Harnessing the power of biosolids to make hydrogen

HARNESSING THE POWER OF BIOSOLIDS TO MAKE HYDROGEN

Hydrogen is being hailed as having the power to accelerate the global transition to renewable energy. In an exciting new development, researchers have now used biosolids to produce hydrogen from wastewater, in new technology that supports the comprehensive recycling of one of humanity’s unlimited resources – sewage.

The innovation focuses on the advanced upcycling of biosolids and biogas, by-products of the wastewater treatment process.

Developed by researchers at RMIT University, the patented technology uses a special material derived from biosolids to spark chemical reactions for producing hydrogen from biogas.

The approach means all the materials needed for hydrogen production could be sourced on-site at a wastewater treatment plant, without the need for expensive catalysts.

The method also traps the carbon found in biosolids and biogas, which could in future enable a near zero-emission wastewater sector.

Lead researcher Associate Professor Kalpit Shah said existing commercial methods for producing hydrogen were emission and capitalintensive, and relied heavily on natural gas.

“Our alternative technology offers a sustainable, cost-effective, renewable and efficient approach to hydrogen production,” said Associate Professor Shah, Deputy Director (Academic) of the ARC Training Centre for Transformation of Australia’s Biosolids Resource at RMIT.

“To enable the transition to a circular economy, we need technology that enables us to squeeze the full value from resources that would ordinarily go to waste.

“Our new technology for making hydrogen relies on waste materials that are essentially in unlimited supply.

“By harnessing the power of biosolids to produce a fully clean fuel from biogas – while simultaneously preventing greenhouse gas emissions – we can deliver a true environmental and economic win.”

Biosolids are commonly used as fertiliser and soil amendment in agriculture, but around 30 per cent of the world’s biosolids resource is stockpiled or sent to landfill, creating an environmental challenge.

Dr Aravind Surapaneni, Senior Research and Planning Scientist at South East Water and Deputy Director (Industry) of the ARC Training Centre for Transformation of Australia’s Biosolids Resource, said research into new and valuable uses for biosolids was vital.

“The wastewater sector is constantly looking to develop new ways to transform biosolids into high-value products in environmentally sustainable and responsible ways,” Dr Surapaneni said.

Lead researcher Associate Professor Kalpit Shah, with the novel reactor developed and patented by RMIT University.

How the tech works

In the new method, published in the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, biosolids are first converted to biochar – a carbon-rich form of charcoal used to improve soil health.

The biosolids-derived biochar contains some heavy metals, which makes it an ideal catalyst for producing hydrogen out of biogas.

As part of the experimental bench-scale study, researchers tested the process with a methane-rich gas that resembles biogas.

They showed the biochar made from biosolids is highly effective for decomposing the gas into its component elements – hydrogen and carbon.

The decomposition process can also be conducted in a specially-designed and hyper-efficient reactor developed and patented by RMIT, which can produce both hydrogen and a high-value biochar that is coated with carbon nanomaterials.

By converting the carbon found in biogas and biosolids into advanced carbon nanomaterials, their method can also capture and sequester the greenhouse gas to prevent its release into the atmosphere.

The carbon nanomaterial-coated biochar produced through the novel technique has a range of potential applications including environmental remediation, boosting agricultural soils and energy storage.

Patented reactor technology

Associate Professor Shah said the unique reactor developed by the RMIT School of Engineering team was at the heart of this innovative recycling approach.

“We’ve radically optimised heat and mass transfer in our reactor, while shrinking the technology to make it highly mobile,” he said.

“There are no reactors available that can achieve such phenomenal heat and mass integration in such a small and costeffective package.

“And while it’s already energy efficient, with further integration, this reactor could turn biosolids and biogas conversion into a process that actually produces energy instead of consuming it.”

As well as being used in wastewater treatment, the novel reactor has potential applications in the biomass, plastics and coating industries.

The research was supported by South East Water, which will be trialling the biosolids and biogas conversion technology in a pilot plant currently under fabrication.

Dr David Bergmann, Research and Development Manager at South East Water, said the technology had potential for adoption by the industry.

“Supporting these kinds of innovative emerging technologies is an important part of our commitment towards reduced emissions and a circular economy approach involving wastewater,” Dr Bergmann said.

The Australian Research Council Training Centre for Transformation of Australia’s Biosolids Resource based at RMIT brings together expertise from 20 national and international partners from Australia, the UK and US including universities, wastewater sector and allied industry partners.

