Report: GS Yuasa developing high-capacity Li-sulfur battery, commercialization by 2020

18 November 2014

The Japan Times reported that Japan-based battery maker GS Yuasa Corp. said it has developed a next-generation lithium-sulfur battery with three times the capacity of existing products.

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The battery reportedly uses sulfur as a key material in the cathode and a silicon-based anode. The company said it now aims to improve the durability of the anode , so it can commercialize the next-generation lithium-ion battery by 2020.

To formulate the cathode material, GS Yuasa fills sulfur into small holes on carbon rods, the company said.

$1.1B Huineng SNG plant goes on-stream transforming coal into natural gas in China

18 November 2014

Haldor Topsoe A/S announced that Huineng, a large-scale SNG (Substitute Natural Gas) plant, went successfully on-stream near the city of Ordos, located in Inner Mongolia in the northern part of China. Topsoe has designed the methanation section of this plant, which is the company’s second large-scale coal-based industrial SNG reference to begin operations in China following last years’ opening of Qinghua, the world’s largest SNG plant located in the Xinjiang region.

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The Huineng SNG plant is owned and operated by the private Chinese company Huineng Coal Electricity Group and represents an investment of US$1.1 billion. The plant will have an annual output of approximately 400 million normal cubic meters of SNG based on coal gasification.

Block diagram with major units of an SNG plant. Click to enlarge.

SNG derived from coal is a direct replacement for natural gas that can be used on-site, fed into a natural gas pipeline or liquefied into LNG. The SNG produced at Huineng will be liquefied into LNG and annually the facility expects to reach a total production of 280,000 tons. This commodity will be transported to gas stations in Ordos and the area surrounding the city. An agreement with Xingtai in the province of Heibei has been signed that will allow Huineng to supply LNG to run local buses in the city.

In China, coal is an abundant resource and SNG makes it possible to transform large reserves in remote, mountainous areas into a clean energy source that can be transported to densely populated areas and help reduce air pollution.

The Huineng plant uses Topsoe catalysts and TREMP methanation technology which makes it possible to produce SNG from synthesis gas derived from coal in an efficient and cost-effective way. In the methanation process carbon oxides react with hydrogen to form methane—i.e. SNG. Since the methanation process is highly exothermic an efficient heat recovery scheme is key to maintain an attractive plant economy.

TREMP is based on Topsoe’s high activity MCR catalyst portfolio. The technology ensures an efficient heat recovery. Combined with a low recycle ratio and reduced gas flow this leads to significant energy savings, lower equipment cost and overall improved plant efficiency, says Per Bakkerud, Group Vice President in Topsoe’s Chemical Business Unit.

As part of the Huineng methanation unit, Topsoe has designed a hot steam superheater which allows steam production at a temperature of 530 degrees. This steam is used to generate electricity significantly improving the overall energy efficiency of the entire plant complex.

Topsoe initiated research and development in the SNG field in the late 70s and the knowledge gained over the years has been used to refine the company’s technology platform.

UCLA researchers develop synthetic biocatalytic pathway for more efficient conversion of methanol to longer-chain fuels

18 November 2014

Researchers at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science led by Dr. James Liao have developed a more efficient way to turn methanol into useful chemicals, such as liquid fuels, and that would also reduce carbon dioxide emissions. The UCLA team constructed a synthetic biocatalytic pathway that efficiently converts methanol under room temperature and ambient atmospheric pressures to higher-chain alcohols or other higher carbon compounds without carbon loss or ATP expenditure.

Building off their previous work in creating a new synthetic metabolic pathway for breaking down glucose that could lead to a 50% increase in the production of biofuels (earlier post), the researchers modified the non-oxidative glycolysis pathway to utilize methanol instead of sugar. An open-access paper on the research was published in the 11 Nov. edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Methanol is an important intermediate in the utilization of natural gas for synthesizing other feedstock chemicals. Typically, chemical approaches for building C–C bonds from methanol require high temperature and pressure. Biological conversion of methanol to longer carbon chain compounds is feasible; however, the natural biological pathways for methanol utilization involve carbon dioxide loss or ATP expenditure.

Here we demonstrated a biocatalytic pathway, termed the methanol condensation cycle (MCC), by combining the non-oxidative glycolysis with the ribulose monophosphate pathway to convert methanol to higher-chain alcohols or other acetyl-CoA derivatives using enzymatic reactions in a carbon-conserved and ATP-independent system. We investigated the robustness of MCC and identified operational regions. We confirmed that the pathway forms a catalytic cycle through ¹³C-carbon labeling. With a cell-free system, we demonstrated the conversion of methanol to ethanol or n-butanol. The high carbon efficiency and low operating temperature are attractive for transforming natural gas-derived methanol to longer-chain liquid fuels and other chemical derivatives.

