Global news

GranBio, a Brazilian industrial biotechnology company, and NextChem, Maire Tecnimont’s subsidiary for energy transition, have announced a strategic partnership in the licensing of GranBio 2G Ethanol technology to produce cellulosic ethanol.

GranBio’s 2G Ethanol technology converts lignocellulosic, non-food biomass to renewable, low carbon intensity biofuels. NextChem is partnering with GranBio to license this technology worldwide. The alliance combines GranBio’s technology and knowledge in second generation biomass and biofuels with NextChem’s engineering intelligence, EPC capabilities and global presence, to offer integrated services, feasibility studies, integration projects, engineering, and construction of manufacturing plants around the world.

The technology developed by GranBio to produce 2G ethanol has already been implemented in its factory in São Miguel dos Campos, Alagoas, Brazil – the first in the southern hemisphere dedicated to cellulosic ethanol.

“Some countries already recognise the renewable carbon premium; our flexible method allows the use [of] all types of agricultural waste and energy crops as feedstocks, such as cane straw, miscanthus, and corn stover and even leftover wood such as pine and eucalyptus. With the alliance with NextChem, we have the ambition to conquer a significant share of the available market: we have the security and reliability that our technology is very promising,” said Paulo Nigro, Chief Executive Officer of GranBio. CleanBay Renewables Inc. (CleanBay), an enviro-tech company focused on the production of greenhouse gas credits, organic fertilizer, and renewable energy, has announced its partnership with Kiewit Corporation, one of North America’s largest construction and engineering companies.

Through the partnership, Kiewit will design, engineer, and build CleanBay’s Westover biorefinery which, using anaerobic digestion, will recycle more than 150 000 t of chicken

Repsol has successfully completed the production of the Spanish market’s first batch of aviation biofuels.

The fuel was produced at the company’s Puertollano Industrial Complex in Ciudad Real, Spain, and more batches of aviation biofuel will continue to be manufactured at other facilities of the Group across Spain and through initiatives using biofuels derived from waste at a later time.

The first batch consists of 7000 t of aviation fuel made from biomass – equal to the consumption of 100 MadridLos Angeles flights – which passed the demanding tests required by these products. It has a bio content under 5% in order to meet the quality standards established by international specifications, and using it will prevent 400 t of CO 2 from being released into the atmosphere, which is equal to 40 Madrid-Barcelona flights.

In Spain, the Integrated National Climate and Energy Plan acknowledges that biofuels currently represent the most widely available and used renewable technology in transportation. In the aviation sector, the biojet derived from biomass or waste is today the only alternative, and it is included in the list of sustainable fuels.

Due to the important role these biofuels play in reducing emissions, Repsol began working on different low-carbon solutions applied to transportation several years ago. Its focus on promoting biofuels, along with renewable generation, synthetic fuels, green hydrogen, self-consumption, and the circular economy, is one of Repsol’s key lines of work to achieve its carbon neutrality

target by 2050. litter annually and convert it into renewable natural gas, renewable electricity, and a nutrient-rich fertilizer product.

CleanBay has a unique environmental, social, and governance profile with its ability to reduce air, soil, and water pollution. Without processing, chicken litter releases nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas with 300 times the impact of CO 2 . Litter can also produce nitrogen and phosphorus run-off, which lead to algae blooms that pollute waterways and create dead zones.

The partners of the Westküste 100 project have received funding confirmation from the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy as the first large-scale hydrogen project in Germany within the Reallabor (real-world laboratory) framework.

The purpose of the project is to make industrial processes, aviation, construction, and heating more sustainable in the future. The Westküste 100 project models a regional hydrogen economy on an industrial scale. The conditions on Northern Germany’s west coast are ideal for this – a strong wind energy region meets innovative companies that want to contribute to reaching the crucial climate targets.

The project has a total budget of €89 million. The approved funding for the project, which started from 1 August 2020, amounts to €30 million. A total of 10 partners form the consortium: EDF Germany, Holcim Germany, OGE, Ørsted, Raffinerie Heide, Stadtwerke Heide, Thüga, and thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions, together with the Region Heide Development Agency and the West Coast University of Applied Sciences.

