Global Climate News - April 16

Latvia's hydrogen-fueled Trolleybuses; Palladium vs Nickel catalysts; Greece's marine protection commitments - satellite tags on sea turtles; Reducing emissions in Southeast Asia

Apr 17, 2024

Latvia’s Hydrogen-fueled Trolleybuses

The city of Riga in Latvia has a network of trolleybuses - regular buses that are connected to overhead electric lines like trams. Some buses also have diesel engines that allow them to run on routes beyond the power line network. In 2020, 10 buses with hydrogen fuel cells, instead of diesel engines, as “range extenders” were added. These ‘HyTrolleys’ are supported by a single hydrogen fuelling station in the city and can run 150 kilometres on a 1-3 minute refuel. Some buses have run more than 350km on a single refuel. The station so far uses grey hydrogen from fossil fuels, but Latvia is now planning to build a wind-powered 1000MW hydrogen plant at the Port of Liepaja, which is a special economic zone. Offshore Energy | Liepaja SEZ | Labs Of Latvia | H2Nodes | Fantastic video of the Riga Trolleybus Network

Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia are also building Rail Baltica, an 870 km electrified rail line, that will integrate the 3 Baltic countries with rest of Europe’s rail network. Rail Baltica

News from Governments

Five European countries - Denmark, Norway, Belgium, The Netherlands and Sweden - are partnering on transportation of captured CO2 between their territories. This includes granting permits for the Emissions Trading Scheme, carbon capture and storage projects, and exploring and developing CO2 storage sites (primarily in Norway). Offshore Energy | MoU Netherlands and Norway | MoU Norway & Sweden | Netherlands Press Release
India has released draft guidelines for a scheme that will provide subsidies to install solar rooftops in 10 million households. pv magazine
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Should we replace Palladium use with Nickel?

Palladium is a platinum group metal and primarily used as a catalyst in selective catalytic reduction for pollution control from combustion engines. As Palladium is a rare metal, a lot of research has been done on replacing it with the more abundant and less costly option - Nickel. In a new study, authors claim that this ignores the actual environmental impact of the reaction - the materials and energy use in preparing the catalysts and reaction materials, solvents and their disposal through incineration, and their effects on ozone, water and acidification.

For the reaction compared - production of 5-(thiophen-3-yl)pyrimidine - a common reaction in the pharmaceutical industry

more mass of nickel than palladium is needed, as catalyst
when using nickel as catalyst, the reaction will need to be done at higher temperatures leading to higher energy use
to meet the FDA limits on metals in the final product, additional processes may be needed to remove Nickel, which are not required for a Palladium-catalysed reaction
greater amount of organic (petroleum-based) solvent is used with Nickel

Organic solvents are flammable, toxic and are disposed by incineration - creating more emissions.

in the pharmaceutical industry, solvent waste constitutes up to 85% (by weight) of total waste generated during the synthesis of an active pharmaceutical ingredient
Review Article (Aug 2023)

Research is being done to perform these reactions using water, in place of organic solvents, as a medium. The authors claim that replacing/reducing use of organic solvents is a more effective sustainability approach than replacing rare metal use.

The value of consequence for the Ni-catalyzed reaction stands at ca. 2326 kg CO2/kg final product, while that for the Pd-catalyzed coupling is roughly 1554 kg CO2/kg product. By contrast, the corresponding data associated with the metal-only footprint is 0.19 kg CO2/kg product for Ni versus 2.4 for Pd.
…what is clear from this analysis is that chemistry in water vs. use of petroleum-based organic solvents (or solvents obtained from any source, including biorenewables) is the key factor that determines the impact of the catalysis on climate change, and to a much lower extent the choice of metal, earthabundant or otherwise. Water-based chemistry offers, in contrast, a high potential in this regard as already demonstrated at Novartis

The impact of earth-abundant metals as a replacement for Pd in cross coupling reactions (April 2024)

