SINTEF Industry

Advances in microbial methods have demonstrated that microorganisms globally are the dominating organisms both concerning biomass and diversity. Their functional and genetic potential may exceed that of higher organisms, Studies of bacterial diversity have been hampered by their dependence on phenotypic characterization of bacterial isolates. Molecular techniques have provided the tools for analyzing the entire bacterial community including those which we are not able to grow in the laboratory. Reassociation analysis of DNA isolated directly from the bacteria in pristine soil and marine sediment samples revealed that such environments contained in the order of 10000 bacterial types. The diversity of the total bacterial community was approximately 170 times higher than the diversity of the collection of bacterial isolates from the same soil, The culturing conditions therefore select for a small and probably skewed fraction of the organisms present in the environment, Environmental stress and agricultural management reduce the bacterial diversity. With the reassociation technique it was demonstrated that in heavily polluted fish farm sediments the diversity was reduced by a factor of 200 as compared to pristine sediments, Here we discuss some molecular mechanisms and environmental factors controlling the bacterial diversity in soil and sediments,

Recently, significant events took place that added immensely to the sociotechnical pressure for developing sustainable composite recycling solutions, namely (1) a ban on composite landfilling in Germany in 2009, (2) the first major wave of composite wind turbines reaching their End-of-Life (EoL) and being decommissioned in 2019–2020, (3) the acceleration of aircraft decommissioning due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and (4) the increase of composites in mass production cars, thanks to the development of high volume technologies based on thermoplastic composites. Such sociotechnical pressure will only grow in the upcoming decade of 2020s as other countries are to follow Germany by limiting and banning landfill options, and by the ever-growing number of expired composites EoL waste. The recycling of fiber reinforced composite materials will therefore play an important role in the future, in particular for the wind energy, but also for aerospace, automotive, construction and marine sectors to reduce environmental impacts and to meet the demand. The scope of this manuscript is a clear and condensed yet full state-of-the-art overview of the available recycling technologies for fiber reinforced composites of both low and high Technology Readiness Levels (TRL). TRL is a framework that has been used in many variations across industries to provide a measurement of technology maturity from idea generation (basic principles) to commercialization. In other words, this work should be treated as a technology review providing guidelines for the sustainable development of the industry that will benefit the society. The authors propose that one of the key aspects for the development of sustainable recycling technology is to identify the optimal recycling methods for different types of fiber reinforced composites. Why is that the case can be answered with a simple price comparison of E-glass fibers (~2 $/kg) versus a typical carbon fiber on the market (~20 $/kg)—which of the two is more valuable to recover? However, the answer is more complicated than that—the glass fiber constitutes about 90% of the modern reinforcement market, and it is clear that different technologies are needed. Therefore, this work aims to provide clear guidelines for economically and environmentally sustainable End-of-Life (EoL) solutions and development of the fiber reinforced composite material recycling.

Nickel/Nickel oxide (Ni/NiO) nanosheets heterostructure is a cheap and active catalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in alkaline electrolytes. However, the reason for this activity is still under debate. Herein in-situ Raman electrochemistry has been established as a method to probe interfacial intermediates and correlate the performance of various nickel catalysts (Ni, NiO, and Ni/NiO nanosheets) during HER. In-situ Raman spectroscopy demonstrated that Ni/NiO nanosheet heterostructure maintained β-Ni(OH)2 species initially, which may contribute to the superior initial HER activity. Ni/NiO nanosheets lost β-Ni(OH)2 species by preserving a high cathodic overpotential (-0.4 V vs. RHE) for 2000 sec. The results confirmed the importance of Ni metal sites in addition to NiO sites and maintaining hydroxide species for superior and durable HER activity. These results can be utilized to design an efficient and durable catalyst for alkaline electrolyzers for the sustainable production of hydrogen.

Abstract The development of new batteries has historically been achieved through discovery and development cycles based on the intuition of the researcher, followed by experimental trial and error—often helped along by serendipitous breakthroughs. Meanwhile, it is evident that new strategies are needed to master the ever‐growing complexity in the development of battery systems, and to fast‐track the transfer of findings from the laboratory into commercially viable products. This review gives an overview over the future needs and the current state‐of‐the art of five research pillars of the European Large‐Scale Research Initiative BATTERY 2030+, namely 1) Battery Interface Genome in combination with a Materials Acceleration Platform (BIG‐MAP), progress toward the development of 2) self‐healing battery materials, and methods for operando, 3) sensing to monitor battery health. These subjects are complemented by an overview over current and up‐coming strategies to optimize 4) manufacturability of batteries and efforts toward development of a circular battery economy through implementation of 5) recyclability aspects in the design of the battery.