With the grant approval, the Westküste 100 project can now enter its first phase, which includes a number of elements. A newly founded joint venture, H2 Westküste GmbH, intends to build a 30 MW electrolyser that can produce green hydrogen from offshore wind energy and provide information on the plant. Furthermore, pipeline transportation of hydrogen and the use of hydrogen in existing and new infrastructure around Heide will be tested. RWE is supporting the newly launched European Clean Hydrogen Alliance (ECH2A).

The organisation has ambitious aims on the deployment of hydrogen technologies by 2030; bringing together renewable and low-carbon hydrogen production, demand in industry, mobility and other sectors, as well as hydrogen transmission and distribution. These objectives fit perfectly with RWE’s view of hydrogen as one of the great hopes for the decarbonisation of industry.

For this reason, the company will be involved in the alliance, which was established by the EU Commission.

Siemens Energy and Beijing Green Hydrogen Technology Development Co. Ltd, a subsidiary of China Power International Development Ltd, have signed an agreement to provide a hydrogen production system for a hydrogen fuelling station.

Located in Yanqing District, Beijing, one of the three main competition areas for a major sporting event in 2022, the green hydrogen production solution provided by Siemens Energy will help guarantee the hydrogen supply for the public transportation during and after the event. The green hydrogen production solution is the first of its kind to be built by Siemens Energy in China. The project is expected to be delivered in May 2021.

In September 2019, Siemens signed a Memorandum of Understanding on co-operation in green hydrogen development and comprehensive utilisation with State Power Investment Corporation Limited (SPIC), which is the ultimate controlling shareholder of China Power. The hydrogen production project is the result of a close partnership between the two companies.

Siemens Energy’s proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyser system, Silyzer 200, can produce high-quality hydrogen on an industrial scale. In addition, the hydrogen production system responds quickly, the start-up time under pressure is less than one min., and it can be directly coupled with renewable energy. In order to meet the customer needs of saving space and being flexible, Siemens Energy has adapted its hydrogen production system into a customised solution, which is also its first skid-mounted MW green

hydrogen production system in China.

RWE is convinced of the role hydrogen can have in the energy transition. RWE also sees opportunities for the use of hydrogen within its operations, predominantly due to its large portfolio of renewable generation globally which is key in the production of hydrogen. In addition, the company has both the experience and the knowledge to produce hydrogen, as well as the capability to store hydrogen in gas storage which belong to the company.

With the alliance, the EU wants to build its global leadership in hydrogen to support the EU’s commitment to reach carbon neutrality by 2050.

The Ministry of Energy of Uzbekistan has announced that a three-year project to modernise the Kadyrinskaya Hydropower Plant (Kadyrinskaya HPP-3) has been completed on time.

The modernisation was in co-operation with a Chinese hydropower enterprise and a team of Chinese specialists. The project cost was US$27.6 million, and capital was provided through a US$9.8 million Eximbank loan from the People’s Republic of China and US$17.8 million from Uzbekistan’s own funds.

This project is one of several ongoing investment projects to both construct new hydropower plants and modernise existing ones. It is part of Uzbekistan’s ambitious national energy strategy seeking to generate a quarter of all electricity from renewable sources by 2030. The strategy aims for 3.8 GW of hydro energy, 5 GW of solar energy, and up to 3 GW of wind energy.

The project, which commenced in December 2017 following a Presidential Decree, was completed on time despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. During the last months of the project, employees and contractors worked around the clock under special quarantine conditions.

Modernisation of the plant has increased its capacity from 13.23 MW to 15.34 MW, and average annual power output to 124.4 million kWh.

The main hydraulic equipment was produced by Dongfang Electric International Corporation, the Chinese state-owned manufacturer of power generating equipment, with assembly and installation executed by highly qualified international and Uzbek specialists. Enel Green Power has used Powel’s software to highly automate the planning and dispatching processes for the Valmalenco power plants.

