Countries are launching an "energy innovation competition". Which is better: synthetic oil, heat pumps, or carbon dioxide batteries?

China Energy Storage Network News: On July 25, the Spanish newspaper ABC published an article titled "Heat pumps, CO2 batteries, hydrogen cylinders and synthetic oil: Energy innovation is looking for "emergency lights" in the dark tunnel", written by Alexia Columba Jerez. The full text is excerpted as follows:

The world is at an energy crossroads. Faced with alternatives such as returning to coal or continuing to bet on green energy, countries have joined a crazy race.

Various energy innovation projects are becoming viable options for dealing with the energy crisis. One of the proposals involves switching from reliance on oil extracted from the ground to the use of synthetic oil. Carlos Rico, a policy officer at the non-governmental organization "Transport and Environment Organization", said that synthetic oil, also known as synthetic fuel, "is made of hydrogen and carbon. Unlike the way traditional oil is formed, electricity plays an important role in this. The electrolysis of water separates hydrogen and oxygen, and carbon can be extracted from carbon dioxide in the air, and then hydrogen and carbon are combined together through related chemical processes."

This artificial process is sustainable if the electricity used comes from renewable sources. The main areas of application for synthetic fuels are likely to be aviation, shipping, and we will also see if they can find a place in trucking. The advantage is that it is one of the best options for transportation that is very difficult to decarbonize, such as airplanes. In addition, if the CO2 is first captured from the air and then released back into the atmosphere when the synthetic fuel is burned, the pollution generated is neutral. The amount of synthetic fuel currently being produced is likely to increase rapidly. Australia, the United States and several South American countries are all investing in this field.

The main competitors of synthetic fuels will be electric cars, cars powered by green hydrogen and cars powered by biofuels. But as transport distances become longer, larger and heavier batteries are needed to increase the range, and green hydrogen may only be used for medium-distance transport. Biofuels mean wasting more plant resources at a time when there is a food crisis and deforestation crisis. Critics of synthetic oil accuse oil companies of wanting to slow down the spread of electric vehicles with this option. In Spain, specifically in Bilbao, there is an important synthetic fuel project.

Another option that is gaining more and more influence and becoming a trump card in Europe's hands is the heat pump, which is still little known in Spain and is a perfect alternative to natural gas. According to the International Energy Agency, heat pumps are a powerful "weapon" in the energy field. Alberto Coronas, chairman of the Heat Pumps and Energy Recovery Committee of the International Institute of Refrigeration, said that heat pumps can use heat from the environment to provide air conditioning, heating or hot water. Coronas said that if such systems use renewable energy, they will be environmentally friendly and the value of the heat produced is greater than the electricity they consume.

The technical challenge is to expand this option to the industrial sector. For years, projects have been developing industrial applications for this technology in the Nordic countries, Japan and the United States. One problem with heat pumps is that they require the use of fluids from the refrigerant family, which brings environmental issues. However, researchers at the Polytechnic University of Valencia in Spain are developing heat pumps that use natural refrigerants that do not emit CO2.

At the same time, the biggest problem of nuclear power plants - nuclear waste - can be solved through recycling technology. Francisco Calvino, a nuclear energy expert at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia in Spain, said that in France, the used fuel of nuclear power plants will be sent to reprocessing plants to extract uranium and plutonium, and then converted into a new fuel called "mixed oxide fuel" and put into use again. This is a nuclear energy revolution.

Toyota, through its subsidiary Planet Volvo, has developed some fuel tanks in the form of independent hydrogen cylinders in the pursuit of "a portable, affordable and practical energy source that allows the use of hydrogen fuel without pipelines". This fuel tank can be used to refuel devices such as replaceable hydrogen fuel cells for vehicles, or installed on the walls of houses to provide fuel for electricity and heating, and can benefit remote areas. This is a tank with a capacity of about 5 kg each, which is a good option for Japan, where energy demand is extremely tight.

Such hydrogen cylinders could also be an attractive option for Spain, which could be one of the top 15 countries in the world for green hydrogen production, according to a study by the International Renewable Energy Agency.

Meanwhile, Italy is betting on the world's first CO2 battery to compete with increasingly expensive lithium batteries. Moreover, the mining of lithium resources is controlled by certain countries. Italy's Energy Dome told ABC that its CO2 battery costs less than half of lithium-ion batteries, but has a service life twice as long as lithium-ion batteries. They use components that are available all over the world to avoid the risk of supply chain disruptions. The equipment developed by the company uses CO2 in a closed cycle and is not emitted into the atmosphere. They store CO2 in a gaseous state at ambient pressure in an inflatable dome-shaped structure, then pressurize the CO2 and store thermal energy, while condensing the CO2 gas into a liquid state.

All of these alternatives are being explored, and only time will tell which ones will work in the long term, and who will be able to take full advantage of them.