business - Securing a cleaner world
Written by James M. Dorsey
An engineer at Texas A&M University-Qatar (TAMUQ), Prof. Ozalp has won awards even before testing has verified her discovery. Indeed, she could be holding the key to the economically viable production of one of the cleanest, safest forms of fuel and electricity. Testing of Prof. Ozalp’s production process in a solar reactor built by Germany’s prestigious Frauenhofer Institute and verified by the German Aerospace Centre constitutes the litmus test.
Prof. Ozalp’s process uses concentrated solar power to crack natural gas and produce hydrogen and carbon black, a solid used in rubber, inks, and other products. The process promises to address issues unresolved in earlier hydrogen breakthroughs by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and in other countries. Those breakthroughs advanced the cheap production of hydrogen, but were hampered by carbon clogging that caused reactors to explode. They were also too dependent on the vagaries of the weather. Prof. Ozalp believes she has resolved those problems by developing what she calls an ‘aero-shielded smart solar reactor’. The reactor has a camera-like aperture that adapts to the amount of available sunlight and reduces its volume accordingly to keep the temperature constant.
Prof. Ozalp’s approach has particularly significant advantages for the oil industry, the primary producer of hydrogen. It not only eliminates carbon emissions but also the cost of storing or burying carbon dioxide. Oil companies use hydrogen to refine their oil into gasoline. Prof. Ozalp’s process would enable them to boost revenues by opening up a new, potentially lucrative market. Instead of worrying about storage costs, taxation of their carbon emissions and bad publicity as polluters, they would be marketing their carbon black. Market researchers predict annual demand for the commodity to be more than 11 million tonnes, worth US$15 billion, in the next two years.
If proven, Prof. Ozalp’s process would put Qatar at the cutting-edge of the development of alternative energy.
Qatar and other oil and gas producers in the Gulf, like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, are investing in renewable energy not only to diversify their economies, but also to position themselves as knowledge-based innovators. As incubators of the development of new energy sources, they hope to diversify their economies, build knowledge economies, and benefit from the push for green jobs by the Obama administration and the European Union.
To bolster their status as incubators, Qatar and other Gulf states are investing heavily by endowing clean technology investment funds, funding Western research, and establishing research parks like the barely two-year old, US$600 million Qatar Science & Technology Park (QSTP). Qatar has committed US$220 million to a British low-carbon technology fund that gives the Gulf state access to British expertise and technology. Chevron has teamed up with Qatar-based renewable energy and clean technology company GreenGulf Inc. to test solar energy technologies and their application in the Gulf state.
The investments are building blocks of an ambitious Qatari plan to green the country’s economy. Elements of the plan include development of a 3,500 megawatt solar power complex, an experimental wind turbine, a waste plant that would produce 40 megawatts of electricity, a camel farm powered by solar and wind energy, a nuclear power station, and a desert greenhouse that employs solar power and salt water for its crops. If Prof. Ozalp’s process tests successfully, Qatar could become the first country to operate a zero-emission hydrogen plant that would service the petroleum industry and provide ammonia to the chemical industry. Ultimately, electricity produced from hydrogen could fuel internal combustion engines for cars and generate power for homes.
Prof. Ozalp compares the race to develop cheap hydrogen to the Olympic Games. “Whoever solves these problems first,” she says, “will be remembered as the initiator of a new era.”
Japan is one country that is closely monitoring Qatar’s potential breakthrough in the production of hydrogen. Despite Honda ditching plans for its hydrogen car, Japan sees a future for it in home power generation. A consortium of natural gas utilities and equipment manufacturers is already marketing fuel cell-powered generators for residential heating and electricity production. But at US$30,000 per generator, it’s a tough sell. Qatar’s potential breakthrough could not only radically reduce that cost but create badly needed economies of scale.
The Qatar Science & Technology Park (QSTP) is home to a who’s who of technology-based companies, including oil giants ExxonMobil, GE, Shell, ConocoPhillips, Total, and Qatar Petroleum; technology leaders Microsoft, Cisco, and the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS); and industry frontrunners Rolls-Royce and General Electric. QSTP’s location in Education City means companies and leading universities work together to develop and commercialise cutting-edge, new technologies. With Prof. Ozalp’s discovery, QSTP may have its first home run. For the USA and the European Union it could mean that to reduce their dependence on fossil fuels from the Gulf, they will have to rely on alternative energy sources fostered by the Gulf.
