Abstracts

Looking at those last 10 years, it is amazing how the public perception of Energy and Water management has evolved. Ten years ago, these two basic goods seemed to be simply available. Nowadays, they are major challenges to the whole planet.

With the increase of the population, the overwhelming globalization, the climate change issue and the depletion of the natural resources, the deal has utterly changed.

We need to understand what sustainability means for water and energy. A great diversity of technologies will be needed because no simple technology can do it all. The systemic approach seems also to be critical in any effort to lead to some sustainable management of energy and water. All this can only be done in intensifying our efforts of research through a stronger international cooperation.

Solar energy is special. Together, photovoltaics (PV) and solar heat can eliminate the need for fossil and nuclear fuels within a few decades.

The solar resource utilised by photovoltaics and solar heat is hundreds of times larger than all other energy resources combined, including fossil, nuclear, geothermal and all other renewables. It is hundreds of times larger than required to provide all of the world’s energy. Australia receives 30,000 times more solar energy each year than all fossil fuel use combined. Collection of solar energy utilises only very common materials and has minimal environmental impact over unlimited time scales. There are minimal military or security complications. No other energy source can make claims that come anywhere near these.

PV and solar heat are natural partners. Together, they can eliminate fossil fuels. In the future, 60% efficient solar cells manufactured from highly engineered materials, and placed at the focus of 1,000 sun concentrators, can provide much of the world’s electricity. Low temperature solar collection can heat water for domestic & commercial use, and heat & cooling in buildings. High temperature solar can provide power, storage, process heat and thermochemicals.

It is sometimes claimed, wrongly, that solar energy cannot dominate energy production because the sun doesn’t shine at night. Options for the provision of stable and continuous solar power include actively shifting loads from night to daytime; wide geographical dispersion of solar systems to minimise the effect of cloud; precisely predicting solar energy output using satellite imagery; diversification of energy supply to include many renewable sources; and storage. Pumped hydro (whereby water is pumped uphill during the day and released through turbines at night to provide energy) is an economical and commercially available storage option. Lakes covering 25km² (1m² per person), utilising either fresh water or seawater, can provide 24 hour storage of Australia’s entire electricity production.

Australia has a relatively strong presence in the worldwide PV industry, that can be built upon to create a major export oriented technology rich industry. It is important for Australia to have a balanced energy portfolio, without the current excessive focus on carbon capture & storage. Greatly increased support is needed for solar energy R&D, demonstration, commercialisation and market incentives. Photovoltaics will soon be a $100 billion per year industry, and Australia should be a prominent participant.

Support for solar energy in Australia should be focused on IP (intellectual property) generation and the export of IP-rich high-value products and services. This strategy should entail substantial support for R&D, and professional education, coupled with strong incentives for companies to manufacture high value products in Australia for export and to license IP overseas. Market incentives, such as a gross feed-in tariff and a large renewable energy target, are required to complement innovation and commercialisation support.

Around the world, more than 1.5billion people in more than 110 countries generate their electricity from HFO and LFO, though diesel generators. This burden often prevents them from investing in other vital sectors. The soaring prices of oil and a foreseeable lower availability of fossil reserves are a bigger concern for those countries, having less access capacity than the big rich countries.

In this situation, renewable energies rise great hope. Renewable energies are local resources, thus decreasing the country’s dependence on foreign import, while decreasing pollution.

Wind energy is one of the most promising sources, offering competitive and reliable energy in amounts significant enough for electric utilities needs. Revenues coming from carbon credits, under the Kyoto protocol, are improving the results even more.

“Farwind” countries often have small or medium power grids, and low infrastructure facilities that prevent them from installing, operating and maintaining at reasonable costs the conventional wind turbines developed for the “Northwind” context.

A pioneer in the wind industry, Vergnet SA, has been designing, manufacturing, installing and operating wind turbines for more the 15 years.

Taking advantage from the success of its 275kW guyed and tiltable turbine, VERGNET SA is currently developing a 1MW turbine dedicated to “Farwind” areas.

