Vulcan and BASF have signed a memorandum of understanding in the presence of Daniela Schmitt , Minister of Economic Affairs , Transport , Agriculture and Viniculture for Rhineland- Palatinate , to explore the use of geothermal energy at the chemical company ’ s Ludwigshafen site as part of a strategic partnership . The partners aim to jointly evaluate opportunities for harnessing natural heat from deep geothermal sources to supply BASF ’ s largest site with renewable energy capable of meeting base load power requirements in the future . The surrounding urban centers of Frankenthal and Ludwigshafen also stand to benefit from the sustainable heat and are participating in the necessary seismic surveys as a first step . In order to make optimal use of the synergy effects from the project , |
Vulcan plans to build a lithium extraction plant for the production of green lithium . The geology of the Upper Rhine Graben gives the Rhine Valley region enormous geothermal potential . Assuming that the exploratory work is successful , heat pumps could be used to take advantage of the area ’ s geothermal energy to generate CO 2 -free steam . With a potential output of 300 megawatts of thermal energy , around 4 million metric tons of this crucial energy carrier for the chemical industry could be produced at the BASF site in Ludwigshafen every year – without the use of fossil fuels . This would prevent the emission of approximately 800,000 metric tons of CO 2 , making a significant contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions at BASF ’ s main site . |
Vast Renewables Limited ( Vast ) has signed a development services agreement with GGS Energy LLC ( GGS Energy ), to pursue a commercial-scale synthetic fuels project in the Southwest United States ( Project Bravo ). Project Bravo , Vast ’ s first deployment in the U . S ., will see Vast ’ s CSP v3.0 technology used to generate carbon free heat and electricity to power a co-located refinery that will produce green methanol and / or electrically powered sustainable aviation fuel ( e-SAF ). The project is expected to be located in the Southwest United States . Methanol is one of the most versatile hydrogen derivatives which , if produced using clean energy , has the potential to decarbonise shipping and aviation fuels . Using CSP can potentially reduce green fuel production |
costs by up to 40 % according to a recent report by engineering group Fichtner . Furthermore , e-SAF will be critical to reducing emissions from the aviation industry over the coming decades . Given these and other strong demand trends , the parties expect to attract high-quality , long-term offtake contracts from global strategic partners . Project Bravo will build on Solar Methanol 1 ( SM1 ), the CSPpowered green methanol reference plant to be located in Australia at the Port Augusta Green Energy Hub , which Vast is co-developing with global energy company Mabanaft . SM1 will be supplied with base load renewable heat from Vast ’ s co-located 30 MW / 288 MWh CSP plant , and it will have the capacity to produce 7,500 tonnes of green methanol each year . |
An independent brewery in West Sussex is poised to become the first in Britain to make its beer |
using an ultra-high-temperature heat pump in place of an oil boiler . Hepworth Brewery expects to cut the emissions from wort boiling – an essential step in beer-making to extract flavour – by using a heat pump that can produce steam at a temperature of up to 130C . The new heating system will recycle the waste vapour from the brewing process , which is normally vented into the air , by using the heat pump to raise the temperature of the steam back |
to 130C before returning it to the brewer . The heat pump prototype , designed by a start-up based in south-west London , is expected to lower the brewer ’ s fuel costs by 40 % and could soon be used to power the full brewing process , it said . Andy Hepworth , the founder and chairman of Hepworth Brewery , said the governmentbacked project would enable the company to “ switch off our oil |
boiler ” in favour of the “ reliable new way to recycle our waste heat ”. Heat pumps are expected to play a major role in the government ’ s ambition to reduce carbon emissions to net zero by 2050 in line with its legally binding climate targets . However , the technology has been slow to gain acceptance by householders wary about whether replacing a gas boiler with an electric heat pump could keep their homes warm . |