Presentation downloadable from 1 CarbonSafe, Greensols and Newcomen Engines Talk by John Harrison B.Sc. B.Ec For that which is common to.

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CarbonSafe, Greensols and Newcomen Engines

CarbonSafe, Greensols and Newcomen Engines

Talk by John Harrison B.Sc. B.Ec

“For that which is common to the greatest number has the least care bestowed upon it. Every one thinks chiefly of his own, hardly at all of the common interest; and only when he is himself concerned as an individual.” (Aristotle 350 BC)


A Planet in Crisis?A Planet in Crisis?

– Energy– Water– waste and pollution– loss and

degradation of topsoil

– global warming.

In the next 50 years it is crunch time for:

Are we thinking about it? Do we have an answer?


Fresh WaterFresh Water

The amount of water in the world is finite. The number of us is growing quickly and our water use is growing more quickly.

A third of the world's population lives in water-stressed countries. By 2025, this is expected to rise to two-thirds.

The world's supply of fresh water is running out. Already one person in five has no access to safe drinking water.


Global WarmingGlobal Warming

Rises in the levels of carbon dioxide and other gases (methane, water vapour)

Are causing a rapid rise in temperature


The Carbon Cycle and EmissionsThe Carbon Cycle and Emissions

Source: David Schimel and Lisa Dilling, National Centre for Atmospheric Research 2003

Emissions from fossil fuels and cement production are the cause of the global warming problem


Energy CrisisEnergy Crisis

Peak Oil Production (Campell 2004)Most models of oil reserves, production and consumption show peak oil around 2010 (Campbell 2005) and serious undersupply and rapidly escalating prices by 2025. It follows that there will be economic mayhem unless the cement and concrete industry acts now to change the energy base of their products.


Waste & PollutionWaste & Pollution

Waste releases methane, can cause ill health in the area, leads to the contamination of land, underground water, streams and coastal waters (destroying our fisheries) and gives rise to various nuisances including increased traffic, noise, odours, smoke, dust, litter and pests.

Most damaging is the release of dangerous molecules to the global commonsThere are various estimates, but we produce about 5-

600 million tonnes of waste each year.


Ecological FootprintEcological Footprint

Our footprint is exceeding the capacity of the planet to support it. We are not longer sustainable as a species and must change our ways TO SURVIVE


We Must Learn from Nature (Biomimicry)We Must Learn from Nature (Biomimicry)

Nature is the most frugal economist of all. The waste from one plant or animal is the food or home for another.

By studying Nature we learn who we are, what we are and how we are to be.” (Wright, F.L. 1957:269)

In nature photosynthesis balances respiration. We have nothing that balances our emissions in the techno-

process There is a strong need for similar efficiency and balance

By learning from Nature we can all live together


BiomimicryBiomimicry

The term biomimicry was popularised by the book of the same name written by Janine Benyus

Biomimicry is a method of solving problems that uses natural processes and systems as a source of knowledge and inspiration.

It involves nature as model, measure and mentor.

The theory behind biomimicry is that natural processes and systems have evolved over several billion years through a process of research and development commonly referred to as evolution. A reoccurring theme in natural systems is the cyclical flow of matter in such a way that there is no waste of matter or energy.

Nature is very economical about all Processes. We must also be MUCH more economical


Economically Driven SustainabilityEconomically Driven Sustainability

The challenge is to harness human behaviours which underlay economic supply and demand phenomena by changing the technical paradigm in favour of making carbon dioxide and other wastes resources for new materials with lower take and waste impacts and more energy efficient performance.

Sustainable processes are more efficient and therefore more economic. Natural ecosystems can be 100% efficient. What is needed are new technologies that allow material and energy flows to more closely mimic natural ecosystems.

Innovation will deliver these new technical paradigms.

$ - ECONOMICS - $

Sustainability will not happen by relying on people to do the right thing


Sustainability = Culture + TechnologySustainability = Culture + TechnologyIncrease in demand/price ratio for greater sustainability due to cultural drift.

#

$

Demand

Supply

Increase in supply/price ratio for more sustainable products due to technical innovation.

