Hydrogen Production, Storage and Delivery - the Infrastructure

The development of a wide-area hydrogen production infrastructure could take several pathways, the most important of which are centralised production and distributed production. Distributed production includes production at local merchant facilities and on-site production by fuel stations or end users. The alternatives are now being applied and tested in many sites.

Hydrogen can be stored as a compressed gas or as a liquid or in a chemical compound using a variety of technologies, mainly involving storage in metal hydrides. Research is underway into the feasibility of storage in carbon.

There are two options for transport of hydrogen, pipeline or truck, and the hydrogen can be in gas or liquid form. Because the CO2 captured from flue gases is in gaseous form and large capital investments would be needed to construct the cryogenic plant needed for liquefaction or solidification, transportation is likely to be undertaken in the gas phase.

Bulk gaseous transport of CO2 may be undertaken by tanker (road, rail or water and air) or by pipeline, but with the large volumes required for bulk transport, pipeline transmission is the only practicable option. Tanker transport may have a role in smaller demonstration projects of the order of 100-200 kt of CO2 per year and in final distribution.

The existing hydrogen production, storage and delivery facilities are geared toward the industrial process market. The physical infrastructure to support a hydrogen economy would be far larger and will take 10 to 20 years to create. Parts of the existing natural gas delivery system can be converted to carry hydrogen but not all pipelines are suitable. Hundreds of thousands of kilometres of hydrogen pipeline will need to be constructed throughout the world.

The creation of a new energy economy is a gigantic task and to put its magnitude into perspective it is instructive to look at the existing scale of the transport network of the carbon energy economy. Much of the present extraction and processing of hydrocarbons will remain, albeit with new modified technologies for the production of hydrogen. There are 5.9 million km of natural gas pipelines in the world, 65 million km of electricity transmission and distribution lines and a vast network of oil pipelines. There is also a huge infrastructure transporting coal, oil and natural gas by sea, rail and road. The substitution of hydrogen as the world’s energy carrier would entail the creation of a new infrastructure of production and delivery.

Growth of Wind Energy

World wind energy capacity reached 74 GW by the end of 2006. It has been doubling every three years during the last decade and growth rates in the 2 years to 2006 were even faster. Wind power has grown faster than hydropower in its early years and in the last six years wind power growth has exceeded nuclear power growth. The rate of annual growth increased up to a 5 year CAGR of 28.5% in 2004 and dropped slightly to 26.3% in 2006.

Last year, wind power accounted for 1.7% of global installed generating capacity, but had a much higher share in a small number of countries. Because wind is intermittent and wind turbines have a lower load factor than base load nuclear and fossil fuel power stations, typically 25%-30% for wind and 65%-90% for nuclear and fossil fuels, less power is generated.

Wind power is now regarded as a mature technology and is the first of the renewable generating sources, since hydro power, to be termed a mainstream energy source.

The attraction of wind as a source of electricity which produces minimal quantities of greenhouse gases has led to ambitious targets for wind energy in many parts of the world. More recently, there have been several developments of offshore wind installations and many more are planned. Although offshore wind-generated electricity is generally more expensive than onshore, the resource is very large and there are fewer environmental impacts than with on-shore wind turbines. Furthermore, as with on-shore installations, the costs are now coming down systematically.

Whilst wind energy is generally developed in the industrialised world for environmental reasons and as a contributor to security of supply, it has other attractions in the developing world as it can be installed relatively quickly in areas where electricity is urgently needed and grid access is limited. In some instances it may be a cost-effective solution if fossil fuel sources are not readily available. In addition, there are many applications for wind energy in remote regions, worldwide, either for supplementing diesel power, which tends to be expensive, or for supplying farms, homes and other isolated installations.

Australian Coal Industry

New South Wales and Queensland produce nearly 97% of Australia's saleable output of black coal, as well as 100% of Australia's black coal exports.

The chief mining areas in New South Wales include the Hunter River and Newcastle areas with high volatile (> 30%) steaming and soft coking coal. To this, must be added the Southern coal field with low-volatile (22–25%) coking and the Western and Gunnedah coalfield with high-volatile steaming coal. In Queensland, the Bowen Basin, with low to medium-volatile (18–28%) coking and steaming coal, but also anthracite (12–18%) semi-soft coking coal, is of outstanding importance. On top of this come the Moreton and Tarong basins with high volatile steaming coal. Australian hard coal is mainly rich in ash and requires preparation. It is usually low in sulphur (<>

In 2001, 93 hard coal mines were operated, including 52 in New South Wales and 41 in Queensland; of these, 15 mines mainly extracted coal for domestic needs and 78 for exports. Some 146 Mt (57%) of hard coal was mined in opencast pits and 110 Mt (43%) in underground mines (Queensland and New South Wales) totalling some 266 Mt in 2001. The chief producing states were New South Wales with 113 Mt and Queensland with 143 Mt. Minor levels of approximately ten Mt output in Tasmania, Southern and Western Australia served the country’s own needs. Some 153 Mt of total output was steaming coal and 113 Mt coking coal.

In 2001, the New South Wales- and Queensland based coal industry, which mostly exports, had a headcount of 18,862; with total output of 256 Mt for the two states, productivity is 13,572 t/man per year. Here, the performance achieved in underground mines of approximately 10,300 t/man per year lagged behind that of opencast pits with 14,200 t/man per year.