Energy transition project development services
Intestazione
In 2023, approximately 39 billion tonnes of CO2 were emitted into the Earth's atmosphere, marking the highest value ever and confirming the growth trend caused, above all, by the emerging countries. The scientific community agrees that the enormous increase in CO2 emissions in recent decades is the main cause of ongoing climate change
Blocco 1
Solution
The most advanced institutions have paved the way to reduce CO2 emissions, without compromising industrial and social progress. This path towards a new "Carbon Neutral" industry is well summarized by the expression "Power-to-X", i.e. the set of technologies that aim to convert renewable electrical energy into synthetic fuels (precisely called E-Fuel) and hydrogen which, together with biofuels, represent the most credible alternative to fossil fuels (which instead contribute substantially to CO2 emissions). The potential market is enormous, it is estimated that global hydrogen demand alone could achieve 500 megatons by 2050.
Blocco 2
Limits
A first limit to the practical application of technologies aimed at the generation of e-fuels from renewable electricity is represented by the enormous quantity of renewable electricity needed to produce hydrogen: between 37 and 60 MWh/ton H2. Nature, however, comes to the rescue... in fact, sun and wind are available - in principle - in infinite quantities, therefore the marginal cost of electricity from photovoltaic and wind sources tends to zero, at least where sun and wind aplenty. Hydrogen overcomes the intermittency limits of renewable energy and allows the energy obtained from sun and wind to be stored and transported in order to be used where and when needed without CO2 emissions
Each energy transition project must possess a technologically neutral approach. In case of hydrogen from electrolysis, the analyzes and simulations, based on the main technologies available on the electrolyser market (PEM, ALKALINE, AEM, SOEC), lead to the most appropriate energy transition path.
A second limitation of hydrogen itself is represented by its low energy density per unit volume of hydrogen, i.e. in a cubic meter of space hydrogen at atmospheric pressure contains little energy compared to other gases (for example methane). There are remedies for this low energy density of hydrogen which consist of high pressure compression, liquefaction, or even the combination of hydrogen with non-biological organic liquids or gases
The e-fuels, such as methane and green methanol, represent themselves a method for increasing the energy density of hydrogen using CO2, and offer the great advantage of being able to be used with existing infrastructures. Evidently the CO2 used to compose e-fuels must not increase the level of CO2 in the atmosphere (for example, it can be first captured from the air and then released back into the atmosphere).
The enormous energy consumption necessary to capture CO2 from the air represents one of the most relevant technological and infrastructural challenges in the energy transition.
Caratteristiche
European Union
The European Union has given a mighty heave to the energy transition and defined a regulatory framework that allows for setting solid foundations for the energy transition projects; delegated acts 1184/2023, 1185/2023 and the renewable energy directive RED III are an example. Issues present in them as the new definition of renewable hydrogen, the geographical correlation between electrolysers and renewable electricity plants, the synchrony between the production of electricity and the production of hydrogen, the biofuels and E-Fuels requirements, are new compared to the traditionals faced in Oil & Gas industry and definitevely require new skills.