How Can Energy Vectors Help With Energy Transition?

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How Can Energy Vectors Help With Energy Transition?

The International Energy Agency (IEA) foresees up to a 30% increase in energy consumption by the year 2040. The outlook for the upsurge in energy utilisation is equivalent to the combined current energy demand for China and India added to the energy circuit. Two ends of the scale i.e. the growing demand on energy requirement and an aspiration for Greenhouse Gas (GHG) reduction calls for realistic solutions that can be deployed at scale. Taking this into consideration, there is a shift in conversation from barrels of oil (or cubic meters of natural gas) to more sustainable energy vectors. An energy vector allows us to harness naturally occurring energy such as solar irradiation, wind, hydro-power, among others, into an energy dense

The success of each energy vector is linked to its appropriateness, adaptability and integrability with the local and global energy system. The most important characteristics for the assimilation of energy vectors in the modern energy system, besides their suitability for storage and transportation, is the possibility of their production from different energy resources and their end use with the lowest possible level of waste. The aim

Concentrated Power: Energy Density

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30

20

10

0150100500

Volu

me

(Meg

ajou

les

per L

)

Mass(Megajoules per Kg)

Diesel

Petrol

Natural GasLithium-ionBattery

Nickle-zincBattery

MethanolAmmonia

LiquidCompressed

Uncompressed

Hydrogen

Sources: DOE; Tran el al; Vaclav Smil; Schroder et al; Valera-Medina et al

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Energy carriers all hold various energy density, which is a factor in delivered costs and applicability to energy

batteries offer a distinct advantage.

services, such as electricity generation through large volume storage, either directly as a gas or liquid hydrogen or indirectly via energy dense liquids such as ammonia.

Hydrogen provides an advantage by supplying a high energy density on a mass basis, providing decarbonisation applications in hard to penetrate areas such as transportation, domestic and industrial heating.

Ammonia offers a distinct advantage to hydrogen as the costs of storage and transportation are As an already globally traded commodity for fertilizer applications, ammonia has

accrued the safety, technological and commercial familiarity globally. Ammonia is a promising hydrogen carrier owing to its high hydrogen content where hydrogen can be liberated at the destination.

When produced using GHG-free hydrogen and renewable energy, ammonia is a zero-carbon fuel that can be

cracked for combustion in turbines and internal combustion engines. This allows the provision of pure hydrogen for fuel cell electric vehicles, ships and even aviation. Long-term energy storage of hydrogen as ammonia can act as a buffer versus short-term storage solutions of batteries.

LIQUIFIED

Energy carriers all hold various energy density, which is a factor in delivered costs and applicability to energy

batteries offer a distinct advantage.

services, such as electricity generation through large volume storage, either directly as a gas or liquid hydrogen or indirectly via energy dense liquids such as ammonia.

Hydrogen provides an advantage by supplying a high energy density on a mass basis, providing decarbonisation applications in hard to penetrate areas such as transportation, domestic and industrial heating.

Ammonia offers a distinct advantage to hydrogen as the costs of storage and transportation are As an already globally traded commodity for fertilizer applications, ammonia has

accrued the safety, technological and commercial familiarity globally. Ammonia is a promising hydrogen carrier owing to its high hydrogen content where hydrogen can be liberated at the destination.

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Sustainable synthetic fuels can be conceived to burn cleanly, reducing pollutants associated with fossil fuel

the vehicles.

Recently strenuous interest has generated in the advancement of an integrated cross-vector energy system. Multi-energy vector integration promotes the notion of increased amalgamation of constituent parts of the energy system (i.e. electricity, heat and transport) to enhance their utilisation and create value streams to

in realisation of multi-vector energy systems, but they are set to offer ample innovation opportunities on the horizon.

From an energy perspective, energy vectors can be sifted for the economic, energy and technological

Energy vectors, such as hydrogen and ammonia, provide a key opportunity for ambitious economies, without the renewable or clean energy resources to transition whilst simultaneously providing transformative energy