Using high-tech renewable wood to make just about everything

Source: New Scientist

This has to be the most exciting New Scientist article I have read in awhile! In material science labs around the world, people are working on an entire civilisation built on wood. The aim is to replace steel, concrete, plastics and some electronics with high-tech wood.

It is not the wood as we know it but processed wood. Some products planned to be made from this high-tech wood include: most car parts; skyscrapers; windows (wood can be processed into a strong, transparent material); aeroplanes; batteries; clothing and mobile phones. For example, Japanese engineers are due to unveil a wooden concept car at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

So far buildings, including skyscrapers, have been and are planned to be built from cross-laminated timber (CLT) which is very strong and can be processed off-site. Made to measure large flat sheets of CLT can make building construction easier and faster. Some examples of existing buildings are given in the New Scientist article cited below.

Wood is a complex mixture of organic chemicals. The most prominent is nanocellulose (40%) which is composed of long, strong fibres with excellent mechanical properties. Lignin comprises 30% of wood and the rest is a starch-like substance called hemicellulose. These three compounds can be extracted and processed into many valuable compounds.

Nanocellulose is already used as a petrochemical substitute in paints, glues, cosmetics, nappies, packaging and electronics. It has been proposed for thousands of other products, e.g. the car industry is exploring it as a replacement for glass fibres in bodywork.

Lignin is the coming revolution. It is a waste product from wood pulp and paper processing. Work is being done by chemical companies to use it to replace different petroleum-based products. The best developments so far are in coatings, adhesives and resins.

The laggard is hemicellulose which is difficult to process but the ultimate aim is to use it to replace plastic. Some examples of success here are to be found in the New Scientist article cited below.

Reference:
- Paper copy: “Welcome to the age of wood” by Graham Lawton, New Scientist, 16 March 2019, No3221, pp 33-37.
- Digital copy introduction: Our wooden future: making cars, skyscrapers and even lasers from wood.
- Individual issues of New Scientist can be purchased online from the New Scientist app for A$7.99.

UNSW to develop home hydrogen storage of renewable energy

Residential Hydrogen Storage System (UNSW Newsroom)

“Researchers at University of NSW Sydney with partners H2Store have received a $3.5 million investment from Providence Asset Group to develop a first-of-its-kind hydrogen storage system that could mean cheaper, safer storage for renewable energy.”

The inventor, Professor Aguey-Zinsou said: “We will be able to take energy generated through solar panels and store it as hydrogen in a very dense form, so one major advantage of our hydrogen batteries is that they take up less space and are safer than the lithium-ion batteries used in many homes today.  We can actually store about seven times more energy than the current systems.” (UNSW Newsroom).

From the drawing of the system above, if looks like electricity from solar panels will be used to make hydrogen and oxygen from water via electrolysis in the electrolyser. Somehow the hydrogen will be condensed and stored. It can be later used to power a fuel cell to make electricity for the house and charging an electric car when needed.

“The team hopes to have a 5kWh home storage system prototype ready by the end of this year, and a product on the market late in 2020. This would be followed by a “ramped up” 15kWh commercial-scale storage system.” (One Step off the Grid).

Further Reading:
- UNSW to develop hydrogen storage for renewables. UNSW Newsroom, March 19, 2019.
- Home Hydrogen Storage for rooftop solar? UNSW team says it’s coming in 2020. One Step Off the Grid, March 20, 2019.

Regenerative agriculture is adding resilience to Australian farming

Harvesting a pasture crop at Colin Seis' farm Winona, NSW. (Source: Winona)

When pioneering Australian farmers started to work the land, they got very good returns in the average to good years because of the richer soils under grassland that was managed by Aboriginals. However over time, agriculture has intensified without returning all the essential nutrients and organic material to the soil and has killed off some beneficial soil bacteria and fungi through the use of chemicals. The carbon levels of the soil have declined from those measurements taken in the early years of European settlement (Colin Seis personal communication).

“Regenerative agriculture is a system of land management principles and practices that increase biodiversity, enrich soils, improve watersheds and enhance ecosystem services.” (Soils for Life). Regenerative agriculture includes such methods as carbon farming, pasture cropping, organic farming, rotational grazing, planting windbreaks and other sustainable farming methods.

