So the world has an energy hangover from its centuries long binge on fossil fuels. Here’s the coming cure: molten salts.
These intriguing elixirs and their handy thermodynamic properties will soon stream and bathe their way into any number of power and industrial applications that will help the planet kick its addiction to hydrocarbons.
Want to produce hydrogen? Store solar energy? Remove CO2 from fossil fuels? Build a much safer and more effective nuclear reactor? Slash the carbon footprint of oil sand production?
Then try a molten salt.
HOT STUFF
As the name implies, these substances are salts that melt at a high temperature – hundreds of degrees C, depending on the particular salt. They’re stable, they’re good at absorbing heat, they don’t boil easily (convenient when you need a very hot liquid) and they flow like water.
Many of you will already know that molten salts could hold the key to turning solar electricity into a round-the-clock affair, rather than the intermittent “only when the sun shines” state that characterizes it today. A handful of “solar thermal” power plants – Gemasolar in Spain and Crescent Dunes in Nevada, for example – are or soon will start to warm up molten salts with special reflective mirrors in order to store heat that by night they can convert to steam and drive a generator.
Regular readers of my blog will also know that alternative nuclear reactors that use molten salt fuel and coolants at high temperatures could trump today’s conventional reactors in many ways. They’d be safer, meltdown proof, would operate more efficiently, leave much less long-lived waste, and their waste would be less suitable for fashioning bombs. Use thorium instead of uranium in those reactors, as China is planning, and those advantages hold even truer.
Here’s another potential use, as I wrote recently on my blog for the Weinberg Foundation, a London-based non-profit group that advocates alternative forms of nuclear energy:
Molten salts can help extract hydrogen while at the same time removing CO2 from hydrocarbons like oil sands, according to Western Hydrogen Ltd., a Calgary-based company.
Deploying molten salt technology developed at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory, Western Hydrogen thinks it can pull hydrogen out of “carbonaceous” materials such as the bitumen in the oil sands common in Canada, as well as from other petroleum residue and petroleum coke.
Their so-called molten salt catalyzed gasification process runs water and carbon compounds through a bed of high temperature (around 850 degrees C) molten salts, out of which comes hydrogen and “sequestration ready” carbon dioxide, Western Hydrogen’s website explains in a “low carbon” energy scenario.
The hydrogen could be used as transportation fuel in the elusive hydrogen economy, and it could also feed petrochemical production processes which today use hydrogen derived from more expensive and less environmentally friendly processes, Western Hydrogen claims.
Western Hydrogen also plans to use its process to yield carbon monoxide and deuterium (an isotope of hydrogen that, incidentally, is key to nuclear fusion plans) that it would combine into synthetic liquid fuels.
CANADIAN KICK-OFF
The company hopes to start operating a pilot plant during the first half of this year near Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta in partnership with Aux Sable, a Canadian company that processes “offgases” from oil sands and would thus provide Western Hydrogen with a feedstock of presumably bitumen. The plant is being fabricated by Burlington, Ontario-based Zeton.
The Latest Bing News on:
Molten salts
- Schneider partners with nuclear company Terrestrial Energy to commercialize small reactors
on April 26, 2024 at 9:20 amNuclear small modular reactor (SMR) company Terrestrial Energy is teaming up with Schneider Electric. Canada-based Terrestrial is developing a 190MWe Integral Molten Salt Reactor (ISMR). The companies ...
- World’s first molten salt energy storage facility launched in Denmark
on April 26, 2024 at 4:37 amDanish company Hyme Energy has launched the world’s first energy storage project using molten hydroxide salt to store green energy. The project is called Molten Salt Storage – MOSS, and the energy ...
- Report: Small modular reactor market expected to reach $295 billion by 2043
on April 25, 2024 at 7:25 pmIDTechEx expects the installation rate of SMRs to grow significantly from the end of the decade, contributing to solving the climate crisis.
- Support Nextbigfuture at Substack
on April 25, 2024 at 5:00 pmChina is starting the operation of its 2 megawatt molten salt prototype reactor in 2024. They are progressively scaling up to 10 MW reactors, 100 MW and then a 168 MWe modular reactor around 2030. The ...
- Cambridge, Mass. Cogeneration Plant Upgraded With 42 MW Electric Boiler
on April 24, 2024 at 10:14 amVicinity Energy, an energy solutions company claiming to have one of the most extensive portfolios of district energy systems in the country, recently took a critical step toward decarbonization by ...
