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Swedish scientists have proposed using excess wind and solar power to incinerate metals such as aluminum and iron to produce heat that could be used to generate electricity or hydrogen.
Researchers at the University of Lund (Sweden) have developed a way to store the electricity produced by wind and solar installations by incinerating scrap metal. The storage technique uses wind and solar electricity to power systems that burn metallic energy, usually iron or aluminum, and react it with hot air or steam.
"The heat released can be used to drive turbines that, in turn, produce electricity," explain the scientists, who point out that at the end of this process, the metallic oxide remains in the form of dust. "Alternatively, you can choose to produce gaseous hydrogen, in which case the combustion takes place with hot steam."
They said that using solar or wind power, the oxidized dust can be turned back into ordinary metal. They claimed that the process is safe, cheap and does not use fossil fuels.
"Through electrolysis, metal oxide can be converted back to metal," the researchers said. "It can be done by pouring the metal oxide powder into a solution with cryolite into which two current-carrying electrodes are inserted to start a chemical reaction."
The research group plans to build a facility based on the circular process at a brewery in southern Sweden, where it is necessary to expand electricity production. Their work builds on multi-year research efforts on the combustion of metals such as iron and aluminum.
“The pilot plant will be like a small coal-fired power station, but in which coal is replaced by iron,” explains researcher Marcus Aldén.
The team hopes to replicate the plan at other locations in the Skåne region of Sweden.
"Together with some research groups from Germany, Canada and the Netherlands, we came to the conclusion that these base metals are so promising as a source of energy and as energy carriers that they could function as an element of the energy supply," the academics say, without give more technical details.
The researchers are likely referring to Germanys Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung and the Netherlands TU Eindhoven, which published a paper in Acta Materialia in October to present similar technology. |