Methanol, which is a product of natural gas, is a feedstock chemical that can be processed into gasoline and other chemicals such as solvents, adhesives, paints and plastics. Using current methods, that processing requires high temperatures, high pressures, expensive catalysts, and typically results in the release of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Although there are natural pathways to assimilate methanol to form metabolites that could, in principle, be used to form higher-chain alcohols, inherent pathway limitations prevent complete carbon conservation.

The first step in the synthetic MCC is the oxidation of methanol to formaldehyde. The core portion of MCC is then the biochemical condensation of two formaldehydes with a CoA to form acetyl-CoA and water. The final phase in MCC involves the reduction of acetyl-CoA to alcohols.

The … results demonstrate that MCC is indeed functional, although kinetics of the cycle needs to be tuned to avoid the kinetic trap. We expect that with some moderate protein engineering, the activities of Mdh, Fpk, and PduP could be improved to enable substantially higher fluxes. Because MCC is completely redox balanced and independent of ATP, a cell-free system could be a viable application for larger-scale production after optimizing the conditions for enzyme and intermediates stability. Unlike microbial systems, cell-free conversion can achieve high theoretical yields, achieve high productivity, and are easier to control. Alternatively, MCC could be engineered into a variety of hosts because all of the enzymes are oxygen tolerant.

Tung-Yun (Tony) Wu, a project scientist with Liao’s metabolic engineering and synthetic biology laboratory, was a co-author and manager of the research. Other contributing authors included Igor Bogorad, Chang-Ting Chen, Matthew Theisen, Alicia Schlenz and Albert Lam.

While this research addresses a major step in converting methanol to liquid fuels, another major challenge remains in the conversion of methane (the major component in natural gas) to methanol.

The research was supported by the ARPA-e REMOTE (Reducing Emissions using Methanotrophic Organisms for Transportation Energy) program. (Earlier post.)

Resources

• Igor W. Bogorad, Chang-Ting Chen, Matthew K. Theisen, Tung-Yun Wu, Alicia R. Schlenz, Albert T. Lam, and James C. Liao (2014) “Building carbon–carbon bonds using a biocatalytic methanol condensation cycle,” PNAS 111 (45) 15928-15933 doi: 10.1073/pnas.1413470111

Toray to expand carbon fiber supply to Boeing in $8.6B deal

18 November 2014

Japan-based Toray Industries, Inc. has agreed in principle to supply carbon fiber TORAYCA prepreg for the production of the new 777X aircraft by The Boeing Company. The companies have signed a memorandum of agreement confirming that the two companies will negotiate extension of their existing comprehensive agreement (signed in November 2005) to supply prepreg for the 787 Dreamliner with aim to extend its contract period for more than ten years and to include 777X to the supply scope, targeting to reach a final agreement by the end of this year. The total value of prepreg Toray Group will supply for both 787 and 777X programs for the contract period is expected to exceed ¥1 trillion (US$8.6 billion).

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TORAYCA Prepreg is an intermediate TORAYCA product supplied in sheets consisting of resin-impregnated carbon fiber.

Under the memorandum, Toray and Boeing also confirm that the two companies would negotiate an agreement to promote joint development in a wide range of fields including design, materials and parts production to further increase application of carbon fiber composite materials in the aerospace field.

The 777X aircraft is a large-sized twin-engine passenger aircraft currently being developed by Boeing as a successor to the existing 777, with a plan to deliver the first plane in 2020. The company is currently constructing a plant dedicated for manufacturing the main wings using carbon fiber composite material within the premises of its Everett, Washington plant.

Toray’s TORAYCA prepreg has been selected for these main wings. As for the 787, TORAYCA prepreg has been used from the beginning for part of the primary structural members such as its main wings and body of 787. With Boeing planning to raise the number of 787 aircraft being produced every month from the current 10 planes to 12 per month in 2016 and 14 per month by the end of the decade, and the ratio of larger models also expected to increase, the demand for composite materials also is expected to increase.

In response to the planned 787 production increase to 12 planes a month, Toray has been working on expansion of TORAYCA prepreg production facilities at its US subsidiary Toray Composites (America), Inc.; the new facilities are expected to start operation in January 2016. Given the order increase, Toray plans to soon finalize a plan to newly construct an integrated production line for yarn (precursor), carbon fiber TORAYCA and TORAYCA prepreg in the plant it acquired in February 2014 in Spartanburg County, South Carolina.

