group leader at the Leibniz-Institut für Katalyse e.V. (LIKAT). To this end, LIKAT is researching photocatalytic hydrogen production from water and—as buffer—the release of hydrogen from formic acid. For the first topic, LIKAT is testing an iridium-based photosensitizer embedded in an iron complex, and is using it to reach a turnover number (as a measurement for the effectiveness of the catalyst) of 3,000. A fuel cell equipped with this photosensitizer supplied 18 mW of constant power for 30 minutes in a test setup. The second LIKAT project, the release of hydrogen from formic acid, is based on a CO2 neutral cycle, and uses a ruthenium catalyst to release the hydrogen. On the pilot scale, at room temperature, the process ran for over eleven days and achieved a 99 percent yield: 0.9 liters of hydrogen per hour. There is still a long way to go, however, before the LIKAT projects can be used on the commercial scale. Junge compared the current state of the technology to the status of nuclear fusion research. Dr. Henrik Junge group leader at the Leibniz-Institut für Katalyse e.V. (LIKAT) 10 elements32 evonik science newsletter
The energy of the future has many sources According to Prof. Ferdi Schüth, director of the Max Planck Institute of Coal Research in Mülheim, methanol, hydrocarbons, methane, and ethanol are a few of the possible alternatives to hydrogen-based chemical buffers, at least on the strength of their achievable energy densities. But all substances also have drawbacks or limitations. In his presentation, Schüth stressed that the storage densities of lithium-ion batteries for vehicles lagged behind the values forecast six years ago, and appear to have reached a plateau. “Naturally, we should continue to devote time and energy to exploring this technology, with industry setting the pace,“ said Schüth, „but it is also time for us to start thinking about what will come after lithium-ion technology.“ Schüth feels we are facing a paradigm shift when it comes to energy supply. Put simply, our current energy supply is based on largely isolated use of various primary energy sources: electricity comes from coal and nuclear power plants, while heat and mobility is covered by oil and natural gas. Schüth expects electricity and mobility—through the energy buffer connection—to merge to form a single field of application in the future. When this happens, we will be dealing with a mixture potentially consisting of nuclear power, coal, solar thermal energy, photovoltaics, water and wind power, geothermal energy, natural gas and biogas, as well as oil. Future demand for heat, on the other hand, will be met primarily by solar thermal energy, with a small portion being covered by oil, natural gas and biogas. So our energy supply would rest on many pillars, not just a few. And the decision about which technology is best suited to which country and application is ultimately a social one. The fact that Brazil’s energy industry, for example, is based on sugarcane ethanol reduces CO2 emissions significantly, but the use of fertilizers increases water pollution caused by phosphates. l Prof. Ferdi Schüth director of the Max Planck Institute of Coal Research in Mülheim (Germany) elements32 evonik science newsletter E v o n i k M E E t s s c i E n c E 2 0 1 0 Our current energy system Nuclear energy Electricity Heat Mobility A possible future energy system Nuclear energy Brown coal Coal Hard coal Electricity Traction- Mobility battery Storage Solar thermal energy Storage Photovoltaics Water Geothermal etc. Storage Wind Methane storage Natural gas and biogas Natural gas Oil Oil Heat Heat storage Solar thermal energy 11
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