‘Artificial sun’ may produce green fuels
— with temperatures of up to 5,400 degrees Fahrenheit — is key to testing novel ways of making hydrogen, according to Bernhard Hoffschmidt, the director of the Aerospace Center’s Institute for Solar Research.
Many consider hydrogen to be the fuel of the future because it produces no carbon emissions when burned, meaning it doesn’t add to climate change. But while hydrogen is the most common element in the universe, it is rare on Earth. One way to manufacture it is to split water into its two components — the other being oxygen — using electricity in a process called electrolysis.
Researchers hope to bypass the electricity stage by tapping into the enormous amount of energy that reaches Earth in the form of light from the sun.
Hoffschmidt said the dazzling display is designed to take experiments done in smaller labs to the next level, and once researchers have mastered hydrogenmaking techniques with Synlight’s 350kilowatt array, the process could be scaled up tenfold on the way to reaching a level fit for industry. Experts say this could take about a decade, if there is sufficient industry support.
The goal is to eventually use actual sunlight rather than artificial light produced at the Juelich experiment, which cost $3.8 million to build and requires as much electricity in four hours as a four-person household would use in a year.
Hoffschmidt conceded that hydrogen isn’t without its problems — for one thing, it’s incredibly volatile — but by combining it with carbon monoxide produced from renewable sources, scientists would, for example, be able to make eco-friendly kerosene for the aviation industry.
RICHMOND, Va. - Shipping containers full of coal ash from China, Poland and India have come into the U.S. through the Port of Virginia as foreign companies find a market for the same industrial waste that America’s utilities are struggling to dispose of.
Critics call it a missed opportunity. Coal ash is treasure as well as trash, useful for projects from roads to concrete to wallboard. They want Virginia to mandate more recycling of the ash that’s already here, threatening to contaminate water sources or create an environmental disaster.
“We have millions of tons of this sitting along our riverbanks,” said Travis Blankenship, former government affairs manager for the Virginia League of Conservation Voters. “Why in the world would we be importing it from other states and countries?”
The nation’s shift away from coal for electricity has reduced the supply of fresh coal ash, forcing industries that depend on it to look farther afield. Some turn to companies that have figured out how to reprocess ash discarded years ago in pits and ponds. Others look overseas.
The Port of Virginia handled just one shipping container of coal ash in 2015, from India. Last year, there were about 22, from China and Poland. It all went on to Ohio and Wisconsin. Meanwhile, more ash has been trucked in from other states for concrete production in Virginia.
Coal ash is an umbrella term. It includes bottom ash, which settles in boilers; fly ash, a powdery material captured in exhaust stacks; and synthetic gypsum, a byproduct of smokestack “scrubbing.”
These materials can be had for several dollars a ton if trucked directly from a utility to a factory or job site. They’re more expensive to obtain in a useful form after decades underground or underwater. That makes for-