BioTfuel partners move ahead to construction of two demo plants; thermochemical conversion of biomass to synthetic diesel and kerosene

18 November 2014

The European BioTfueL project—which aims to develop a technology for the thermochemical conversion of second-generation biomass into synthetic diesel and kerosene (bio-jet) fuel with a more than 90% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions compared to conventional fuel (earlier post)—has ended its engineering phase and is moving forward to the construction of two demonstration plants.

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One plant is to be at the Sofiprotéol site in Venette (Picardy), the other at the Total site in Dunkirk (Etablissement des Flandres, Nord-Pas de Calais).

Bionext has just awarded the construction contracts for the main packages at Total’s Dunkirk site to the French SMEs Prosernat (for syngas treatment) and RBL-REI (for feedstock preparation) and to ThyssenKrupp-Industrial Solutions for the gasification unit and overall site integration. Since 1 September, more than 100 people have been mobilized to launch the construction phase. The start-up of the Dunkirk plant is scheduled for 2017.

BioTfueL’s concept is based on its capacity to process the broadest spectrum of biomass or to co-process it with fossil resources, both liquid and solid. The use of lignocellulosic biomass (wood, straw, plant residues, etc.) will supplement the current supply of first-generation biofuels (based on sugar, starch and vegetable oils).

This flexibility enables continuity of supply for future industrial plants while at the same time reducing production costs. BioTfueL is the first project targeting such a high level of flexibility in terms of feedstocks. At present, it is the only project in Europe presenting a homogeneous level of progress in terms of demonstrating the full chain on various scales, from biomass preparation through to production of liquid products that can be fully incorporated into conventional fuels.

The partners are committed to a project worth €180 million (US$224 million), with a little more than €33 million provided by public funding, via the ADEME and the Picardy regional council. Almost €110 million will be invested to build the TOTAL Dunkirk demonstration plant and almost €12 million to construct the Sofiprotéol Venette demonstration plant.

Total has a 31% stake in the BioTfuel project, IFPEN 30%, Thyssen Krupp Industrial Solutions 19%, Sofiprotéol 12%, CEA 5%, and Axens 3%.

EnerG2 and BASF in strategic partnership to improve and scale-up carbon materials for supercaps and start-stop PbA batteries

18 November 2014

EnerG2, a Seattle-based company manufacturing advanced carbon materials for next-generation energy storage devices (earlier post), and BASF have entered a strategic partnership to collaborate to improve and to scale-up the production of EnerG2’s proprietary carbon materials for use in supercapacitor electrodes and as a performance additive in start-stop lead-acid batteries.

Engineered carbons enhance storage performance by providing higher voltage and energy in supercapacitors and by significantly increasing the charging rate of lead-acid batteries at a partial-state-of-charge. EnerG2’s patented carbon technology platform enables large-scale production of carbon materials that surpass the limitations of the carbons traditionally used in energy storage.

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Controlling the molecular structure and synthesis of these advanced materials at early stages of production provides the ability to tailor the carbon properties to specific applications. This unique manufacturing process results in ultra-high purity material with customizable porosity.

BASF is providing funding, technical expertise, and marketing know-how in a partnership with EnerG2 to enrich its RD initiatives and to accelerate its market penetration.

EnerG2’s technology platform complements the in-house activities of BASF’s research and development as well as BASF’s global business unit for battery materials. Energy storage materials are an essential part of BASF’s strategy to enable electromobility. Furthermore, EnerG2 will also work closely with BASF to broaden its global reach, particularly in Asia and Europe.

This alliance optimally blends EnerG2’s innovation and responsiveness with BASF’s stability and an unquestionable ability to scale. We will use the funding not only to bolster our operational capacity but also to explore market opportunities with BASF. This strategic partnership will be a game-changer: it will enable us to continue serving our customers with the highest purity and highest performing carbon products, but now with the participation of a truly global player. We look forward to exploring a host of additional opportunities with BASF as we deepen our relationship over the coming months and years

EnerG2 has developed a unique approach that engineers the molecular structure of a polymer precursor in order to customize the nanostructure, and, therefore, the performance of the resulting carbon. EnerG2’s proprietary Carbon Technology Platform has two key components:

• polymer-chemistry-based precursor formulation; and
• processing parameters that transform that precursor into customized carbon.

The combination of these elements results in a flexible, competitive process that can produce carbon materials for diverse energy storage applications.