A guyed tower has been used, allowing a reduction of the concrete needs by a factor of 10 compared to conventional machines. This leads also to a lighter tower.

Like all other VERGNET Wind Turbines, the GEV-HP-1000 can be brought down to the ground. This allows the user to perform heavy maintenance and blade maintenance from the ground. This allows also sustaining class 5 hurricanes. Thanks to this, in hurricane plagued areas, VERGNET can use larger rotors than conventional turbines, allowing higher production. The machine design is focused on lightness: a two-bladed rotor on an improved teetering hub, gives a total reduction of stress of 35%, permitting a lighter structure.

Special care has been taken on the electric power conversion chain; to allow the GEV-HP-1000 to comply with the strictest grid codes, even on small and medium sized grids. A state of the art full scale power drive, with vectorial control of the current and the voltage has been selected. Feeding high quality energy, the 1MW VERGNET wind turbine will be able to achieve very high wind power penetration level and will be in position to backup small grids efficiently.

The 21^st century will be a century of transition. Oil and gas resources cannot keep pace indefinitely with growing world energy demand. We must find ways to make better use of existing resources, develop new reserves and diversify energy sources. We must also tackle climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions.

Bioenergy, produced from wood, lignocellulosic crops or agricultural by-products, can hold down these emissions. It is estimated that substituting wood for 1 tonne of oil-equivalent (TOE) reduces CO₂ emissions by 3 tonnes. Using biomass energy as a renewable energy source makes sense for our economy, energy independence, and the environment.

The main advantage of bio energy production is its independency of external factors like the availability of wind or sunlight. However its main inconvenience is the fact that it can only be transported over small distances for economical reasons. As a consequence the feedstock supply will be relatively little, which makes short manufacturing process attractive.

Biomass conversion may be conducted on two broad pathways: chemical decomposition and biological digestion. The final products depend on the selected technology: biogas, carbon, or biofuels for transport. The latter one is a complex multi stage process (second generation biofuels). More interesting with limited resources are the one or two step processes like torrefaction or pyrolysis eventually followed by a gasification.

As France is concerned, the resources in lignocellulosic biomass could be able to produce 15% (30 Mtoe/year) of its primary energetic consumption.Torrefaction, pyrolyis and gasification technologies are known since a long-time. However a few industrial plants are nowadays operational in the world. There are still too many technical and non-technical barriers associated with commercial development and implementation.

It is necessary to optimise production of lignocellulosic crops, and evaluate the development potential for new crops or annual crops on cultivated forestry plots. Power generation based on biomass pyrolysis/gasification is hampered by fouling of power generation systems by pyroligneous gases. Designing and perfecting a thermal scrubbing process for biomass gasification fluegases will increase the useful life of gas-fired engines used in future biomass cogeneration power plants. In the area of fuel production, the pyrolytic oils obtained do not yet match the quality of fossil fuels. Further study in this area is needed to elucidate the formation mechanisms of the three phases (gas and/or liquid and/or solid) needed for the design of future energy reactors.

Gasification appears to be the most promising pathway for thermochemical treatment of biomass, yielding both heat and electricity thanks to its high efficiency. More research is needed to optimise this process. Nowadays French research efforts concern industrial pilot plants associating research institutes and industry in order to offer within five to ten years commercial bioenergy powerplants.

The looming implementation of a Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme has led to debate about the appropriate level of government support for R&D. Some argue that putting a price on carbon provides a necessary and sufficient signal to market players for them to invest in R&D into low emission technologies. Others suggest that the need for more R&D remains crucial to abating our emissions in a timely manner and suggest that investment in this area should be considerably increased. This presentation will explore some of the arguments on both sides and discuss some of the current thinking in the academic literature in relation to the need for complementary policies.

Although far more energy is contained in the oceans than could ever be exploited by humans, very little marine renewable energy development has taken place. One such form, wave energy, is now approaching the commercial phase, and is approximately at the same stage as the wind energy industry was two to three decades ago.