A PROACTIVE APPROACH TO MANAGING LARGE ENERGY DEMANDS

Melbourne Airport is one of the country’s biggest users of energy, and the facility has taken a proactive approach to sourcing and managing its energy needs beyond 2020.

Melbourne Airport’s electricity demand is forecast to grow significantly over the next five years, driven by terminal and airfield development. Historically, growth of such magnitude has resulted in a significant increase in energy requirements – and as a by-product, the increased consumption of fossil fuel resources.

This increased consumption has both local and global risk implications for the airport’s environment and heritage. Recognising these risks, Melbourne Airport is taking action by investing in renewable energy, building a new solar farm on the airfield to meet its increased energy needs.

The solar farm will have the capability to produce enough renewable energy to power all four passenger terminals when it is turned on in

January 2021. The project is the largest of its kind in Australia.

The solar farm will see Melbourne Airport generating 17GW hours of electricity per annum, which is equal to nearly 15 per cent of the airport’s annual electricity consumption.

Construction of the solar farm is well advanced; with all panels now installed. The panels were installed at a site off Sunbury Road, which was chosen as a location due to the available land, proximity to the airport and the maximum direct sunlight without obstructions – optimal for producing solar energy.

Melbourne Airport Chief of Landside Access

Lorie Argus said she was proud of the investment in renewable energy, which will reduce the airport’s carbon footprint.

“With the airport’s electricity demand expected to grow, the construction of our solar farm makes sense for several reasons,” said Mrs Argus.

“The project is expected to deliver significant annualised energy cost savings, a timely benefit with the impacts of COVID-19 wreaking havoc on the aviation industry.

“Additionally, we are committed to growing the airport in an environmentally, socially and economically sustainable way. This renewable energy project is another chapter in that story.”

Beon Energy Solutions General Manager

Glen Thomson said the company is excited to be working with Melbourne Airport to deliver

Australia's largest behind-the-meter solar installation – the largest of any airport in the country.

“The airport location brings with it some unique complexities and challenges, which utilises our collective strengths,” Mr Thomson said.

“We congratulate Melbourne Airport on their investment and focus on innovative solutions to their growing energy needs, and we look forward to continuing the relationship with similar projects across the airport precinct.”

In addition to working with Beon Energy

Solutions for the development of the solar farm,

Melbourne Airport has also enlisted the services of SMA Australia, who provided the containerised inverter modules, and Canadian Solar, who provided the solar panels.

Multiple benefits for a large energy user

For Melbourne Airport, the decision to proceed with this development was largely about investing in renewable energy to reduce the airport’s carbon footprint. The annual cost savings the airport will see as a large energy user added to the attractiveness of the development.

The solar farm, which is the length of approximately 26 soccer fields, is one of the largest behind-the-metre solar farms in the Southern Hemisphere – the site itself is 192,000 square metres.

“Having our own solar farm means that environmentally, we are growing the airport in a sustainable way and are also able to deliver energy cost savings,” said Mrs Argus.

“Since construction commenced, we’ve been contacted by Melbourne Markets, Latrobe University and a few other large organisations wanting to find out more about how they can implement similar solar initiatives. It’s been great to be able to share our knowledge and first-hand experience.”

Key learnings from the project included: » Mitigating the effect of reflected glare from solar panels on planes: this can be managed through an aviation impact assessment, using the latest software modelling to confirm there is no impact to pilot safety. Melbourne Airport chose a fixed ground racking system for the solar panels, in lieu of a tracking system, to assist in managing these risks. » Bird roosting: this can be an issue around the airport approaches. However, all plants around the development have been chosen to minimise any bird roosting risks. For example, shrubs have been chosen to be planted around the perimeter.

A focus on sustainability

In addition to the new solar farm, Melbourne Airport has a number of other initiatives in place that enhance its sustainability and energy self-sufficiency credentials.

It also has an 8MW trigeneration plant that provides power into the airport’s high voltage network. Both the solar farm and the trigeneration plant can operate in unison due to the fact that the airport’s load is more than the sum of what the solar farm and trigeneration plant can produce.

Melbourne Airport has also installed a solar array on the rooftop of one of its tenant’s warehouses, located in the Melbourne Airport Business Park. The 2MW capacity array, perched on Agility’s roof, is approximately 30,000 square metres and is the airport’s first solar development on a roof structure. The system will connect into Melbourne Airport’s embedded network.

SA POWER NETWORKS WINS 2020 INDUSTRY INNOVATION AWARD

Energy Networks Australia has announced SA Power Networks as the winner of the 2020 Industry Innovation Award.

