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Mexico finalized plans to take control of a port and quarry owned by Vulcan Materials Co. on its Caribbean coast, deepening tensions days before the nation’s president leaves office. Mexico finalized plans to take control of a port and quarry owned by Vulcan Materials Co. on its Caribbean coast, deepening tensions days before the nation’s president leaves office. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s administration declared the land south of the resort cities of Cancun and Playa del Carmen a natural protected area, according to a filing in the federal gazette published hours after US lawmakers sought to dissuade such a...

Mike Strizki is an inventor, scientist, engineer, and businessman. He runs and operates the Hydrogen House Project which has been off-grid with complete energy independence for over 18 years. Mike’s mission is to provide the world with a safe and reliable energy system that solves this century's greatest problem of storing renewable energy indefinitely with no environmental impact. The process is simple by utilizing the natural power of water and the sun. Water enters into an electrol [...]

They say their invention offers a promising way to tap into a plentiful supply of cheap hydrogen fuel for transportation and other sectors, which could radically reduce carbon emissions and help fight climate change. By using high-frequency vibrations to “divide and conquer” individual water molecules during electrolysis, the team managed to split the water molecules to release 14 times more hydrogen compared with standard electrolysis techniques. Electrolysis involves electricity running through water with two electrodes to split water molecules into oxygen and hydrogen gases, which appear as bubbles. This process produces green hydrogen, which represents just a small fraction of...

While hydrogen's high energy per mass makes it an excellent fuel, it's awfully hard and expensive to store long-term. That could change, thanks to the work of researchers at Switzerland's ETH Zurich. They've worked out a way to store hydrogen in ordinary steel-walled containers for months without losing it into the atmosphere – using iron. The research team led by Wendelin Stark, Professor of Functional Materials at ETH Zurich, hit upon this method by drawing from the steam-iron process of producing hydrogen, first invented in 1784. The group's storage solution is especially suitable in places like Switzerland, where solar power...

In the fantasy of the zero-emissions electricity future, there will either be regular devastating blackouts, or something must back up the intermittent wind and solar generation. In New York we call that imaginary something the “DEFR” (Dispatchable Emissions Free Resource). But what is it? Nuclear has been blocked for decades, especially in the blue jurisdictions that are most aggressively pursuing the wind/solar future. Batteries are technologically not up to the job, and also wildly too expensive. That leaves hydrogen. Anybody with another idea, kindly speak up. I’ve had several posts discussing the question of whether hydrogen could do this job,...

Betelgeuse is our next door supergiant. It is almost 1000 times bigger than our sun and possibly it has already exploded in a giant supernova. How would we notice, how fast would the process be and what could we expect to see from Earth? Something happened in 2019 Betelgeuse is currently in the final stages of its short life. So when the red supergiant abruptly darkened in late 2019, the behavior led many to speculate that it might be about to explode. The loss of brightness was far greater than anything previously recorded. Analyzing data from Hubble Space Telescope and...

UIC engineers have introduced a groundbreaking method for producing hydrogen gas using solar power and agricultural waste, drastically reducing energy consumption and enabling net-zero greenhouse emissions. Engineers from the University of Illinois Chicago have developed a novel method to produce hydrogen gas from water using solely solar power and agricultural byproducts like manure and husks. This technique slashes the energy required to extract hydrogen from water by 600%, paving the way for more sustainable and environmentally friendly chemical manufacturing. Hydrogen-based fuels are one of the most promising sources of clean energy. But producing pure hydrogen gas is an energy-intensive process...

Europe is saying goodbye to natural gas for good with a superturbine that will produce the substitute energy. Although demand for natural gas has fallen in recent years, the continent remains dependent on it as an alternative to coal, a fossil fuel it wants to replace with pure hydrogen. However, to achieve this, a combustion system must first emerge that can work efficiently with any concentration of H mix, including 100%. Different nations aim to achieve decarbonization through a gradual energy transition. In this search for new alternatives to fossil fuels, hydrogen has many possibilities. Its production for energy purposes...

For decades, scientists and inventors have flirted with the concept of a water engine, but their attempts often hit insurmountable roadblocks. However, Elon Musk, known for pushing the boundaries of technology, has provided a fascinating insight. His revelation might just revolutionize the transportation industry at all levels. But people are asking exciting questions. Is water a viable source of fuel? What other innovative solutions are available for transportation problems? Join us as we unravel how Elon Musk went public with the new engine that changes everything. Transcript Follow along using the transcript. Show transcript

BMW is introducing a trial fleet of the BMW iX5 hydrogen car throughout the world, including South Africa. The company views hydrogen cars as an addition to battery-electric vehicles (BEVs), not as a rivalry between the two technologies. The iX5 Hydrogen pilot fleet is not meant for commercial use, but the German automaker has begun testing hydrogen-powered cars in South Africa. The hydrogen car trial was revealed during the regional meeting of the Hydrogen Council in Sandton, Johannesburg. BMW has revealed that it will begin testing in collaboration with Anglo-American Platinum and Sasol. The Sasol BMW Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle,...

