I couldn’t resist watching The World Industrial Reporter’s video on Ten Scientists Killed By Their Own Experiments. Some of them would have deserved the Darwin Award for taking themselves out of the gene pool, but a couple attracted my attention because of their association with a key issue of today – alternative energy. For example, Max Vallier devoted himself to creating rocket powered trains and sleds but in 1930, desperate for a liquid-fuelled rocket, he died in his lab after a motor running on liquid oxygen exploded. Meanwhile Harry Daghlian in 1945 was working on the first atomic bomb and dropped a tungsten carbide brick onto a radioactive core. His hands began to glow and he died soon after from radiation poisoning; and Carl Scheele, who discovered oxygen, chlorine and manganese, regularly tasted toxic substances, eventually dying of mercury poisoning in 1786. Probably the best known is Marie Curie, who in 1934 died of leukaemia after exposure to radioactive materials over three decades. She would hold radium with her bare hands. We might laugh today, but they were all passionate about their science and made genuine contributions.
Carbonless fuels
Oxygen-fuelled rockets notwithstanding, there is a huge amount of research going on in the field of alternative fuels and sustainability, and dynamic new startups are springing up all over the place. The environment was highlighted as one of the key issues at Hanover Messe 2022. For example in one new development a company called Amogy has demonstrated a new ammonia-powered tractor. A 100 kW ammonia-to-power system was successfully integrated into a standard John Deere tractor, which can operate on liquid ammonia for several hours. Amogy sees ammonia as a viable, high density, zero-emission fuel for heavy-duty vehicles.
Kinetic energy space launch
Another report from the World Industrial Reporter describes Fifteen Emerging Technologies That Will Change The World. One of these is a kinetic energy space launch system that reduces dependency on chemically fuelled rockets. Developed by California startup SpinLaunch, and funded by Google and Airbus, the technology involves a small rocket that encloses a satellite, attached to a motor in a vacuum-sealed centrifuge. This spins the rocket and hurls it into the upper atmosphere, escaping the pull of gravity before an onboard motor fires up to propel it to orbital velocity. The technology is expected to reduce the price of a space launch by a factor of 20 to under $500 000.
Drowning fire with sound
Deadly wildfires are another threat to the environment, and their occurrence is growing exponentially. The report describes another invention, the acoustic extinguisher, which uses low-frequency ultrasound to push oxygen away from the source of a flame and spread it over a larger surface area. This breaks the combustion triangle of heat, fuel and oxygen − the three elements needed for a fire to burn − and eliminates the need for large quantities of water and polluting chemicals.
Hydrogen is the key
Green hydrogen is also being promoted as the key to decarbonising energy. I have discovered that hydrogen comes in different colours, not all of it is green. Industrial processes like fertiliser production use grey hydrogen. This is produced from natural gas, which releases carbon dioxide. Green hydrogen is produced by the electrolysis of water, splitting the molecule to release hydrogen. This can be stored in tanks and transported through pipelines. When the energy is released again during combustion only water vapor is produced as exhaust gas. One caveat is that hydrogen is explosive, but the same principles that apply to the handling of natural gas can be used for hydrogen.
Large companies from the oil industry and the traditional energy sector have set their sights on hydrogen. It is only a matter of time before green hydrogen can be produced on a large scale at a competitive price. Well-known truck manufacturers are developing hydrogen engines for their large vehicles, and the same is happening in shipbuilding and the aircraft industry. Germany’s first hydrogen-powered locomotives will be put into service this year. Green hydrogen is set to play a fundamental role in energy generation and the decarbonisation of industry.
How to store it
The next big question is how to store all this green energy, and batteries are the limiting factor. Here too there is a huge amount of innovation going on – inventions ranging from graphene-aluminium ion batteries to sand batteries to gravity batteries to lithium-metal batteries to microsupercapacitors. Some of the claims may be a bit far-fetched, but there is no shortage of ideas and projects working to improve energy storage. In the next issues of Motion Control we’ll have some more stories on these.
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