Microplastic fibres (MPFs) often make up the largest fraction of microplastic pollution in aquatic environments, yet little is known about their degradative fate and persistence. This study investigates the environmentally relevant photodegradation of common MPFs: polyester (PET), polyamide (PA) and polyacrylonitrile (PAN), their respective additive chemical profile, together with their potential for additive leaching. MPFs were subject to ultraviolet (UV) exposure in seawater and freshwater media over 10 months. PET and PA MPFs showed significant fragmentation and surface changes following UV exposure, additionally PA showed evidence of chemical changes. PAN did not undergo significant photodegradation in the same exposure period. Chemicals tentatively identified in MPFs and aqueous leachates via non-target gas chromatography-mass spectrometry include monomers, UV stabilisers and degradation products. Characterisation of several bisphenols (BPs) and benzophenones (BzPs) was performed via ultraperformance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry. Bisphenol A, bisphenol S and benzophenone-3 were quantified in all MPFs and wool at concentrations between 4.3 and 501 ng/g, with wool displaying the highest sum concentration of BPs and BzPs at 863 and 27 ng/g, respectively.

There is an upcoming "P&A wave" of wells that need to be permanently plugged and abandoned, especially in mature, offshore areas such as the North Sea and Gulf of Mexico. It is important to ensure that plugged wells do not leak after abandonment, as there could be several potential leak paths such as microannuli in plugged wells. To ensure well integrity after abandonment, permanent well barriers must extend across the full cross section of the well. That includes establishing barriers in all annuli, which could however be quite time-consuming and thus costly. This paper is a review of challenges and technologies for P&A of offshore wells, with an emphasis on cost-effective solutions while establishing permanent well barriers. An overview of cement and other plugging materials is given, as well as a discussion of different types of potential leak paths and failure mechanisms in permanently plugged and abandoned wells. Moreover, recent technology developments such as utilizing shale as barrier for P&A are described. A discussion on the special considerations related to P&A of subsea wells is also included.

Abstract Severe polysulfide dissolution and shuttling are the main challenges that plague the long cycle life and capacity retention of lithium‐sulfur (Li‐S) batteries. To address these challenges, efficient separators are designed and modified with a dual functional bimetallic metal‐organic framework (MOF). Flower‐shaped bimetallic MOFs (i.e., Fe‐ZIF‐8) with nanostructured pores are synthesized at 35 °C in water by introducing dopant metal sites (Fe), which are then coated on a polypropylene (PP) separator to provide selective channels, thereby effectively inhibiting the migration of lithium polysulfides while allowing homogeneous transport of Li‐ions. The active sites of the Fe‐ZIF‐8 enable electrocatalytic conversion, facilitating the conversion of lithium polysulfides. Moreover, the developed separator can prevent dendrite formation due to the uniform pore size and hence the even Li‐ion transport and deposition. A coin cell using a Fe‐ZIF‐8/PP separator with S‐loaded carbon cathode displayed a high cycle life of 1000 cycles with a high initial discharge capacity of 863 mAh g −1 at 0.5 C and a discharge capacity of 746 mAh g −1 at a high rate of 3 C. Promising specific capacity has been documented even under high sulfur loading of 5.0 mg cm −2 and electrolyte to the sulfur ratio (E/S) of 5 µL mg −1 .

g-C₃N₄ nanosheets are used as solid electrolyte filler for the first time.

The direct conversion of methane to methanol (MTM) is a reaction that has the potential to disrupt a great part of the synthesis gas-derived chemical industry. However, despite many decades of research, active enough catalysts and suitable processes for industrial application are still not available. Recently, several copper-exchanged zeolites have shown considerable activity and selectivity in the direct MTM reaction. Understanding the nature of the active site in these materials is essential for any further development in the field. Herein, we apply multivariate curve resolution analysis of X-ray absorption spectroscopy data to accurately quantify the fraction of active Cu in Cu-MOR (MOR = mordenite), allowing an unambiguous determination of the active site nuclearity as a dicopper site. By rationalizing the compositional parameters and reaction conditions, we achieve the highest methanol yield per Cu yet reported for MTM over Cu-zeolites, of 0.47 mol/mol.