This post reports on two new instances of people applying a little critical thinking to the issue of using so-called “green” hydrogen as an essential piece of a future de-carbonized energy system. This is a subject that I have previously addressed, here in a post of June 13, 2022, and here again in my energy storage Report of December 1, 2022. The two new pieces covered in this post are (1) a February 1 Report for the Manhattan Institute by Jonathan Lesser titled “Green Hydrogen: A Multibillion-Dollar Energy Boondoggle,”, and (2) a February 13 article in the Washington Examiner by...

The ZEROe demonstrator is also the first-ever A380, also known as MSN001, produced. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SUMMARY Airbus plans to install the hydrogen fuel cell system on its A380 test-bed for in-flight testing in 2026. The ZEROe project aims to produce a hydrogen-powered commercial plane by 2035 using innovative technologies and concepts. The demonstrator will be the first A380 to have taken the sky, with production number MSN001. After the recent success in testing the hydrogen fuel cell system, the 'iron pad,' Airbus is set to install the fuel cell propulsion system on its ZEROe test bed, an Airbus 380 registered F-WWOW,...

Biden energy loan czar Jigar Shah was a major investor in a struggling green energy company that is in advanced talks to receive a $1.5 billion loan from his office. The Department of Energy’s loan office, where Shah serves as director, is working to fast-track the funding to Plug Power, a hydrogen fuel company on the brink of bankruptcy. But the ties between Plug Power and Shah could add to concerns from lawmakers about conflicts of interest in the federal loan program. Securities and Exchange Commission records detail a long-standing financial relationship between Plug Power and Generate Capital, an investment...

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration released its highly anticipated proposal for doling out billions of dollars in tax credits to hydrogen producers Friday, in a massive effort to build out an industry that some hope can be a cleaner alternative to fossil-fueled power. The US credit is the most generous in the world for hydrogen production, Jesse Jenkins, a professor at Princeton University who has analyzed the US climate law, said last week. The proposal — which is part of Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act passed last year — outlines a tiered system to determine which hydrogen producers get the most...

Another spoke in President Joe Biden’s climate policy wheel is the production of hydrogen, which was referred to as a “key pillar of Bidenomics” in an announcement $7 billion in funding for hydrogen hubs across the country. Other troubled green initiatives Biden has been rolling out include the development of offshore wind energy and the widespread adoption of electric vehicles. This past month both the offshore wind and the electric vehicle industries have seen significant losses as a result of problems that experts, such as energy writer Robert Bryce and Manhattan Institute Senior Fellow Mark Mills, have long been warning...

A couple of days ago, a Substack called Doomberg had a piece titled “False Utopia.” The piece featured a discussion of a post of mine from February 2023 with the title “We Must Demand A Demonstration Project Of A Mainly Renewables-Based Electrical Grid.” My post argued that we should demand a demonstration project of a mainly renewables-based electrical grid that would include all the key elements — generation mainly from solar and wind, plus sufficient back-up or storage to make the whole thing work for the long term without involvement of the evil fossil fuels, plus any other necessary elements...

LANSING, MI – A whole lot of hydrogen is coming. Michigan was tapped by federal energy regulators to build a new clean hydrogen hub and develop regional supply chains for the fuel source. The goal is to create a market for fueling trucks and heavy-duty vehicles with clean hydrogen, which comes without any tailpipe emissions. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced $1 billion in federal funding for the project by Midwest Alliance for Clean Hydrogen, known as MachH2. She said it would bring thousands of jobs to Michigan. - "Carbon emissions drive the greenhouse effect to cause global warming and the accelerating...

My last post discussed a new Report out from the UK’s Royal Society in early September, with the title “Large-scale electricity storage.” The Report describes and models how the UK might build out a “net zero” electricity system for Great Britain. The proposed system would consist of generation entirely from wind and solar sources, with the intermittency backed up only from energy storage and without any use of fossil fuels. To its credit, the Report dabbles in reality on the subject of how to store sufficient amounts of energy and for a long enough period of time. It considers the...

After a week’s delay and some concern, West Virginia officials announced a new project to produce clean hydrogen from natural gas in Mason County and deposit greenhouse gas emissions beneath state-owned wildlife areas. The state Economic Development Authority today approved up to $62.5 million in forgivable loans for Houston-based Fidelis New Energy. Gov. Jim Justice then announced the project and introduced company leaders during an event at the state Culture Center.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (NSF) - Florida utility regulators and other industry officials are objecting to a federal proposal aimed at reducing greenhouse-gas emissions from power plants. Regulators argue the changes could drive up costs for consumers and hurt the reliability of the state’s electric system. The Florida Public Service Commission on Tuesday approved sending a document to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency raising concerns that the proposed rule could result in unjust and unreasonable carbon emissions performance standards that would risk the safety, reliability and affordability of electric service in Florida. The EPA released the wide-ranging proposal in May, saying it...