Hydrochar: benefitting from innovation
No carbon capture ecosystem will be sustainable if it doesn't create opportunities to profit for the ecosystem participants. We walk you through these opportunities in the hydrochar value cycle.
One of the most inexorable problems in the carbon capture word is that most proposals try to establish and scale processes that promise to be good for us all, but are not good for the process operators in the sense that without a tax-and-subsidy scheme they will never become profitable. They’re technology theater.
A major reason why we focus on hydrochar and hydrothermal carbonization is that it promises to create an ecosystem where these two goals, economic feasibility and ecological benefit, can be aligned already in the short run.
As we pointed out in last week’s newsletter, a number of opportunities to profit from participating in the ecosystem exist, and they exist independent of scale. Small vintner’s cooperatives or producers in emerging countries can participate and profit from the value cycle just as much as major plants. Decentralization is baked into the system.
And did we mention the process is exothermic?
Food and feed
Food for humans and animals is produced from the plants and sold to farmers and consumers. These extract nutrients to build up their own biomass. After passing through humans and animals (vulgo: digestion), only the nutrients are extracted and residues are returned to the material flow of bio-based materials. Even animals eaten by humans are only a small pivot in this biomass cycle.
Disposing of the biological residues from these small loops usually also involves costs: Wastewater and slurry and manure are valuable because they still contain many nutrients, but they incur costs in disposal.
Biogas
Biogas and sewage gas already contribute about 300 petajoules to total energy production in Germany. In the future, this contribution should increase in order to replace natural gas or to generate rapidly available electricity from biogas (operating reserve). This operating reserve share of electricity generation is absolutely necessary to stabilize the fluctuating solar and wind power generation.
Actually, not much natural gas should be used for this, since climate neutrality cannot be achieved with natural gas. The EU taxonomy of natural gas is only due to the shortage here, but not with regard to CO2 neutrality. Operating reserve energy is the most expensive energy to sell on the market.
Hydrochar
Many profitable processes are possible here. Hydrochar in dried form can be used as a fuel for cement production and in municipal power generation. Of course, it is not CO2 negative but only CO2 neutral. Hydrochar can be used as an absorbent for waste water to filter heavy metals, medicines and similar pollutants out of the water.
This is particularly important as the limits for these substances are constantly being reduced and usable processes have to be developed. hydrochar can make an important monetary contribution here.
Waste heat
Waste heat from the HTC process is a valuable resource for heating buildings, municipal enterprises, factories and private homes. A not insignificant part of our total energy consumption and thus of our CO2 footprint is due to the burning of fossil fuels for mere heat generation. The waste heat from the processes would be available cheaply at a usable temperature level and should be used urgently to save fossil fuels.
Fertilizers
We will see a shortage in the supply of phosphates in the next few years as phosphorus reserves are almost exhausted. It is therefore imperative to recover phosphates and the HTC process offers a good way to do this efficiently. The same applies to chemically bound nitrogen (ammonium and nitrates), which has become very expensive due to the increase in energy costs and will lead to a massive increase in food costs in the coming years.
When we started out thinking about contributing to the range of existing carbon capture technologies, we decidedly focused on technologies that make sense both ecologically and economically. That can be deployed decentrally, that are already mature enough to get started right away, and that promise a profit to its participants already in the short run.
This is the reason why we zoomed in on hydrochar.
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