Muhaimin Iqbal
Author

In Search of New Energy

Advanced Renewable

Tue , 14 May 2024 11:37 WIB

The search for new energy has so far focused more on the object, namely what will become the new energy. Because what will be replaced is very massive oil, gas and coal, the search for 'what' is not yet enough to balance the energy it wants to replace.

So the search for new energy must also add focus to the 'how', namely how existing energy is used. If we can find a new way that can double the efficiency of using existing energy, for example, we will have found new energy whose magnitude is equivalent to the existing one.

Adding focus from 'what' to 'what and how' is a big opportunity for us to be able to meet our energy needs in a cleaner and more sustainable way, which can also be much cheaper. The reactor in the image below represents the 'what and how' mentioned above.

The 'what' function is played by synthesis which is represented by reaction equation 5, namely when this reactor is used to produce advanced biofuels from syngas (CO and H2), which can come from the gasification of garbage, waste or CO2 emissions. Apart from producing fuel in the form of renewable gasoline, diesel, jet-fuel and LPG, this exothermic synthesis reaction can also produce power/electricity at the same time.

Then the 'how' function is played by the use of fuel that is not just burned in the Internal Combustion Engine (ICE), because the average efficiency of ICE engines now only reaches 25-30%. When we reform fuel from the advanced biofuels or renewable hydrocarbon group (reaction 1) and shift (reaction 2), the combination of the two (reaction 3) produces a lot of hydrogen, around 44% of the weight of the reformed hydrocarbon fuel.

Because the energy density of H2 (120 MJ/kg) is much higher than hydrocarbon fuel (45 MJ/kg), even though the weight has decreased from 1,000 gr of hydrocarbon to 440 gr of H2, in terms of energy it has actually increased from 45 MJ to 53 MJ. Where does this additional energy come from? from the heat of combustion of a small portion of fuel (reaction 4) which is sufficient to split H2 from steam (H2O).

When the hydrogen produced from reaction 3 is used as fuel for hydrogen fuel cells, where the average efficiency is above 50%, the power or electricity produced will increase significantly compared to the original fuel used in the ICE engine. By changing the way fuel is used or 'how', we will be able to find very significant additional new energy already.

So with this combination of 'what and how', it is still realistic to achieve affordable clean energy (SDG no. 7) even earlier than the original target of 2030. Of course, many things are still needed for this, including perfecting this research - but this is worth it, because we are pursuing additional supplies of sufficient new energy for which there are not many alternatives.