Hydrogen infrastructure

[gsganzer]

It's a labor problem. Windmill blades can be resurfaced and they are as good as new. The process requires minimal materials, but a lot of hand labor. Think putting a new gel coat on a fiberglass shower. It's cheaper to tear the old one out and replace it.

Recycle doesn't necessarily mean re-use them. I think the idea is to make the blades recyclable for other uses as raw material for something else. Right now they just saw them into pieces and bury them like a bunch of whale bones. Being mainly fiberglass, they don't break down and last virtually forever.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Recycle doesn't necessarily mean re-use them. I think the idea is to make the blades recyclable for other uses as raw material for something else. Right now they just saw them into pieces and bury them like a bunch of whale bones. Being mainly fiberglass, they don't break down and last virtually forever.

Good luck recycling fiberglass. The metal frame probably isn't worth the hassle of stripping the fiberglass. Repair is common. Some of them are repaired on the ground, others at height.

Wind Turbine Blade Repair - Fair Wind LLC

FairWind Renewable Energy Services has the equipment and the expertise you need for quality, fast wind turbine blade repair services.

fairwindres.com

 

[3930dave]

When talking about Dams the whole river system must be included. That includes the Deltas and flood born silt. Aswan Dam may be a good example.

We know a lot more than even 50 years ago. I'd want to see a modern dam project incorporate the best of what we've learned to minimize disruption to the historic flows, and animal life.

It adds cost, but doing the right thing usually does.

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

I have done much reading into wind turbines, their design, construction and ultimately their destruction when they reach their age limits. And they wear out much faster than anyone previously thought. The large off shore wind farms in Europe are performing very well and averaging about 2.5 MW per wind turbine. These are high maintenance wind turbines and have a life span of approximately 23 years before replacement. The wind turbines also create significant industrial waste during replacement.
View attachment 709187

I'd probably have guessed something like 30 years, but marine is a pretty tough environment.....

Nice drone shot.... if that's a dozer, that's quite the pile of material.

Rgds, D.

 

[quicksandfarmer]

The easiest way to store and transport hydrogen is to bond it to some carbon, then it becomes a well-behaved gas or liquid. If that carbon was in the atmosphere or was going to be released into the atmosphere anyway then it's carbon-neutral.

Photosynthesis in plants involves taking carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and water and applying energy to make a hydrocarbon. There are algae that produce a substance very close to diesel fuel through photosynthesis. If we could harness that process on an industrial scale we would have carbon-neutral fuel.

 

[3930dave]

For what it's worth, here's one reference to my note on hydrogen boilers (I had a better article, one that was more about R&D; this one is heavy in marketing lingo):

Hydrogen Boiler | Worcester Bosch

Bosch isn't exactly a small company.

Always worth watching what Bosch is up to, and I'd expect things to likely progress faster in Western Europe than here.

They are talking about 20% Hydrogen in the Natgas lines. I'm hoping extensive testing has been done re. the material-science issues that have been pointed out in this thread.

Entire new networks would be the best clean-sheet approach, but I understand the cost pressure to re-use existing networks.

Mention hydrogen, and a lot of people think "Hindenburg", even though many today weren't alive then, and don't realize, or care, that it was originally designed to use helium.....

While minor gasoline, propane, or even natgas explosions don't get much News coverage, it would only take ONE explosion of a hydrogen pipeline to create another legendary story.

Do it right, or don't do it.... please.

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

The easiest way to store and transport hydrogen is to bond it to some carbon, then it becomes a well-behaved gas or liquid. If that carbon was in the atmosphere or was going to be released into the atmosphere anyway then it's carbon-neutral.

Photosynthesis in plants involves taking carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and water and applying energy to make a hydrocarbon. There are algae that produce a substance very close to diesel fuel through photosynthesis. If we could harness that process on an industrial scale we would have carbon-neutral fuel.

It's been a bit since I've seen articles on the algae process. It does sound promising, but we'd probably do better marketing it as something other than diesel - that plays well for most TBN'ers, but something like 100% Organic Mobility Plasma would sell better .

Interesting point you make concerning the carbon-bonding.

Rgds, D.

 

[Grumpycat]

It's a labor problem. Windmill blades can be resurfaced and they are as good as new. The process requires minimal materials, but a lot of hand labor. Think putting a new gel coat on a fiberglass shower. It's cheaper to tear the old one out and replace it.

Wind turbine rotors are replaced for the same reason as helicopter rotors. There is a maximum cycle life for the core structure. If they would build the blades out of steel there wouldn't be a limit.

 

[rademamj1]

Just announced today was article on SMR's or Small Modular Reactors for future energy power. What's so encouraging about Nuclear Power and safety, is today we are light years ahead of the early 1970 command, sensory and control systems, allowing multiple SMR plants to be built in a given area, depending on the power line transmission grids.

These do not need to be sited near rivers or oceans for water supply. But require pre-mixed gelled water as the dominate cooling fluid, which can be stored on site in tankage. The SMR's can be sized between 30 to 300 MW depending on specific area needs, and make tremendous sense from the power diversity point of view.

Sadly, this is one area the US is way behind the curve due to politics. Apparently China and India are both active in planning and design of these modular nuclear power plants. In fact China has already built several such "suit case" neuclear power plants, using the small reactors typical placed inside a navel aircraft carrier for propulsion, and modified for electrical generation only.

Small modular reactors: The dawn of a new nuclear era

The SMRs are nuclear reactors capable of producing power output between 10 to 300 MWe only. Their modular design and small size allow them to have multiple units on the same site as per the demand.

www.financialexpress.com

 

[Frankenkubota]

When talking about Dams the whole river system must be included. That includes the Deltas and flood born silt. Aswan Dam may be a good example.

recently saw a satellite photo of dams on the planet.

i think we are #1 with 14,000 and china #2 with 13,999....or something like that, the numbers are never really important to me, it's the point.

I think they said 97% of our rivers are dammed.

research splash dams, specifically in the PNW.