Zero-Carbon FUELS

When it comes to new applications, SMR’s are looking to horizons that have never been seen before. From green hydrogen to desalination, we need to understand how to develop engineering and financial resources to meet these challenges head on, and seize market share in brand new markets. Criticality Capital, Anthropocene Institute, Terra Praxis, ARC Clean Energy and Reuters Events teamed up to create this webinar. Key Speakers sharing expert insight include: Robert Braun, COO, Arc Clean Energy; Leslie Dewan, Founder, Criticality Capital; Kirsty Gogan, Co-founder, Terra Praxis. The four key topics include: carbon capture; production of clean hydrogen and synthetic fuels; desalinization; and industrial heat. View Kirsty's presentation at the link below.

Kirsty Gogan discusses the three main organizing principles in order to achieve decarbonization — Scale, Speed, and Cost. She uses the analogy of “Impossible Burgers” with respect to traditional fossil fuels and suggests that low-cost, clean hydrogen-based synthetic fuel can be a feasible alternative to fossil fuel in shipping, aviation, and other industries.

New commercial offerings are set to drive such needed rapid and cost-effective decarbonization, beyond generating clean electricity. In September 2020, LucidCatalyst published a new report: Missing Link to a Livable Climate that made a crucial breakthrough in designing new strategies for clean, low cost and large-scale hydrogen and clean synthetic fuels production. These hydrogen-enabled synthetic fuels would address the two thirds of global energy use beyond the power sector, which includes sectors like shipping, aviation, and industry. This article describes the key points and urgency to implement these strategies. (Terra Praxis is disseminating the report findings widely.)

Watch a recording of the webinar, hosted by Terra Praxis and Japan NRG, launching the Japanese edition of our flagship report: Missing Link to a Livable Climate – 生存可能な気候保全のた めの「ミッシングリンク」. The report can also be downloaded from our website here.

For carbon-free hydrogen to play a significant role in decarbonization, it will need to be produced in large quantities at low cost to compete with hydrocarbons. The need for nuclear in carbon-free hydrogen production took on urgency in a recent panel discussion, part of the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Forum. Kirsty Gogan of LucidCatalyst and Terra Praxis is quoted and the Missing Link report, which Terra Praxis is helping disseminate, describing proposals for large-scale production of green hydrogen is discussed. The report recommends “a new generation of advanced heat sources,” which includes advanced modular reactors, which power electrolysis with heat.

Given the scale and urgency of the required clean transition combined with the growth of the global energy system, all zero-carbon hydrogen production options must be pursued, energy research and consultancy firm LucidCatalyst stresses in its latest report, Missing Link to a Livable Climate, which describes how to decarbonize "a substantial portion" of the global energy system, for which there is currently "no viable alternative", and presents the six actions that are needed. "The potential of advanced heat sources to power the production of large-scale, very low-cost hydrogen and hydrogen-based fuels could transform global prospects for near-term decarbonization and prosperity."

Terra Praxis is helping disseminate the Missing Link report.

Terra Praxis' partner, LucidCatalyst's ETI NCD Study is cited in the UK's HM TreasuryNetZero Interim report as evidence that "learning can, and does, occur for nuclear power plant construction where nations are able to invest in fleet deployment, using the same design across multiple projects, as seen in the Republic of Korea and elsewhere.” (Page 39). " Nuclear project developers are also exploring ways to modularize construction where possible to mitigate delays...and reduce overall project risk. Furthermore, pending global regulatory approval, small modular reactors (SMRs), could have the potential to go further by using repeat manufacture and on-site assembly techniques that accelerate learning and enable cost reductions."

Kirsty and Eric join Rod Adams and other experts in a lively discussion of nuclear plant costs and the relationship of costs to size. Pro-nuclear advocates generally agree that there is a large and growing need for new nuclear power plants to meet energy demands with less impact on the planet and its atmosphere. There is frequent, sometimes passionate discussion about the most appropriate reactor sizes, technologies and specific uses. Other guests include: Nick Touran, Chris Keefer, and Jessica Lovering. Listen or read more to hear their conclusions.

Using nuclear plants to generate heat as well as electricity for non-grid industrial applications could be central to deep decarbonization efforts beyond being a source of zero-carbon electricity. Kirsty Gogan and other speakers at the fifth Atlantic Council Global Energy Forum last week looked at how hydrogen – and nuclear – can contribute to carbon abatement efforts in areas that have so far been hard to decarbonize.

Kirsty Gogan was honored to participate in the fifth annual Atlantic Council Global Energy Forum, the premiere international gathering of government, industry, and thought leaders to set the energy agenda for the year. Non-grid nuclear applications hold key to decarbonization: using nuclear plants to generate heat as well as electricity for non-grid industrial applications could be central to deep decarbonization efforts beyond being a source of zero-carbon electricity. The panel looked at how hydrogen and nuclear energy can contribute to carbon abatement efforts in areas that have so far been hard to decarbonize. Watch the video and/or learn more about the Global Energy Forum at the web link below.

Kirsty Gogan joined a distinguished panel to discuss how we can achieve cost reduction in nuclear new build. The new build cost reduction target is to deliver a 30% reduction in the cost to the consumer of low carbon new nuclear generation by 2030, in support of the UK’s net zero commitment. View the presentation from the webinar on the LucidCatalyst website, link below.

This article, written by our frequent collaborator, Rauli Partanen, is part 2 of a 4-part series on clean hydrogen and how to bring its costs down. The research is drawn from the Missing Link report by LucidCatalyst, which Terra Praxis is disseminating. The main factors in clean H2 production are: The main factors in clean H2 production cost are: 1. Capacity factor of energy supply; 2. Capital investment (CapEx) of energy supply; 3. Efficiency of electrolyzers (what percentage of electricity is turned into hydrogen); 4. CapEx of electrolyzers.

This article, written by our frequent collaborator, Rauli Partanen, is part 1 of a 4-part series on clean hydrogen and how to bring its costs down. The research is drawn from the Missing Link report by LucidCatalyst, which Terra Praxis is disseminating. Hydrogen, and clean fuels we can make with it, are among the most prominent options available to decarbonize these the “difficult-to-decarbonize” sectors, and drive much of the 60-70% of fossil fuels use we still see in mainstream scenarios by mid-century. If we cannot do it with hydrogen, there is even less chance we can do it with anything else...This undertaking is enormous. It is not a small subsection of our electricity grid. It is several times larger than our current electricity grid.

This podcast from Sweden explores: How do we go about delivering on the Paris agreement? What kind of policy and infrastructural changes do we need? In this episode Eric Ingersoll and Kirsty Gogan discuss the findings of their Missing Link hydrogen report, authored by LucidCatalyst and being disseminated by Terra Praxis.

Danish startup Seaborg Technologies says it can make affordable nuclear electricity a viable alternative to fossil fuels—its floating barges fitted with advanced nuclear reactors could provide electricity across the developing world as soon as 2025. Kirsty Gogan is quoted: "For hard-to-reach regions, with a climate that is simultaneously too harsh to support the use of renewable energies and too fragile to continue its heavy dependence on fossil fuels, small nuclear, including floating plants, is the only answer." Floating nuclear power plants could be the “turn-key solution” necessary for fast-growing developing economies to power their industries, produce clean-burning hydrogen, and purify drinking water.