Equilibrium shiftECONOMICS

Greater Value/for impact (Sustainability) and economic growth

A measure of the degree of sustainability of an industrial ecology is where the demand for more sustainable technologies is met by their supply.

New Technical Paradigms are required that deliver sustainability.


Changing the Technology ParadigmChanging the Technology Paradigm

“By enabling us to make productive use of particular raw materials, technology determines what constitutes a physical resource1”

1.Pilzer, Paul Zane, Unlimited Wealth, The Theory and Practice of Economic Alchemy, Crown Publishers Inc. New York.1990

We need materials that require less energy to make them, that last much longer and that contribute properties that reduce lifetime energies. The key is to change the technology paradigm


Examples of Economic Changes in Technical Paradigms that result in Greater Sustainability


Light Globes

Light Globes in the last 10 years have evolved from consuming around 100 watts per 1700 lumens to less that 20 watts per 1700 lumens. As light globes account for around 30% of household energy this is as considerable saving.

100 watts1700 lumens

Incandescent

25 watts1700 lumens

Fluorescent

<20 watts1700 lumens

Led Light

Solar Panels Producing More than one Electron for each Photon of Light

In all solar cells now in use - in everything from satellites to pocket calculators - each incoming photon contributes at most one energised electron to the electric current it generates. This barrier has now been broken by Victor Klimov of Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico USA .




Robotics

Construction in the future will be largely done by robots because it will be more economic to do so. Like a color printer different materials will be required for different parts of structures, and wastes such as plastics will provide many of the properties required for the cementitious composites of the future used. A non-reactive binder such as TecEco tec-cements can supply the right rheology, and like a printer, very little will be wasted.

C

C

C

C

C

Waste

Waste

Eco-Cements

Eco-cements set by absorbing CO2 out of the air and are suitable for the Pareto proportion (80%) of materials used for construction in the built environment. Coupled with capture of CO2 during manufacture the resulting sequestration is significant


Economics of SustainabilityEconomics of SustainabilitySolving global warming will require new

technologies and probably require less money than is being spent on the new space station.

Markets do not take a longer term view and governments should therefore step in and support innovation to develop new technologies that deliver sustainability.

Present inefficient technologies such as persist in power generation may be locked in as a result of network externalities and sunk costs.


A Low Energy Post – Carbon & Waste Age?A Low Energy Post – Carbon & Waste Age?

Prehistoric Classic Renaissance Industrial Revolution Contemporary Post Carbon & Waste Age

Recyclable Recyclable

CO2

Wattle & daub Stone Mud brick Etc.

Stone

Stone Brick

Concrete Eco-cements and other new technology paradigms

Waste

The construction industry can be uniquely responsible for helping achieve this transition

Maybe then we can move confidently into a more sustainable future.


Abatement and SequestrationAbatement and Sequestration To solve sustainability problems our approach

should be holistically balanced and involve– Everybody, every day– Be easy– Make money

CarbonSafe = Sequestration and waste utilisation.

Abatement = Efficiency and conversion to non fossil fuels

+

TecEco’s Contribution

New technical paradigms are required

AbatementSequestration

and


The TecEco Dream – A More Sustainable Built EnvironmentThe TecEco Dream – A More Sustainable Built Environment

MAGNESITE + OTHER INPUTS

TECECO CONCRETES

MINING

SUSTAINABLE CITIES

CO2

PERMANENT SEQUESTRATION & WASTE UTILISATION (Man made carbonate rock incorporating wastes as a building material)

CO2

MgOTECECO KILN

RECYCLED BUILDING MATERIALS

CO2

OTHERWASTES

CO2 FOR GEOLOGICAL SEQUESTRATION

We need materials that require less energy to make them, that last much longer and that contribute properties that reduce lifetime energies

“There is a way to make our city streets as green as the Amazon rainforest”. Fred Pearce, New Scientist Magazine


The TecEco CarbonSafe Geo-Photosynthethic ProcessThe TecEco CarbonSafe Geo-Photosynthethic Process

Greensols Process

Fossil fuels

Solar or solar derived energy

CO2Oil

MgOCO2

Coal

CO2

MgCO3

CO2

CO2

Inputs:

Atmospheric or smokestack CO2, brines,waste acid, other wastes

Outputs:

Potable water, gypsum, sodium bicarbonate, salts, building materials, bottled concentrated CO2 (for geo-sequestration and other uses).