Energy Systems Modelling is growing in relevance on providing insights and strategies to plan a carbon-neutral future. The implementation of an effective energy transition plan faces multiple challenges, spanning from the integration of the operations of different energy carriers and sectors to the consideration of multiple spatial and temporal resolutions. In this review, we outline these challenges and discuss how they have been tackled by the current literature, as well as pointing at directions for future research. Many of the existing reviews identify a list of challenges common to most models, but they tend to be grouped according to type or energy carrier. Here we take a new approach and structure both well-established models and solution approaches along with the main challenges that energy modelling will have to deal with in the near future. We focus on four main current challenges that energy system models face: time and space; uncertainty; multi-energy; energy behaviour and energy transition. The main findings suggest that: demand-side management applied to multi-carrier energy system models lacks; prosumers is explored only in a limited manner; general, multi-scale modelling frameworks should be established and considered both in the dimensions of time, space, technology and energy carrier; long term energy system models tend to address uncertainty scarcely; there is a lack of studies modelling uncertainties related to emerging technologies and; modelling of energy consumer behaviour is one of the major aspect of future research.

Ammonia is an industrial chemical and the basic building block for the fertilizer industry. Lately, attention has shifted towards using ammonia as a carbon-free energy vector, due to the ease of transportation and storage in liquid state at −33 °C and atmospheric pressure. This study evaluates the prospects of blue and green ammonia as future energy carriers; specifically, the gas switching reforming (GSR) concept for H2 and N2 co-production from natural gas with inherent CO2 capture (blue), and H2 generation through an optimized value chain of wind and solar power, electrolysers, cryogenic N2 supply, and various options for energy storage (green). These longer-term concepts are benchmarked against conventional technologies integrating CO2 capture: the Kellogg Braun & Root (KBR) Purifier process and the Linde Ammonia Concept (LAC). All modelled plants utilize the same ammonia synthesis loop for a consistent comparison. A cash flow analysis showed that the GSR concept achieved an attractive levelized cost of ammonia (LCOA) of 332.1 €/ton relative to 385.1–385.9 €/ton for the conventional plants at European energy prices (6.5 €/GJ natural gas and 60 €/MWh electricity). Optimal technology integration for green ammonia using technology costs representative of 2050 was considerably more expensive: 484.7–772.1 €/ton when varying the location from Saudi Arabia to Germany. Furthermore, the LCOA of the GSR technology drops to 192.7 €/ton when benefitting from low Saudi Arabian energy costs (2 €/GJ natural gas and 40 €/MWh electricity). This cost difference between green and blue ammonia remained robust in sensitivity analyses, where input energy cost (natural gas or wind/solar power) was the most influential parameter. Given its low production costs and the techno-economic feasibility of international ammonia trade, advanced blue ammonia production from GSR offers an attractive pathway for natural gas exporting regions to contribute to global decarbonization.

Following our call to join in the discussion over the suitability of implementing a reporting checklist for bio–nano papers, the community responds.

Abstract This roadmap presents the transformational research ideas proposed by “BATTERY 2030+,” the European large‐scale research initiative for future battery chemistries. A “chemistry‐neutral” roadmap to advance battery research, particularly at low technology readiness levels, is outlined, with a time horizon of more than ten years. The roadmap is centered around six themes: 1) accelerated materials discovery platform, 2) battery interface genome, with the integration of smart functionalities such as 3) sensing and 4) self‐healing processes. Beyond chemistry related aspects also include crosscutting research regarding 5) manufacturability and 6) recyclability. This roadmap should be seen as an enabling complement to the global battery roadmaps which focus on expected ultrahigh battery performance, especially for the future of transport. Batteries are used in many applications and are considered to be one technology necessary to reach the climate goals. Currently the market is dominated by lithium‐ion batteries, which perform well, but despite new generations coming in the near future, they will soon approach their performance limits. Without major breakthroughs, battery performance and production requirements will not be sufficient to enable the building of a climate‐neutral society. Through this “chemistry neutral” approach a generic toolbox transforming the way batteries are developed, designed and manufactured, will be created.

