ETFuels couples giant off-grid renewable energy installations with electrolyzers to make green hydrogen; it then uses the green hydrogen to make carbon-neutral e-fuels, like methanol for ships. I talk with CTO & co-founder Anthony Wang about every step of that elaborate business model, which gets into just about every issue we care about here at Volts.
It seems to me that places that are unconnected to the grid and very sunny might have an issue with water availability, which is a crucial need for hydrogen produced via electrolysed water. I’d be interested if this is a limiting factor in the places these facilities can be sited.
There are several companies, including one of the best, in the US, that can procure water out of thin air - even in the deserts. And I am talking multiple gallons of water. The best, and most comprehensive, company is SkyH2Oinc.com.
I think that in the beginning of Anthony Wang's interview with Dave, he said that one of the tasks to do to produce methanol was to deal with rectifiers. I assume that he needed a full wave bridge rectifier to convert the AC current from one of his wind turbines to DC current, which the electrolyzers use.
This is all very interesting, and I believe there have been some DOE projects in the Midwest designed to locally produce ammonia fertilizer (NH3) from surplus wind power. There already are extensive pipelines transporting NH3 in the US. Near the end of the interview, Anthony makes a point about potentially limiting load balancing costs to the grid from renewable transmission.
This point is related to his business case for harvesting collocated renewables off-grid to produce E-fuels (storage), negating transmission costs. It also just reinforces the fact that local solar with on-site battery storage connected to an urban distribution grid provides a significant reduction in transmission spending compared to power from large, remote solar farms that require transmission to high-demand cities. That’s why we’re likely to see more solar parking lot canopies +on-site storage batteries +V2G chargers on large parking lots….everywhere. Not to mention the fact that large parking lots are located where most energy is consumed, dwarf rooftop area, and canopies shade hot asphalt heat islands, only require local building permits & would elicit little if any neighborhood opposition. There’s an interesting Clean Coalition article about this:
Really interesting and well-done. I was aware of a very small project in Southern Idaho using two 50 kW wind turbines and two small electrolyzers. The hydrogen was sold to the local industrial gas supplier. There were multiple problems with the implementation, but the same general idea. Anthony Wang's approach is appears very sound. I love to see projects like this develop, it gives me hope!
It seems to me that places that are unconnected to the grid and very sunny might have an issue with water availability, which is a crucial need for hydrogen produced via electrolysed water. I’d be interested if this is a limiting factor in the places these facilities can be sited.
There are several companies, including one of the best, in the US, that can procure water out of thin air - even in the deserts. And I am talking multiple gallons of water. The best, and most comprehensive, company is SkyH2Oinc.com.
I think that in the beginning of Anthony Wang's interview with Dave, he said that one of the tasks to do to produce methanol was to deal with rectifiers. I assume that he needed a full wave bridge rectifier to convert the AC current from one of his wind turbines to DC current, which the electrolyzers use.
This is all very interesting, and I believe there have been some DOE projects in the Midwest designed to locally produce ammonia fertilizer (NH3) from surplus wind power. There already are extensive pipelines transporting NH3 in the US. Near the end of the interview, Anthony makes a point about potentially limiting load balancing costs to the grid from renewable transmission.
This point is related to his business case for harvesting collocated renewables off-grid to produce E-fuels (storage), negating transmission costs. It also just reinforces the fact that local solar with on-site battery storage connected to an urban distribution grid provides a significant reduction in transmission spending compared to power from large, remote solar farms that require transmission to high-demand cities. That’s why we’re likely to see more solar parking lot canopies +on-site storage batteries +V2G chargers on large parking lots….everywhere. Not to mention the fact that large parking lots are located where most energy is consumed, dwarf rooftop area, and canopies shade hot asphalt heat islands, only require local building permits & would elicit little if any neighborhood opposition. There’s an interesting Clean Coalition article about this:
https://clean-coalition.org/news/local-solar-is-the-best-solution-for-reducing-peak-transmission-usage-and-electricity-costs-for-ratepayers/
Really interesting and well-done. I was aware of a very small project in Southern Idaho using two 50 kW wind turbines and two small electrolyzers. The hydrogen was sold to the local industrial gas supplier. There were multiple problems with the implementation, but the same general idea. Anthony Wang's approach is appears very sound. I love to see projects like this develop, it gives me hope!