Some of their techniques include the rotational grazing of large herds of sheep or cattle, where the animals are moved on from a field before the grass is damaged and the soil is exposed, rather than grazing until the soil is near bare. It leads to better plant recovery, perpetual soil cover and good nutrient cycling with grass mulch and manure added to the soil. Very little carbon and nutrients are lost when the animals go to market, that is, it creates an on farm cycle of soil essentials. This may require farmers to have lower stocking rates and to de-stock dramatically during drought, so the soils are protected.

Another technique is to have forageable native plants in windbreaks, either fenced off or as spirals in the paddock (cropping occurs between the spirals).  Such plants include certain wattles, saltbushes and a number of other edible native shrubs. These act as backup feed during drought and provide wind shelter and shade for the animals. Other farmers plant windbreaks of local native plants to improve farm biodiversity with the usual advantages of shade and shelter from the wind. Windbreaks also help prevent top soil loss.

Other regenerative farmers are pasture croppers where they sow crops into well grazed native and/or exotic pastures. The native grasses (and some exotics) are perennial, summer growing and dormant in winter. This means they do not interfere with winter growing crops such as wheat or oats and provide pasture in summer after the crop harvest. The ground is perpetually covered (reducing top soil loss) and fields can be grazed soon after harvest. The system works best with stock that are rotationally grazed. There is less need for fertiliser, pesticides and herbicides and these farmers can gradually move to organic or spray free farming. This helps reduce their operating costs.

These, and similar methods, do help provide resilience to drought; improve soil carbon (making a richer soil); higher crop yields; better water retention; increasing beneficial microorganisms numbers; reduced soil loss; and can lead to organic farming and better farm biodiversity.

Further reading:

- Colin Seis - Pasture Cropping: http://www.pasturecropping.com/pasture-cropping

- Soils for life: adopting regenerative practices: http://www.soilsforlife.org.au/home/index.html

- Australian farmers driving up profits through regenerative agriculture: https://www.commercialrealestate.com.au/news/australian-farmers-driving-up-profits-through-regenerative-agriculture/

- Regenerative agriculture finds solid backing as decades of success show renewal. ABC Rural News, March 10, 2019.

“WA prepares plan to shift from coal to renewables, and distributed energy”

Source: RenewEconomy

“Western Australia’s Labor government says it is drawing up plans to facilitate the shift from coal to a grid dominated by renewables, and will develop a “whole of system” plan as well as a strategy to cope with the dramatic uptake of rooftop solar and battery storage.”

“The plan was unveiled on Wednesday by energy minister Bill Johnston, who said technological change in the energy sector is happening at a rapid pace.”

“In Western Australia, we’re blessed with world-class solar and wind resources, abundant gas supply, a wealth of battery metals, and a highly skilled workforce,” he said in a speech to the Institute of Energy.”

Continue reading: WA prepares plan to shift from coal to renewables, and distributed energy. RenewEconomy, March 7, 2019.

The UK's CO₂ fell for a record sixth consecutive year in 2018

UK CO₂ Emissions 1850 to 2018 (Source: Carbon Briefs via RenewEconomy)

The Carbon Brief’s analysis shows UK’s CO₂ emissions are continuing to fall and in 2018 they fell to the lowest level since 1888, outside years with strikes (see graph above).

"The estimated 1.5% reduction was once again driven by falling coal use, down 16% compared to a year earlier, whereas oil and gas use were largely unchanged."

“Notably, coal CO₂ emissions now make up just 7% of the UK total. This small share will shrink even further as coal-fired power stations continue to close ahead of a 2025 phase out deadline. Only 5% of UK electricity generation in 2018 was from coal, a record low.”

“Since 1990, the UK has cut its emissions faster than any other major economy in the world, even as its GDP has continued to grow. Recent Carbon Brief analysis suggests reduced energy demand and a shift to cleaner sources of electricity explain most of the CO₂ reductions since 1990.”

Read more: UK shows how climate action [is] done, with cuts to emissions for six years in a row. RenewEconomy, March 6 2019.