The investment costs of water electrolysis represent one key challenge for the realisation of renewable hydrogen-based energy systems. This work presents a technology cost assessment and outlook towards 2030 for alkaline electrolysers (AEL) and PEM electrolysers (PEMEL) in the MW to GW range taking into consideration the effects of plant size and expected technology developments. Critical selected data was fitted to a modified power law to describe the cost of an electrolyser plant based on the overall capacity and a learning/technology development rate to derive cost estimations for different PEMEL and AEL plant capacities towards 2030. The analysis predicts that the CAPEX gap between AEL and PEMEL technologies will decrease significantly towards 2030 with plant size until 1–10 MW range. Beyond this, only marginal cost reductions can be expected with CAPEX values approaching 320–400 $/kW for large scale (greater than 100 MW) plants by 2030 with subsequent cost reductions possible. Learning rates for electrolysers were estimated at 25–30% for both AEL and PEMEL, which are significantly higher than the learning rates reported in previous literature.

Adsorption-based CO2 capture has enjoyed considerable research attention in recent years. Most of the research efforts focused on sorbent development to reduce the energy penalty. However, the use of suitable gas–solid contacting systems is key for extracting the full potential from the sorbent to minimize operating and capital costs and accelerate the commercial deployment of the technology. This paper reviews several reactor configurations that were proposed for adsorption-based CO2 capture. The fundamental behavior of adsorption in different gas–solid contactors (fixed, fluidized, moving, or rotating beds) and regeneration under different modes (pressure, temperature, or combined swings) is discussed, highlighting the strengths and limitations of different combinations of gas–solid contactor and regeneration mode. In addition, the estimated energy duties in published studies and current technology readiness level of the different reactor configurations are reported. Other aspects, such as the reactor footprint, the operation strategy, suitability to retrofits, and the ability to operate under flexible loads are also discussed. In terms of future work, the key research need is a standardized techno-economic benchmarking study to calculate CO2 avoidance costs for different adsorption technologies under standardized assumptions. Qualitatively, each technology presents several strengths and weaknesses that make it impossible to identify a clear optimal solution. Such a standardized quantitative comparison is therefore needed to focus on future technology development efforts.

Abstract For metallic materials, standard uniaxial tensile tests with round bar specimens or flat specimens only provide accurate equivalent stress–strain curve before diffuse necking. However, for numerical modelling of problems where very large strains occur, such as plastic forming and ductile damage and fracture, understanding the post‐necking strain hardening behaviour is necessary. Also, welding is a highly complex metallurgical process, and therefore, weldments are susceptible to material discontinuities, flaws, and residual stresses. It becomes even more important to characterize the equivalent stress–strain curve in large strains of each material zone in weldments properly for structural integrity assessment. The aim of this paper is to provide a state‐of‐the‐art review on quasi‐static standard tensile test for stress–strain curves measurement of metallic materials. Meanwhile, methods available in literature for characterization of the equivalent stress–strain curve in the post‐necking regime are introduced. Novel methods with axisymmetric notched round bar specimens for accurately capturing the equivalent stress–strain curve of each material zone in weldment are presented as well. Advantages and limitations of these methods are briefly discussed.

The mechanical properties and electrochemical stability of a PEO based composite solid polymer electrolyte are enhanced by adding MnO₂ nanosheets.

The historical development of lithium metal batteries is briefly introduced.

Hydrogen could gradually replace fossil fuels, mitigating the human impact on the environment. However, equipment exposed to hydrogen is subjected to damaging effects due to H2 absorption and permeation through metals. Hence, inspection activities are necessary to preserve the physical integrity of the containment systems, and the risk-based (RBI) methodology is considered the most beneficial approach. This review aims to provide relevant information regarding hydrogen embrittlement, its effect on materials’ properties, and the synergistic interplay of the factors influencing its occurrence. Moreover, an overview of predictive maintenance strategies is presented, focusing on the RBI methodology. A systematic review was carried out to identify examples of the application of RBI to equipment exposed to hydrogenated environments and to identify the most active research groups. In conclusion, a significant lack of knowledge has been highlighted, along with difficulties in applying the RBI methodology for equipment operating in a pure hydrogen environment.