Hi All,

The technology to produce renewable methane at utility scale is about to be demonstrated in Germany.

Check out the following link which contains a computer graphic of the 6MW plant that Audi currently has under construction in Germany and which is die for completion later this year.

https://www.audi-mediaservices.com/publish/ms/content/en/public/pressemitteilungen/2012/12/13/topping-out_ceremony.standard.gid-oeffentlichkeit.html

This same technology can be used in Australia to convert our vast solar energy into renewable methane for export to Asia via our expanding LNG export infrastructure.

Guys,

The whole story of "Power to Gas" is really hotting up in Germany with a demonstration 250kw electrolysis Sabatier plant now operational in Stuttgart as part of preparations for for the 6MW plant for Audi due to start next year.

The Germans are proving up the Power to Gas system to convert (mostly) wind energy into methane for their domestic gas reticulation system. Audi want to use some of this gas to fuel their CNG Audi A3 cars.

Germany does not have an LNG export business (they can use all the gas they can get). Australia on the other hand is building a giant LNG export industry so we can use our world leading solar energy coupled with the German technology to make "renewable methane" for export as LNG, which would be a world first and at potentially a huge scale.

The following articles comment on Germany's growing embrace of the "Power to Gas " concept:

http://www.pv-magazine.com/news/details/beitrag/250kw-power-to-gas-plant-enters-operation_100009491/#axzz2EX93CQYg


http://www.powermag.com/gas/Progress-for-Germanys-Power-to-Gas-Drive_5071.html

Hi Ash, renewably generated Oxygen (O2) is a very important and voluminous by-product of the RenewableLNG production process. In fact, for each 1 tonne of renewable methane produced (which is sent off for export via the LNG plants), 4 tonnes of O2 will be left behind as a by-product with no role to play in the LNG process.

The question becomes, what to do with this O2 to get some value from it. We have commented earlier about its possible use in low carbon steel making. Another possible answer lies with Syngas. Syngas results from a process whereby O2 is combined with methane (Partial Oxidation) to produce Hydrogen and carbon monoxide which is an important feedstock for a series of downstream products, including methanol, ammonia and Fischer Tropsch liquid fuels.

Another possible use for the Oxygen is to make it available for oxyfuel combustion at nearby energy intensive plants (such as the LNG export plants themselves). The great advantage of combusting fuel in oxygen (rather than in air, as is normally done) is that the resulting flue gas is almost entirely CO2 which means it is much more readily captured.

The above suggests that as our RenewableLNG plants grow in scale we will see ancillary chemical processes growing up around us all of which will be using low carbon footprint processes to add value to Australia's natural gas reserves (ie. Green Chemistry).

Regardless of whether we go down the route of Syngas, oxyfuel, low carbon steel, or all three, the objective is to derive value from the O2 by-product of RewableLNG so as to enhance the overall economics of the process to the point where Renewable methane costs no more than fossil gas methane. At this point Renewable methane becomes the hands down winner because it is produced via a closed carbon loop which is not adding any CO2 to the atmosphere.

Hi Brett, If one of your by-products is renewably generated Oxygen, could you use this to make low carbon Syngas?

Don, there are tremendous efforts underway worldwide which aim to produce steel with lower carbon footprints and many of these proposed new processes would use Oxygen and/or Hydrogen to achieve this aim. Therefore there could be very exciting opportunities for these new low carbon steel making processes to be built in the Pilbara because of the co-incident availability of both iron ore and low cost renewably generated electricity and gases on a vast scale. Such processes could offer significant synergistic cost sharing opportunities for the RenewableLNG concept which produces renewably generated hydrogen, oxygen and methane, all of which are relevant for low carbon steel making.

For example, a demonstration HIsarna steel making plant has been built in Holland which in part uses technology developed by Rio Tinto: www.riotintoironore.com/documents/HIsarna_PIlot_Plant_Project_Metec_2011_Final.pdf This HIsarna iron smelting process uses Oxygen along with other inputs in a new process which has a lower carbon footprint than traditional systems and can use lower quality iron ore feedstock. It also produces CO2 in a readily captured format which could be recycled as a feedstock in RenewableLNG Sabatier reactors to assist in the making of renewable methane.