- Terrestrial Energy and Schneider Electric to Collaborate on Baseload Zero-Carbon Energy Solutions for Industrial Facilities and Large Data Centers
on April 24, 2024 at 2:40 amRUEIL-MALMAISON, France and CHARLOTTE, N.C., April 24, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Terrestrial Energy, a developer of Generation IV advanced nuclear power plants that use its proprietary Integral Molten ...
- Batteries made of super-hot sand: for long-duration grid storage at $4 to $10 per kWh
on April 24, 2024 at 12:00 amOur electric future needs low-cost long-duration storage for grids. Per kWh, pumped hydropower is about $60, compressed air energy storage (CAES) costs from $150 to $300, and lithium-ion batteries ...
- 15 Luxury Ingredient Additions That Take S'mores To The Next Level
on April 20, 2024 at 3:15 pmUpgrade your s'mores with these amazing add-ons. These ingredient additions will take your s'mores from campfire favorites to Michelin-starred snacks.
- MIT Technology Review
on April 16, 2024 at 5:54 amThe systems, which can store clean energy as heat, were chosen by readers as the 11th Breakthrough Technology of 2024.
- Why Batteries Come in So Many Sizes and Shapes
on April 10, 2024 at 6:00 amBatteries are made in certain sizes and shapes for reasons of cost and manufacturability, but in other cases because of legacy manufacturing processes. Market demand also plays a role.
The Latest Google Headlines on:
Molten salts
[google_news title=”” keyword=”Molten salts” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]
[/vc_column_text]
The Latest Bing News on:
Molten salt technology
- Schneider partners with nuclear company Terrestrial Energy to commercialize small reactors
on April 26, 2024 at 9:20 amNuclear small modular reactor (SMR) company Terrestrial Energy is teaming up with Schneider Electric. Canada-based Terrestrial is developing a 190MWe Integral Molten Salt Reactor (ISMR). The companies ...
- World’s first molten salt energy storage facility launched in Denmark
on April 26, 2024 at 4:37 amDanish company Hyme Energy has unveiled world's first molten salt energy storage project, revolutionizing renewable energy storage system.
- Report: Small modular reactor market expected to reach $295 billion by 2043
on April 25, 2024 at 7:25 pmIDTechEx expects the installation rate of SMRs to grow significantly from the end of the decade, contributing to solving the climate crisis.
- Support Nextbigfuture at Substack
on April 25, 2024 at 5:00 pmChina is starting the operation of its 2 megawatt molten salt prototype reactor in 2024 ... It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine ...
- Researchers develop sand-based technology to solve major issue with clean energy: 'This represents a new generation of storage'
on April 25, 2024 at 3:30 am"If we want to achieve our carbon reduction goals, we will need long-duration energy storage devices." Researchers develop sand-based technology to solve major issue with clean energy: 'This ...
- Terrestrial Energy and Schneider Electric to Collaborate on Baseload Zero-Carbon Energy Solutions for Industrial Facilities and Large Data Centers
on April 24, 2024 at 2:40 amRUEIL-MALMAISON, France and CHARLOTTE, N.C., April 24, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Terrestrial Energy, a developer of Generation IV advanced nuclear power plants that use its proprietary Integral Molten ...
- Quartz, cobalt, and the waste we leave behind
on April 24, 2024 at 1:59 amSome time before the first dinosaurs, two supercontinents, Laurasia and Gondwana, collided, forcing molten rock out from the depths of the Earth. As eons passed, the liquid rock cooled and geological ...
- Batteries made of super-hot sand: for long-duration grid storage at $4 to $10 per kWh
on April 24, 2024 at 12:00 amOur electric future needs low-cost long-duration storage for grids. Per kWh, pumped hydropower is about $60, compressed air energy storage (CAES) costs from $150 to $300, and lithium-ion batteries ...
- Air Conditioning Has a Big Climate Impact. This New Technology Could be a Game Changer
on April 16, 2024 at 12:54 pmBut with climate change, that is set to increase. Cooling is the fastest growing use of energy in buildings, with some estimates suggesting that energy demand for space cooling will more than triple ...
- MIT Technology Review
on April 16, 2024 at 5:54 amThe systems, which can store clean energy as heat, were chosen by readers as the 11th Breakthrough Technology of 2024.
The Latest Google Headlines on:
Molten salt technology
[google_news title=”” keyword=”molten salt technology” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]