Wave energy has lagged land based forms of renewable energy, but not because of any inability to convert energy. Rather, this lag in development is due to the hostile ocean environment inhibiting the survivability of wave energy devices and, hence, their long term affordability. However, engineering advances, originated by the oil and gas industry in deploying offshore structures, has allowed the fledgling wave energy industry to leverage off this knowledge in order to solve the structural and mooring issues that have hampered its development.

This leveraging of knowledge and experience is already facilitating the expected “learning curve” effects in the wave energy industry, and is manifesting itself as reductions in capital and operational costs, driving these technologies toward affordability.

It is expected that the next five years will see multiple wave energy projects developed and operating commercially, as the industry moves to the phase of scaling up to “wave farms” that are capable of supplying multiple megawatts of economically viable power. This scale up will entail devices gravitating further off-shore to take full advantage of economies of scale.

Low emission and clean energy demand is increasing worldwide with global warming and international joint effort to save the planet. Many renewable energy production sources are under massive development such as photovoltaic or wind based power. However, short and longer term storage of the energy is still an issue. Advanced batteries can overcome this issue especially since cars are among identified pollution sources. One solution is the replacement of conventional engines by hybrid and/or electrical ones. Some of the safe and high density batteries developed for cars could also be used in stationary applications.

Since the end of 2000, CEA-LITEN has been engaged in the development of advanced materials for Li-Ion batteries. After a brief description of basic principle of the Li-Ion battery storage solution, an overview of our internal work in comparison with the state of the art as well as international market and roadmap of batteries for Electrical and Hybrid cars will be presented.

The ARC Centre of Excellence for Functional Nanomaterials focuses on the research of novel nanomaterials for clean and renewable energy applications. Here, we will give some examples of the research on hydrogen production from clean ways such as water splitting by solar energy and clean coal technology, and also the key technologies of hydrogen storage for mobile and stationary applications.

The privatisation and liberalisation of the electric energy sector has considerably increased inter-regional and international energy transactions and created a greater need for bulk power transmission over long distances. In the past, schemes with voltage levels up to 1500 kV have been tested in different countries around the world (USA, Japan, Russia, Italy), but they are operated today at volage level of 500 kV. Presently Ultra High Voltage (UHV) schemes at transmission levels of 1200 kV (AC) and 800 kV (DC) are under discussion resp. under installation in India and China.

UHV schemes of these voltage levels represent an enormous technical challenge for all components in use. To address this changing network conditions, multiple actions are required, including technological improvements. This contribution presents an overview of the planned installations, describes the pros and cons of HVDC versus HVAC and the solutions under discussion. The critical components (transformers, switchgear, valves etc.) are highlighted and the challenges with respect to design and testing are discussed.

The presentation overviews the CO₂ challenge faced by the global power industry in meeting CO₂ targets over the next forty years; and the strategies Alstom is adopting and technologies that Alstom is developing to allow the power industry to meet these challenges. The presentation firstly gives a brief rundown on Alstom's activities today before outlining the global CO₂ challenge for the power industry going forward. The presentation then gives an overview of Alstom’s strategy for meeting this challenge before outlining the future directions of Alstom's research and development efforts, including a synopsis of Alstom's current pilot and demonstration plants for the various technologies being pursued.

Initially the idea of geologically sequestering carbon dioxide as a mitigation option, first proposed around 1990, was met with a combination of indifference and scepticism. However pioneering research and then the Sleipner Project in 1996 provided an enormous boost to the credibility of carbon capture and storage (CCS) as a mitigation option. Despite that, the commercial uptake of the technology has been slow over the subsequent decade with only three additional storage projects commenced– first the Encana Weyburn (EOR with storage), followed by the BP In Salah and most recently the Statoil Snovit storage project. To that can be added a number of acid gas disposal projects in Western Canada, undertaken as part of petroleum production operations, and the injection of carbon dioxide into the subsurface as part of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) projects for the past 40 years by oil companies. But in such cases, any storage of carbon dioxide is not the primary focus. There is clearly a global need to accelerate work on CCS.