In another example, the South Korean steel maker POSCO is developing a different system which seeks to completely replace coal in the steel making process and use hydrogen instead. This again represents an exciting synergistic opportunity for the RenewableLNG process and this Hydrogen-Steel process to share the costs and infrastructure associated with renewably generated hydrogen production in the Pilbara. See page 21 of: www.posco.com/homepage/docs/eng2/dn/sustain/environ/POSCO_2010CarbornReport.pdf

It is interesting to note that POSCO has recently invested in the Roy Hill iron ore mine in the Pilbara so as to secure its direct access to iron ore. How exciting it would be if that ore was processed into low carbon steel right there in the Pilbara. We believe there are very few other regions in the world which contain both iron ore and the capacity to renewably generate hydrogen at low cost and on such a vast scale.

OK I get it, you’ll have the Pilbara awash with renewably generated hydrogen, oxygen and methane and no doubt the “Green Chemists” will all be a flutter at the prospects of that lovely feedstock for their arcane processes. But hey, the Pilbara is most famous for its iron ore – are there any prospects for getting smarter about adding value in the Pilbara to iron ore by using some of your renewably generated feedstocks for some down-stream processing?

Hi Roslyn,we would need to reserve less than 1% of the Pilbara’s land area in order to develop renewable energy of sufficient volume to generate 20 million tonnes pa of RenewableLNG. In other words, a land area of 50km x 100km, less than 50% covered with PV panels, would be the equivalent of discovering an onshore gas field with 46 TCF of gas reserves. To put this into perspective, such a “gas field” would be 15% larger than the giant off shore gas fields which will be feeding Chevron’s huge Gorgon LNG project. The really cool thing is that the placement of PV panels on the land is not very invasive. The support structure (poles in the ground) can follow the contours of the land and would not require the land to be greatly disturbed, levelled or subjected to mining. Once the project has run its course, the panels and poles can be removed and the land returned to its natural function. The even cooler point is that this huge “gas field” would contain zero carbon.

To give an idea of scale, what land area in the Pilbara would you need to cover with solar PV panels to supply a RenewableLNG plant of similar size to say the Gorgon or Wheatstone LNG plants?

To give an idea of scale, what land area in the Pilbara would you need to cover with solar PV panels to supply a Renewable LNG plant of similar size to say the Gorgon or Wheatstone LNG plants?

Hi Don,
The answer is yes, whilst the primary focus of the RenewableLNG concept is the gasification of renewable energy for export as LNG, there are opportunities for some of the outputs to be put to higher value use.

Deploying the RLNG concept at vast scale in the Pilbara (which has amongst the world’s highest solar resource) would enable the production, at very large volumes, of four outputs of potential value:

- Low cost renewably generated electricity
- Renewably generated pure oxygen
- Renewably generated pure hydrogen
- Renewably generated methane

Our concept is for the bulk of the hydrogen to be converted (via Sabatier) into methane for export via the existing LNG infrastructure in the Pilbara. It is Asia’s (and particularly Japan’s) huge appetite for LNG which we are hoping to harness to generate scale and reduce the unit costs for the RLNG process.

However, there is a growing body of science known as “Green Chemistry” which seeks to wean the Chemical industry off fossil fuel petro-chemicals as their feedstock and on to renewably generated feedstocks. www.greenchemistry.yale.edu/ www.chem.monash.edu.au/green-chem/

Some of the world’s largest chemical manufactures are actively embracing the concept of Green Chemistry : www.dow.com/news/corporate/2012/20120615a.htm#.ULFPBoYauVs

RLNG plants, by producing pure (medical grade) oxygen and very pure hydrogen, can provide feedstock for the Green Chemistry industries of the 21st Century. Of course diverting hydrogen away from methane production to other processes reduces the methane output but if these other processes can pay more for the hydrogen, this improves the overall economics and can help achieve the ultimate target of having renewable LNG cost no more than fossil LNG.