SA Power Networks won the ENA Innovation Award for their South Australian VPP.

Presented for SA Power Networks’ Advanced Virtual Power Plant (VPP) Grid Integration Trial, the award recognises the distribution network’s national leadership in the design and application of groundbreaking technology supporting Australia’s customer-focused energy transition.

VPPs aggregate large numbers of customer batteries to operate in much the same way as a traditional power station.

SA Power Networks worked with Tesla on its South Australian VPP to develop and demonstrate how real-time integration between networks and VPPs can maximise the benefits – economic and environmental – for all customers, VPP operators and network managers in the National

Electricity Market.

The project has shown how higher levels of energy exports to the grid from customer systems can be enabled through flexible, rather than fixed, export limits. It tested the value this can create for VPP operators, who also have the opportunity to provide important network support services such as frequency control. When fully deployed to up to 50,000 households, the SA VPP’s power output will be able to be doubled compared with traditional approaches to grid integration, increasing its export capacity to 500 MW – the same capacity as the now decommissioned coal-fired Port

Augusta (Northern) Power Station – and supporting up to one-third of typical state electricity demand. This project is believed to be the first to demonstrate this concept in actual operation with the largest VPP actively participating in the Australian energy market, and to seek to measure the realworld costs and benefits of this approach.

Energy Networks Australia CEO, Andrew

Dillon, said the project demonstrated SA

Power Networks’ understanding of the immense change the energy sector was undergoing and the economic and social need to create smarter energy grids.

“The VPP Grid Integration Trial is a fine example of energy network innovation facilitating the renewable energy transition while enhancing the safety, reliability and affordability of electricity,” Mr Dillon said.

“This is an important project not just for South Australia but for the nation as we work to integrate increasing amounts of distributed energy into the electricity system.

“The learnings from this ambitious project will contribute to the development of smarter grids and better customer outcomes across the country.”

Accepting the award on behalf of SA Power Networks, Mark Vincent, GM Strategy & Transformation, said the concept was simple. “Instead of fixed export limits, we have created the capacity to provide flexible export limits that maximise the opportunity for everyone to share the energy generated from their rooftops,” he said.

“Our next step is developing a flexible exports option for individual customers to maximise their export capacity as well as the groups of customers managed within VPPs. We are aiming to make this wider offering available to all solar customers in South Australia in 2022.

“This delivers a step change in terms of integrating renewables with the grid, and we anticipate the work we are doing is creating the blueprint for a national approach to integration of DER. Our approach has the support of the solar industry, equipment manufacturers, networks, system managers and policy makers.”

There were eleven nominations in total for this year’s award, and Energy Networks Australia congratulates nominees for the extremely high standard of the eleven entries.

There were four finalists for the award – in addition to SA Power Networks, Energy Queensland, Transgrid and Western Power were all named finalists for the award.

Energy Queensland – Smart solar export in real-time via Dynamic Operating Envelopes

The Cleveland Solar Dynamic Operating Envelope (DOE) Trial successfully demonstrated the innovative application of available cost-effective technologies to implement a DOE that efficiently manages surplus energy exported to the network from a commercial-scale 50kVA solar photovoltaic system.

The industry-leading DOE encompasses a range of allowable export values which the local network can accommodate based on real-time network conditions. Today, a comparatively small upfront cost can unlock added revenue for customers through export. Tomorrow this intelligence may enable customers to participate in energy markets, directly or through an aggregator, using their system to reap additional economic benefits.

Transgrid – Unmanned aircraft (drone) powerline stringing program

TransGrid has partnered with Infravision to develop a drone powerline stringing program. Infravision is a drone technology company specialising in solutions for the transmission industry, to develop a safer method to conduct aerial transmission line stringing using heavy-lift drones.

As a result of the engagement, Infravision developed a connected hardware system using drones and networked smart winches to provide a safer, more cost-effective and more customer-focused method for powerline stringing in the transmission industry.

Western Power – Autonomous Grid modelling and solution

Western Power has developed a longterm modelling and planning capability, referred to as the Grid Transformation Engine, that considers a range of energy supply and demand scenarios to enable us to take tangible steps toward a future grid vision that will fundamentally change the network of today.

This has seen Western Power deliver 52 stand-alone power systems in 2020 with a further 100 units planned for 2021. As a world leader in using this technology, Western Power is making significant headway in improving power reliability and network efficiency; and delivering a lower carbon energy future for Western Australians.

The VPP is demonstrating how real-time integration between networks and VPPs can maximise environment and economic benefits.