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New hydrogen storage method receives $5m grant

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12 Apr, 2024

This post was originally published on Sustainability Matters

Curtin University has received a $5 million grant from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) to take on the challenge of producing and transporting hydrogen in a sustainable and cost-effective way.

While hydrogen has long been identified as a clean energy source, there are difficulties in transporting it affordably and practically.

One established method is using sodium borohydride powder as a carrier for the hydrogen, but the by-product left behind — sodium metaborate — has always been expensive to recycle.

The Kotai Hydrogen Project has been set up to trial a new method of hydrogen production and transportation being developed by Curtin’s Hydrogen Storage Research Group (HSRG) in partnership with Velox Energy Materials.

The HSRG’s award-winning chemical process and catalyst has the potential to quickly and cheaply revert sodium metaborate back to sodium borohydride, enabling it to be reused to transport hydrogen.

“The lower costs attached to this method’s production and transport could make it potentially the cheapest means of exporting hydrogen from Australia,” said John Curtin Distinguished Professor Craig Buckley, head of the HSRG.

“This method could play a part in meeting the rapidly rising global demand for Australian hydrogen.”

Buckley added that the Kotai Hydrogen Project could be a significant step towards zero net emissions.

“Our aim is to provide a circular hydrogen export value chain,” he said. “The initial research component of the project will feed into the commercial stage, where a pilot facility will be designed and built in Perth to evaluate the technology for large-scale production directly from renewable electricity.”

Curtin Institute for Energy Transition Director Professor Peta Ashworth said the project was important on a global scale.

“The whole world has been working to reduce the end-to-end costs of clean hydrogen,” Ashworth said.

“Having been involved in the early development of Australia’s Hydrogen Strategy, it is fantastic to see Australia playing a significant part in delivering on that aspiration through this funded Curtin research.”

Curtin and Velox Energy Materials will also contribute an additional combined cash commitment towards the overall project.

ARENA Chief Executive Officer Darren Miller said that through its strategic priorities, ARENA had highlighted the importance of renewable hydrogen and low-emissions metals as a potentially significant export industry.

“Innovation starts in the lab and we have the best minds taking our decarbonisation efforts to the next level — to the benefit of all Australians through jobs, lower emissions and cheaper energy,” he said.

Image credit: iStock.com/Scharfsinn86

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ABB receives EPD status for gearless mill drive ring motor

ABB receives EPD status for gearless mill drive ring motor

ABB has gained Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) status for its Gearless Mill Drive (GMD) ring motor — technology used to drive large grinding mills in the mining industry.

An EPD is a standardised document that provides detailed information about the environmental impact of a product throughout its life cycle. Based on a comprehensive Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study, the EPD highlights ABB’s commitment to transparency, environmental responsibility and supporting customers in making informed decisions on sustainability in their supply chains.

ABB analysed the environmental impact of a ring motor across its entire life cycle from supply chain and production to usage and end-of-life disposal. The study was conducted for a ring motor of a semi-autogenous grinding (SAG) mill with an installed power of 24 MW and was based on a reference service life of 25 years.

“Sustainability is at the core of our purpose at ABB, influencing how we operate and innovate for customers,” said Andrea Quinta, Sustainability Specialist at ABB. “By earning the Environmental Product Declaration for our ring motor, we emphasise our environmental stewardship and industry leadership for this technology. We adhered to the highest standards throughout this process, as we do in the ABB Ring Motor factory every day. This recognition highlights to the mining industry what they are bringing into their own operations when they work with ABB.”

The comprehensive LCA was conducted at ABB’s factory in Bilbao, Spain, and was externally verified and published in accordance with international standards ISO 14025 and ISO 14040/14044. It will remain valid for five years.

The ring motor, a key component of the GMD, is a drive system without any gears where the transmission of the torque between the motor and the mill is done through the magnetic field in the air gap between the motor stator and the motor rotor. It optimises grinding applications in the minerals and mining industries by enabling variable-speed operation, leading to energy and cost savings.

The full EPD for the ABB GMD Ring Motor can be viewed on EPD International.

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