Australia’s experience in CCS is instructive, both for showing the technology pathway that has been adopted and also for demonstrating the time and effort required to move from research to demonstration. In the late 1990’s the Gorgon JV partners commenced their work on geological storage. This work was sharply focussed on Barrow Island and was commercial-in-confidence. In 1998, the APCRC, (predecessor to CO2CRC), commenced the GEODISC Project to assess Australia’s geological storage resources. This project was successful in that it demonstrated there was a large storage resource — enough to store a large proportion of Australia’s stationary CO₂ emissions. However the identification of a storage resource does not necessarily equate to a usable storage “reserve” and, over the past five years, CO2CRC has sought to identify the usable (operational) storage capacity in a number of areas.

The CO2CRC is now undertaking demonstration projects in capture (Latrobe Valley) and storage (CO2CRC Otway Project). These represent an important step forward for CCS in Australia and internationally. In terms of the amount of injected CO₂ (approximately 100,000 tonnes of CO₂ over 12-18 months), the Otway Project represents Australia’s first storage project and the largest scale of injection for any demonstration project. Similarly, the range of monitoring technologies deployed on site is one of the most comprehensive.

There are a number of other storage projects now proposed for Australia, but realistically none of these are likely to start storing CO₂ much before 2012. CCS is part of a portfolio of mitigation options that will be required to address greenhouse gas concerns. But considering that the use of fossil fuels is likely to increase rather than decrease in the future, Australia (and other countries) must seek to accelerate the rate of large scale CCS deployment.

A major barrier to the increased utilisation of wind energy in Australia is the limitation of the transmission grid and distribution system in windy areas. When highly convective or stormy weather conditions are widespread, fluctuating wind speeds can produce substantial variations in wind energy generation with periods of 1 to 2 hrs or less. These conditions can lead to significant problems on the grid, significantly reducing the carrying capacity of power lines or forcing the curtailment of wind generation.

CSIRO has developed energy storage systems to reduce such severe generation variability at periods less than 2 hours by application of fast and responsive storage, resulting in smoother power output from wind farm arrays. Smoother output reduces the need for ancillary power services and can avoid de-rating of power lines or defer power infrastructure upgrades — more wind farms can be installed on a given power line. This approach to storage, which does not attempt to store total generation, is less expensive than conventional renewable energy storage systems. This will then enable optimal uptake of renewables leading to greenhouse gas emission reductions.

While the concept is not tied to a particular storage technology, CSIRO UltraBattery technology is being used in the trial systems. This battery combines the benefits of low cost lead acid battery energy storage together with an internal ultra-capacitor enabling faster charge/discharge and longer life. The Ultrabattery was originally developed for hybrid car use — here it is being used at a much larger scale. Combined with predictive storage algorithms which utilise wind forecasting technology, energy storage/smoothing systems can be engineered with minimised capital cost.

The technology has been demonstrated at a small-scale (40kW/40kWHr storage system) and a grid-connected demonstration with a full-scale wind turbine system is being installed (360kW/200kWhr). Considerable effort has been made to develop battery conditioning algorithms which prolong battery life while providing optimal performance. The smoothing algorithm is able to adapt to prevailing and forecast wind variability. The system can be optimised to minimise ramp rate (rate of change) or to minimise absolute amplitude of the wind power fluctuations.