In the previous 34 issues of this newsletter

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Greece has banned bottom trawling - fishing using a net along the ocean floor - of marine parks, effective 2026, and of all marine protected areas by 2030. A fee on offshore wind farms may be applied to support fishing trawlers affected from the ban. To further protect marine biodiversity, the country plans
1. Two additional marine parks covering >32% of the country’s territorial waters to be established this year
2. Monitoring marine areas using portable GPS, drones, remote sensing
3. Mapping coastlines and marine areas
4. using digital techniques and IoT applications for monitoring water quality and pollution; digital applications for beach monitoring
5. a dedicated restoration programme for four specific gulfs - Corinthiakos, Thermaikos, Saronikos and Pagasetikos Gulf
6. reducing plastic waste by 50% and microplastics by 30% by 2030 (compared to 2019 levels); reducing emissions from shipping
7. establishing an early warning system for ships to identify large animals on their routes
8. mapping and protecting the migration routes and habitats of sea turtles
  With a presence spanning an impressive 50–100 million years, sea turtles are among the most ancient groups of animals on the planet.
  …The Action aims to purchase and install 200 satellite tags on sea turtles, as well as develop a smart, digital, spatially explicit Decision Support System (DSS) utilizing telemetry data, ecological models, and remote sensing sources, the DSS will serve as the cornerstone for prioritizing conservation and management actions with spatial precision. This system will empower the identification of sea turtle habitat hotspots and the detection of high-risk areas, thereby enhancing the functionality of an early warning system to mitigate potential impacts at local, regional, and national levels.
  The Guardian | Greece’s Commitments (PDF)
Long-term contracts with coal-based power generators and overcapacity - grid capacity was 76% higher than peak demand in 2022 - are preventing accelerated renewables deployment in Indonesia. Legacy coal contracts have “take or pay clauses” that put financial stress on the grid operator, and require coal plants to generate a minimum amount of power. South Africa, Colombia and The Philippines also face similar challenges in meeting emissions reduction targets. Some approaches the Rocky Mountain Institute suggests to address these
1. repurpose coal plants, or use them in combination with renewables to meet power needs
2. designing the system with enough capacity to meet demand at all times, but also optimise for system costs - make decisions for the system, not what’s best for an individual plant
3. consider impact to utility & grid operator financials while devising strategy
Rocky Mountain Institute
The City of Boston (USA) is partnering with FloodMapp for flood monitoring that will allow it to - predict extent and depth of flood, see flooded areas real-time to direct search and rescue, and assess the damage after a flood. Smart Cities Dive | Recent research on rising sea levels along US east coast
Transmission System Operator, TenneT, which builds and maintains the power network in The Netherlands and parts of Germany, has published its investment plans for land and sea from 2024-2033. TenneT (In Dutch)
Bernie Krause is a San Francisco resident who recorded sounds from the environment at Sugarloaf Ridge state park in California over decades. Listen to a 30-year time lapse of his recordings in this piece from The Guardian.
Australia published a Silicon to Solar (S2S) report in December 2023 to assess its ability to manufacture solar modules onshore.
S2S estimated every step of the solar supply chain that comes before module production would be double the cost of production in China, to start with. However, Australian module production costs would add up to AUD0.17/W compared with China’s AUD0.12/W, because heavy components, including aluminum and glass, could be made in Australia.
The minimum viable plant size for refining Australia’s abundant quartz reserves into solar-grade polysilicon is around 25,0000 tons, or 10 GW per annum. Just one facility would exceed Australia’s requirement and constitute an export-focused industry. pv magazine
Silicon to Solar Report - Australian Renewable Energy Agency
Some findings from analysis of 10 Southeast Asian countries - renewables adoption is slow, EV adoption is driven by 2-wheelers, deforestation is reducing, soil health is a concern, funding is a roadblock in meeting emissions reduction targets, and sustainable practices for agriculture are needed.
Key Climate policy announcements from SEA countries, Src: Bain & Company, GenZero, Standard Chartered, and Temasek Southeast Asia’s Green Economy 2024 Report: Moving the needle
CNBC | Bain & Company, GenZero, Standard Chartered, and Temasek Southeast Asia’s Green Economy 2024 Report: Moving the needle (PDF)