Carbon or carbon compoundsMagnesium oxide

1.29 gm/l Mg

The CarbonSafe Geo-Photosynthetic Process is TecEco’s evolving techno-process that delivers profitable outcomes whilst reversing underlying undesirable moleconomic flows from other less sustainable processes.

TecEco MgCO2

Cycle

TecEcoKiln


The TecEco CarbonSafe Industrial EcologyThe TecEco CarbonSafe Industrial Ecology

OutputsGypsum, Sodium bicarbonate, Salts, Building materials, Potable water

InputsBrinesWaste AcidCO2

We must design whole new technical paradigms that reverse many of our problem molecular flows


Hydroxide

Reactor

Process

CO2 as a biological or industrial input or if no other use geological sequestration

CO2 from power generation, industry or out of the air

Magnesite (MgCO3)Magnes

ia (MgO)

Other Wastes

Simplified TecEco ReactionsTec-Kiln MgCO3 → MgO + CO2 - 118 kJ/moleReactor Process MgO + CO2 → MgCO3 + 118 kJ/mole (usually more complex hydrates)

Magnesium Thermodyna

mic Cycle

Waste Acid

1.354 x 109 km3 Seawater containing 1.728 1017 tonne Mg or suitable brines from other sources

Tonnes CO2 sequestered per tonne magnesium with various cycles through the TecEco Tec-Kiln process. Assuming no leakage MgO to built environment (i.e. complete cycles).

Billion Tonnes

Tonnes CO2 sequestered by 1 billion tonnes of Mg in seawater 1.81034

Tonnes CO2 captured during calcining (same as above) 1.81034

Tonnes CO2 captured by eco-cement 1.81034

Total tonnes CO2 sequestered or abated per tonne Mg in seawater (Single calcination cycle).

3.62068

Total tonnes CO2 sequestered or abated (Five calcination cycles.) 18.1034

Total tonnes CO2 sequestered or abated (Ten calcination cycles). 36.20

Gypsum (CaSO4)

Gypsum + carbon waste (e.g. sewerage) = fertilizers

Sewerage compost

Magnesite (MgCO3)Solar Process to

Produce Magnesium Metal

Bicarbonate of Soda (NaHCO3)

Eco-CementTec-Cement

Seawater

Carbonation

ProcessOther salts Na+,K+, Ca2+,Cl-

CO2 from power generation or industry

Sequestration Table – Mg from Seawater

The CarbonSafe Geo-Photosynthetic ProcessThe CarbonSafe Geo-Photosynthetic Process

CO2


Why Magnesium Carbonates for Sequestration? Why Magnesium Carbonates for Sequestration?

Because of the low molecular weight of magnesium, magnesium oxide which hydrates to magnesium hydroxide and then carbonates, is ideal for scrubbing CO2 out of the air and sequestering the gas into the built environment:

More CO2 is captured than in calcium systems as the calculations below show.

At 2.09% of the crust magnesium is the 8th most abundant element

Magnesium minerals are potential low cost. New kiln technology from TecEco will enable easy low cost simple non fossil fuel calcination of magnesium carbonate with CO2 capture for geological sequestration.

%5284

44

3

2

MgCO

CO%43

101

44

3

2

CaCO

CO


Reduction Global CO2 from CarbonSafe ProcessReduction Global CO2 from CarbonSafe Process

Global CO2 in the Atmosphere

2,900

3,100

3,300

3,500

2005 2010 2015 2020 2025

Mas

s o

f C

O2

(Gt)

Mass CO2 in the atmosphere without "CarbonSafe"sequestration (Gt)Mass CO2 in the atmosphere with "CarbonSafe"sequestration (Gt)Upper CO2 limit (Gt)


The Greensols ProcessThe Greensols Process The Greensols process involves the addition of waste

acid and CO2 to brines containing magnesium including seawater.