A globally growing demand for drinking and irrigation water and decreasing availability linked to climate changes has led to a worldwide increasing pressure on groundwater resources (Vörösmarty et al., 2000). This evolution has led to intensive search for alternative water management options including the use of unconventional water resources as saline waters or reclaimed municipal wastewater and stormwater. Among the various beneficial uses of reclaimed wastewater, Management of Aquifer Recharge (MAR)¹ receives growing attention because it features advantages such as additional natural treatment, storage capacity to buffer seasonal variations of supply and demand as well as mixing with natural water bodies which promotes the acceptance of further uses, particularly indirect potable use (Dillon, 2005). Whereas the beneficial impact of MAR on the quantitative status of groundwater is obvious, there are potential quality impacts that can be both beneficial and adverse: Recharge through a biologically and chemically active unsaturated zone and the aquifer itself will lead to an amelioration of the infiltrating water quality (Soil Aquifer Treatment concept). Freshwater injection can ameliorate groundwater quality in coastal aquifers endangered by saline intrusion or in brackish continental aquifers. Major concerns about the safety of this exploitation route of an alternative water source are connected to microbial and chemical contaminants occurring in wastewater. Those include emerging trace organics like endocrine disrupters and pharmaceuticals but also undesirable or harmful elements released of from the reservoir material through long term interactions of injected waters with the aquifer minerals.

The European FP6 project Reclaim Water (www.reclaim-water.org) addresses hazard mitigation technologies for water reclamation providing safe and cost effective routes for artificial groundwater recharge. It assesses different treatment applications in terms of behaviour of key microbial and chemical contaminants with a special focus on developing countries, which have a growing need of supplementation of freshwater resources. The participation of partners from Australia, Israel, China, Singapore, South Africa and Mexico demonstrate the anticipation of the global dimension of the water reclamation and aquifer recharge issue.

Here, we will briefly outline some scientific challenges related to the use of unconventional water resources for MAR. A major requirement of MAR is to assess, model and predict the penetration of artificially introduced waters into the natural groundwater system and the reaction of the prevailing chemical and biological equilibria. Environmental isotopes have proved a valuable tool for elucidating groundwater flow and hydrogeochemical conditions in MAR systems (Kloppmann et al., 2008). Modelling of the redox reactions by recharge induced is highly challenging, due to the need to address simultaneously geochemical interactions of water and reservoir minerals and microbiological activity as a major driver of these redox reactions. Such bio-geochemical reactive transport models, taking into account water flow, interactions with minerals and biological activity represent and even go beyond state of the art of groundwater modeling.

¹ “Aquifer Recharge” AR, or “Management of Aquifer Recharge” (MAR) comprises a large range of injection-recovery techniques, including ASR (Aquifer Storage and Recovery) and ASTR (Aquifer Storage, Transfer and Recovery)

1. Dillon, P. Future management of aquifer recharge. Hydrogeology Journal 2005, 13, 313-316.
2. Kloppmann, W., Van Houtte, , Picot, G., Vandenbohede, A., Lebbe, L., Guerrot, C., Millot, R., E., Gaus I., Wintgens, T. Monitoring reverse osmosis treated wastewater recharge into a coastal aquifer by environmental isotopes (B, Li, O, H). In press: Env. Sci. Techn. 2008.
3. Vörösmarty, C.J; Green, P.; Salisbury J.; Lammers R. B. Global Water Resources: Vulnerability from Climate Change and Population Growth. Science 2000, 289, 284-288.

The treatment and transport of potable water produced by water recycling and desalination projects consumes significant amounts of expended and embodied energy. The expended energy is directly related to the power consumed by the process mechanical equipment, while the embodied energy is the component expended in the manufacture of chemicals, membranes, UV lamps and other ancillary items used in the process. In the not too distant future a price for carbon emissions associated with expended and embodied energy will be applied to IPR projects. The following paper seeks to explain the expended and embodied energy of the recycling and desalination process and the strategies available to minimise or offset the carbon footprint of these alternative water supply schemes.

The ACT Government and ACTEW committed to voluntarily offset additional greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) associated with the operation of all water security major projects in October 2007.

The water security major projects include:

• Enlarged Cotter Dam; including Cotter Pump Station; and Cotter Recreational Precinct;
• Murrumbidgee to Googong Water Transfer Project;
• Murrumbidgee to Cotter Water Transfer Pipeline; and
• Demonstration Water Purification Plant and Salt Reduction Scheme at Lower Molonglo Water Quality Control Centre.