The Powel software enables Enel Green Power to react nearly in real-time to balancing orders, relevant changes in the availability of power plants, weather data, and inflow observations for the entire valley.

Since 2018, Enel Green Power has productively used Powel’s software in the regional dispatching centre in Sondrio in Northern Italy. Powel’s solutions have been used for the whole business process related to the production planning

Recently, Voith and Snowy Hydro agreed to collaborate for the Murray 1 power station and create a smart hydropower plant by installing acoustic sensing equipment to monitor and protect hydropower assets. The project includes Voith’s OnCare.Acoustic system, the IIoT platform OnCumulus data storage, and Digital Health Assessments. Installation of the system commenced in August 2020 with the six-month project.

In 2019, Voith Hydro was appointed the electromechanical equipment supplier for Snowy 2.0, a 2000 MW pumped storage hydropower plant. The Murray 1 hydropower plant is located in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The plant was officially opened in 1967 and contains 10 units with a capacity of 950 MW.

Voith’s OnCare.Acoustic condition monitoring system helps to detect potentially serious incidents by recording sound anomalies. Plant operators will be informed about suspicious sounds, which are pre-classified in warnings and alarms to secure the reliability, availability, and safety of hydropower plants 24/7.

With Digital Health Assessments, Voith experts analyse the power plant’s operation data in Heidenheim, Germany, at the OnPerformance.Lab (OPL). This enables conditionbased decisions to optimise preventive maintenance measures and to detect malfunctions before they occur. Using the OPL Interact communication platform, customers can communicate with the OPL experts and gain further advantage with interactive reporting of the power plant.

The project will evaluate the value of Voith’s digital

solutions combination in one single power plant. and dispatch of the hydropower plants in the Lombardian valley, Valmalenco.

These hydropower plants produce approximately 700 GWh/y and are bid to the market as an aggregated production unit. This means that nearly in real-time, Enel Green Power can optimise the overall production schedule of the power plants in the entire valley.

Due to their high degree of flexibility, Enel Green Power’s power plants in Valmalenco are of strategic importance in Enel’s overall power plant portfolio in Italy, with an annual production of approximately 60 000 GWh.

Balasubramanian Sambasivam, PhD from the Indian Institute of Science, India, discusses whether India’s electricity system is fully committed to moving towards renewable energy.

Various discourses regarding global warming and climate change have forced countries around the world to concentrate on reducing emissions in several energy intensive sectors. Apart from the transportation and industrial sectors, electricity is the most energy intensive and needs extensive attention to reduce its emissions. This is especially true for electricity generation from fossil fuel energy sources such as coal, lignite, oil, and natural gas which are highly energy intensive and emit considerable quantities of emissions into the environment. To reduce these emissions in the electricity sector, the Indian Government is installing more renewable energy into the country’s electricity generation capacity. However, the question still remains whether India’s electricity system is really turning towards renewable energy sources. rds renewable energy sources.w

Figure 1 shows all of India’s installed capacity from 1947 Figure 1 shows all of India’s installed capacity from until the beginning of the millennium. ntil the beginning of the millennium.

At the time of independence, the installed capacity the time of independence, the installed capacity of India was just 1.3 GW. Until 1980, the growth in the of India was just 1.3 GW. Until 1980, the growth electricity sector was very low and only experienced electricity sector was very low and only experienced significant growth post 1980, where it increased from ignificant growth post 1980, where it increased from 28 GW in 1980 to 105 GW in the year 2002. 28 GW in 1980 to 105 GW in the year 2002.

Figure 2 shows all of India’s installed electricity capacity Figure 2 shows all of India’s installed electricity capacity in the years 2009 and 2019. In 2009, the installed in the years 2009 and 2019. In 2009, the installed capacity was 159 GW and saw a significant increase capacity was 159 GW and saw a significant increa over the last decade, where it grew to 369 GW in 2019, over the last decade, where it grew to 369 GW in 2019 meaning the growth in installed capacity more than eaning the growth in installed capacity more thane doubled. Some of the reasons for an increase in installed bled. Some of the reasons for an increase in installed