Emerging challenges for our NDT and CM communities
What will be the emerging challenges for our NDT and CM communities? The transportation sector is moving away from the internal combustion engine, with the last of these due to be sold in 2030 in the UK, or is it as hydrogen is being mooted as a viable alternative if electricity can be cheaply generated to power the process that produces the hydrogen? How will this electricity be generated? Very recently, China has powered up a nuclear fusion reactor for the first time. This technology could ultimately provide a powerful and limitless source of clean energy.
The HL-2M tokamak reactor is designed to use a powerful magnetic field to fuse hot plasma at temperatures of 150 million°C, which is more than ten times hotter than the sun’s core. It is referred to as an ‘artificial sun’ because of the enormous heat and power it produces. Nuclear fusion is seen by some as the holy grail of energy production. The reactors are intended to mimic the physics of stars by merging atomic nuclei, releasing massive amounts of energy that can be controlled and ultimately turned into electricity.
Unlike nuclear fission, the process used in nuclear power plants, it creates little radioactive waste and carries less risk of environmental disaster. However, achieving fusion is extremely difficult and expensive and it is likely to be decades before it provides a viable means of electricity generation.
The Danish parliament has reached a deal that will see the country cancel its current and future licensing rounds for oil and gas in the North Sea and phase out all fossil fuel production by 2050.
“When the calendar reads 2050, the oil and gas valves will be turned off for good,” said Dan Jørgensen, Danish Climate, Energy and Utilities Minister.
The deal makes Denmark the largest oil producer in the world so far to establish an end date for its oil production. The nation produces more than 100,000 barrels of crude oil and oil equivalents each day.
UK government advisers say that new homes should be banned from connecting to the gas grid within six years to help tackle climate change.
They want new-build homes in the countryside to be warmed by heat pumps and for cooking to be done on induction hobs, rather than using gas boilers and hobs.
A report states that in cities, new housing estates and flats should be kept warm by networks of hot water. The water could be heated by waste heat from industry. An alternative approach is to use heat pumps, which draw warmth from the sea or lakes, or to burn gas from waste.
There are international plans for hydrogen to become a major component of energy systems across the board, not just for cars but also for domestic and industrial heating and power, for fuelling trucks, trains and ships and, perhaps most importantly, for storing and stockpiling surplus electrical energy.
Last year, the UK became the first country to legislate for net zero carbon emissions by 2050, a step up from the previous law calling for an 80% reduction over 1990 levels.
It is estimated that at least 190 TWh of energy per year will be needed for producing hydrogen to achieve net zero and highlights its value for storing energy to cope with peaks and troughs in electricity generation (termed grid balancing). During the past decade, 8.7 TWh of wind power (equivalent to the capacity of 136 million Kia e-Niro 64 kWh batteries) went unused, at a cost of £649 million. That is because there is currently no way of storing vast amounts of off-peak electricity.
There is confidence that the UK has huge potential for harnessing wind power to produce zero-carbon hydrogen. It has been stated that the UK has some of the most accessible and windiest conditions in the world. The opportunity for the UK to establish close offshore farms producing hydrogen from seawater, then export it to land by pipe or ship, is huge. With the combination of spent oil and gas fields and rigs in place, using those platforms for producing hydrogen on-site is perfectly feasible. National Grid makes it clear that hydrogen is essential; there is no question at all.
How will these exciting changes impact on our industry? Working with an asset that has an operating temperature of 150 million°C will be very interesting; how will the materials used to contain this energy cope? Changing the offshore assets into hydrogen storage platforms again will have its challenges and hydrogen storage in transportation may require NDT to become an annual service requirement due to the pressures involved.
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