A process was established with the water security alliance teams to identify:

1. The expected emissions footprint for both construction and operations;
2. The realistic opportunities for reducing the emissions footprint beyond the current project scope, and the additional cost of doing so; and
3. The cost of offsetting the emissions associated with the construction phase as well as the operation of each water security major project.

Steps 2 and 3 were designed to determine the least cost means of emissions abatement, by trading off incremental investments in water security infrastructure to reduce the emissions footprint and incremental investments in emissions off-sets.

The process has resulted in the Board committing to offset the construction and operational emissions over the next 30 years.

More than a billion people still lack access to potable water today, contributing to 88% of diseases and 5 million deaths a year. Clearly, innovative pathways must be developed to encourage the uptake of high-efficient water technologies and infrastructure, whilst making it attractive for businesses to fund in part or in whole the cost of such ventures, taking into account the need to lower greenhouse emissions.

To develop sustainable and affordable low emissions potable water however, one must take a wider view of cost centres and opportunities within the water industry and emerging industries like the renewable energy industry. The emerging 2^nd Generation Biofuels industry for example needs significant volumes of inexpensive nutrient rich water, and can also benefit from the emissions generated from the water industry for feedstock production. The water industry on the other hand recognises emerging cost centres such as carbon pricing and rising energy costs. The synergy presents significant incentives for all stakeholders to invest and benefit.

To demonstrate this synergy, a case study will be presented and discussed. Key information and data will be drawn from our selected recent studies and major collaborations between Flinders University and industrial partners such as United Water International (Veolia Water Australia). UWI handles all of Metropolitan Adelaide’s water treatment for SA Water, and seeks to obtain low carbon onsite power generation, more energy efficient water and wastewater treatment technologies and technologies to mitigate fugitive emissions and CO₂ from wastewater. These industry drivers and the biofuels-water relationship will be discussed from the perspectives both Flinders University and United Water International.

In her presentation, Gwen explores the scope for both conservation and new technology to contribute to solving the climate change challenge. She reviews various goals that have been proposed for global action on climate change, and costs that are projected with regard to technological solutions. She also discusses some of the barriers to achieving reductions in carbon emissions that governments and the private sector must remove.

Climate change is a complex challenge with no one solution. We must all become aware of the many ways in which we can contribute to a more sustainable future for the world.

Countries worldwide are committing to nuclear power as an integral part of their future energy mix, as they struggle to meet increasing electricity demands in a competitive and secure way while reducing their carbon emissions. France is such a country, generating 80% of its electricity through nuclear power, and in addition possessing decades of expertise in the design, construction, and operation of nuclear power and fuel cycle installations. Some countries, including Australia, still consider that the risks associated to weapons proliferation, safety, and nuclear waste outweigh the benefits of nuclear power. Australia also holds the largest proportion of the world's uranium resources. Both Australia and France have key roles to play in ensuring the safe, secure, and sustainable development of global nuclear power.

Driven by the three imperatives of security of supply, sustainability, and economic feasibility, the energy and water sectors have undergone rapid reform in recent years. The urgency of climate change only adds complexity to developments in both sectors, as the demand for ‘environmentally friendly’ solutions demand ever-more drastic regulatory reform from governments, and drive interesting voluntary initiatives from private firms.

It is where water and energy rely on each other that pose the most complex challenges for policy-makers: water is needed for mining coal, drilling oil, refining gasoline, and generating and distributing electricity; and, conversely, vast amounts of energy are needed to pump, transport, treat and distribute water, particularly in the production of potable water through the use of desalination plants and waste water treatment plants. However, in existing policy frameworks, energy and water policies are developed largely in isolation from one another – a fragmentation which is seeing erroneous developments in both sectors and often a trade-off between sustainability in one sector vis-à-vis the other. This presentation explores the implications of the energy-water nexus, and the mechanisms needed to support policy-makers and industry to account for, and manage, those links.