The process produces:– Valuable salts

• These salts will pay for the process

– Fresh water• considerable profits could be generated

The problem of brines from reverse osmosis processes is avoided.

CO2 is sequestered as magnesium carbonate further used by TecEco in the CarbonSafe process.

10 km by 10 km by 150 metres thick is all the magnesium carbonate required a year to more than meet our needs for sequestration.


Why Greensols is Important Why Greensols is Important For many years geologists have wondered how all the

huntite, magnesite and dolomite found in nature was formed.

Greensols solves this geological enigma. Waste acid hydrolyses water which is therefore able to release the positively charged magnesium ions out of solution.

The protons associated with the anion in an acid attach to water and de polarise it thereby releasing Mg++ for precipitation as carbonate potentially resulting in massive sequestration.

Contacts:

John Harrison, TecEco Pty. Ltd. www.tececo.com

Prof Chris Cuff, Greensols Pty. Ltd.


Thinking About Energy…..Thinking About Energy….. Australia is a big country with huge transmission losses over long

distances. We should be choosing decentralised generation options over

centralised ones if they can be demonstrated to be more efficient– Recent breakthroughs in solar technology will result in double or more efficiency– Abundant solar energy ins available e.g. Townsville with sun 330 days a year.

Unfortunately, sustainable energy other than from hydro so far does not suit large centralized power generation power plants and is therefore discredited by them further slowing their introduction.

Policies are therefore needed to encourage more sustainable generation of electricity such as a system of eco credits and debits as described in our last TecEco newsletter (No 59?).

Newcomen engines can potentially significantly increase the efficiency of existing fossil fuel powered electricity generation.


Newcomen EnginesNewcomen Engines

In contrast to Rankine cycle engines Newcomen engines capture the pressure change and heat released in the transition from a vapour back to a liquid. Newcomen engines can be retrofitted to existing fossil fuel and nuclear power stations and as a bonus produce distilled water.

The Newcomen engine concept follows from the original steam engine invented around 1712 and with the application of modern technology heat exchangers, condensers pumps, turbine technology and a few other ‘smarts’ have the potential to significantly improve efficiency.


Low Grade Heat and Newcomen EnginesLow Grade Heat and Newcomen Engines

The world's resources of low grade heat, both natural and man-made far exceed our energy requirements.

Low grade heat resources are not used because they cannot efficiently be used to drive conventional turbine generators.

Newcomen engines utilise the large volume differences when water vapour collapses to form a liquid. And can utilise low grade heat.


A Simple Solar Powered Newcomen EngineA Simple Solar Powered Newcomen Engine

To reduce visual clutter, the thermal feedback loop has been omitted.

Primary vapour is generated in a large evaporation chamber. When it collapses on cooling the rush of air and steam towards reduced pressure powers a turbine as in conventional fossil fuel powered power stations.


Solar Powered Newcomen Engine (2)Solar Powered Newcomen Engine (2)

In the above version brine in the evaporation chamber is heated directly by solar energy and by heat liberated when secondary vapour condenses in the underlying condensation chamber.

Fresh brine is continuously added at the cold end of the trough, with hot, concentrated brine being drawn off at the hot end. The heat stored in the concentrated brine is re-cycled, to pre-heat the turbine cooling water.

At the cool end of the condensation chamber, the secondary vapour always ends up transferring its latent heat to the overlying brine, because the vapour pressure builds up until it reaches its dew point.


Fresh Water and Sequestration Using Newcomen Engines

Fresh Water and Sequestration Using Newcomen Engines

Newcomen engine generators can produce fresh water as a by product.

Newcomen generator systems are designed to work using low grade heat, so by combining a Newcomen generator with a suitably designed carbon capture plant the capture process can be made more cost effective.

Contacts:


Dr Bill Courtney, Cheshire Innovation


TecEco Binder SystemsTecEco Binder Systems

Hydration of the various components of Portland cement for strength.

SUSTAINABILITY

DURABILITY STRENGTHTECECO CEMENTS

Reaction of alkali with pozzolans (e.g. lime with fly ash.) for sustainability, durability and strength.

Hydration of magnesia => brucite for strength, workability, dimensional stability and durability. In Eco-cements carbonation of brucite => nesquehonite, lansfordite and an amorphous phase for sustainability.

PORTLAND POZZOLAN

REACTIVE MAGNESIA

TecEco concretes are a system of blending reactive magnesia, Portland cement and usually a pozzolan with other materials and are a key factor for sustainability.


TecEco FormulationsTecEco Formulations Tec-cements (5-15% MgO, 85-95% OPC)

– contain more Portland cement than reactive magnesia. Reactive magnesia hydrates in the same rate order as Portland cement forming Brucite which uses up water reducing the voids:paste ratio, increasing density and possibly raising the short term pH.

– Reactions with pozzolans are more affective. After all the Portlandite has been consumed Brucite controls the long term pH which is lower and due to it’s low solubility, mobility and reactivity results in greater durability.

– Other benefits include improvements in density, strength and rheology, reduced permeability and shrinkage and the use of a wider range of aggregates many of which are potentially wastes without reaction problems.

Eco-cements (15-95% MgO, 85-5% OPC)– contain more reactive magnesia than in tec-cements. Brucite in porous materials

carbonates forming stronger fibrous mineral carbonates and therefore presenting huge opportunities for waste utilisation and sequestration.

Enviro-cements (5-15% MgO, 85-95% OPC)– contain similar ratios of MgO and OPC to eco-cements but in non porous concretes brucite

does not carbonate readily.– Higher proportions of magnesia are most suited to toxic and hazardous waste

immobilisation and when durability is required. Strength is not developed quickly nor to the same extent.


TecEco Technologies Take Concrete into the FutureTecEco Technologies Take Concrete into the Future

More rapid strength gain even with added pozzolans– More supplementary materials can be used reducing

costs and take and waste impacts. Easier to finish even with added pozzolans

– The stickiness concretes with added fly ash is retarding use

Higher strength/binder ratio Less cement can be used reducing costs and

take and waste impacts More durable concretes

– Reducing costs and take and waste impacts. Use of wastes Utilizing carbon dioxide Magnesia component can be made using non

fossil fuel energy and CO2 captured during production.

Eco-Cements

Tec -Cements

Tec & Eco-Cements

Contact:



TecEco CO2 Capture Kiln TechnologyTecEco CO2 Capture Kiln Technology

Can run at low temperatures. Can be powered by various

non fossil fuels.– E.g. solar

Theoretically capable of producing much more reactive MgO– Even with ores of high Fe content.

Captures CO2 for bottling and sale to the oil industry (geological sequestration).

Grinds and calcines at the same time.– Runs 25% to 30% more efficiently as use waste heat from

grinding Will result in new markets for ultra reactive low lattice

energy MgO (e.g. cement, paper and environment industries)


Sustainable Materials in the Built Environment - 2007Sustainable Materials in the Built Environment - 2007

Technical FocusThis Conference will focus on: The impacts and connectivity

of different parts of the supply chain.

Fabrication, performance, recycling and waste

New developments in materials and processes

Reviewing existing materials assessment tools

Future directions in regulation

Opportunities/barriers to introduction of sustainable materials and technologies in the building industry.

New materials and more sustainable built environments: the evidence?

Joint Venture WebsitesASSMIC Website: www.aasmic.orgMaterials Australia Website: www.materialsaustralia.com.au

Sustainable Materials in the Built

Environment

2007

Innovation - Process – Design

Announcement and Call for Papers18th to 20th February 2007

Melbourne, Australiawww.materialsaustralia.com.au/SMB2007

Presentation downloadable from 1 CarbonSafe, Greensols and Newcomen Engines Talk by John Harrison B.Sc. B.Ec For that which is common to.

Documents

presentation downloadable

energy water waste

economical slide

temperature slide

bc slide

nature biomimicry nature

underground water

water vapour