Thread: Fossil Fuel Alternatives

Originally Posted by S Landreth

You didn’t think the post might have been more appropriate for the movie review thread

You disagree with the, on topic, film's content?

They would be welcome,………..

Biden officials announce ambitious plan to dot US coastline with wind farms

Seven major offshore wind farms would be developed on the east and west coasts and in the Gulf of Mexico under a plan announced Wednesday by the Biden administration.

The projects are part of Joe Biden’s plan to deploy 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030, generating enough electricity to power more than 10 million homes.

Deb Haaland, the interior secretary, said her department hoped to hold lease sales by 2025 off the coasts of Maine, New York and the mid-Atlantic, as well as the Carolinas, California, Oregon and the Gulf of Mexico. The projects could avoid about 78m metric tons of planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions, while creating up to 77,000 jobs, officials said.

“The interior department is laying out an ambitious road map as we advance the administration’s plans to confront climate change, create good-paying jobs and accelerate the nation’s transition to a cleaner energy future,” Haaland said.

In addition to offshore wind, the interior department is working with other federal agencies to increase renewable energy production on public lands, Haaland said, with a goal of at least 25 gigawatts of onshore renewable energy from wind and solar power by 2025.

Haaland and Amanda Lefton, director of department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, said officials hoped to reduce potential conflicts with fishing groups and other ocean users as much as possible. “This means we will engage early and often with all stakeholders prior to identifying any new wind energy areas,” Lefton said in a statement.

Commercial fishing businesses have said planned offshore wind projects off the east coast would make it difficult to harvest valuable seafood species such as scallops and lobsters. Some conservation groups also fear that big turbines will kill thousands of birds.


Biden has set a goal to deploy 30 gigawatts, or 30,000 megawatts, of offshore wind power in the United States by 2030. Meeting the target could mean jobs for more than 44,000 workers and for 33,000 others in related employment, the White House said.

The bureau completed its review of a construction and operations plan for the Vineyard Wind project 15 miles off the Massachusetts coast earlier this year. The agency is reviewing nine additional projects, including the South Fork wind farm near New York’s Long Island and the Ocean Wind project off New Jersey.

Vineyard Wind is expected to produce about 800 megawatts of power and South Fork about 132 megawatts. Ocean Wind, the largest project, has a total capacity of 1,100 megawatts, enough energy to power 500,000 homes across New Jersey.

The administration has committed to processing the 13 other projects currently under federal review by 2025.

The ocean energy agency has said it is targeting offshore wind projects in shallow waters near Long Island and New Jersey. A recent study shows the area can support up to 25,000 development and construction jobs by 2030, the interior department said.

Heather Zichal, a former climate adviser to Barack Obama who now leads the American Clean Power Association, a renewable energy group, said Biden’s goal for offshore wind was “ambitious but achievable”. Wind power was an essential part of the goal to reach 100% carbon pollution-free electricity by 2035, she said.

In a related announcement, the energy department said it was spending $11.5m to study risks that offshore wind development may pose to birds, bats and marine mammals, and survey changes in commercial fish and marine invertebrate populations at an offshore wind site on the east coast.

The department will spend $2m on visual surveys and acoustic monitoring of marine mammals and seabirds at potential wind sites on the west coast.

“In order for Americans living in coastal areas to see the benefits of offshore wind, we must ensure that it’s done with care for the surrounding ecosystem by coexisting with fisheries and marine life – and that’s exactly what this investment will do,” energy secretary Jennifer Granholm said in a news release.

Originally Posted by OhOh

Watch the video I posted, ........

no. it belongs in the movie review thread

Ah, scared it's suggestions may be true, got it.

Can videos/movies not include true facts?

Its ok Landreth has his investments in green energy, so chooses to be blinkered.

Well, looks like the richest countries are naturally dragging their heels. The lobby is too strong and vested interest paying off politicians in the background, has ever been thus.

https://www.climate-transparency.org/g20-climate-performance/g20report2021

Was listening to a radio programme in which a prof from Manchester Uni, they who developed the tech for Graphene have come up with a process for replacing steel in reinforced concrete with Graphene - called Concretene. Concrete manufacture currently accounts for 7% of all CO2 emissions.

https://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/roller-disco-vs-climate-change--how-graphene-is-transforming-the-construction-industry/#:~:text=Concretene%20uses%20graphene%20–%20the%20 revolutionary,the%20need%20for%20steel%20reinforce ment.

CalWave Commissions Its CalWave x1™ Submerged Wave Energy Technology Offshore California

This milestone event marks the beginning of California’s first at-sea, long-duration wave energy pilot operating fully submerged. The CalWave x1™ will be tested for six months with the goal of validating the performance and reliability of the system in open ocean.

This project is supported by a US Department of Energy award with the goal to demonstrate CalWave’s scalable and patented xWave™ technology.

“CalWave’s long-duration deployment is a novel open water demonstration of a wave energy technology with active load management features,” said Jennifer Garson, Acting Director of the Department of Energy’s Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO). “WPTO is pleased to recognize this accomplishment as a major milestone for unlocking the potential of wave energy from our oceans and providing access to clean energy for the growing blue economy in the US.”

Several key partners collaborated with CalWave on this project including the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, DNV GL, and UC Berkeley.

Operating fully submerged without visual impact, CalWave’s xWave™ architecture is capable of breaking through the fundamental challenges that have held the industry back so far: a technology that achieves high performance while being able to control structural loads in rare but destructive storms on all parts of the system.

The CalWave x1™ is well suited for the needs of end-users of the blue economy with applications in offshore inspection, aquaculture, ocean science, and others that require access to power and data offshore.

Following this demonstration, CalWave plans to prepare for deployment of a larger unit at PacWave, the first commercial-scale, utility grid-connected wave energy test site in the US rated at 20 MW.

Marcus Lehmann, CEO and Co-Founder of CalWave: “Wave power is the largest unused renewable resource and the third-largest after wind and solar globally. Wave power can provide power at night and during wintertime where other renewables can’t, and so far it is completely unused.

Wave energy devices are no different than wind turbines or other hydro turbines. It’s a kinetic device that captures a renewable resource to produce electricity. At the highest systems engineering level, the functions to make a technology viable are the same. To generate cost-competitive power, technology must be able to use the most of a resource to produce the greatest amount of electricity at minimum capital and operating cost. For us, capital efficiency means that any system must be able to reduce primary loads from storm waves just like pitch and yaw control, a critical feature of our modern wind turbines.

Next to high performance, this is the second fundamental and critical feature of a wave energy device to be able to survive storms without being overdesigned for these rare events that don’t contribute to the annual energy production but drive up the cost.

Our team is excited about this major milestone and wants to express our gratitude to all partners and supporters that helped us along the way.”

California is banning gas-powered leaf blowers, lawn mowers, and weed trimmers — and offering rebates for switching to zero-emission tools

Gov. Gavin Newsom of California signed a bill into law on Saturday that would ban gas-powered lawn equipment, such as lawn mowers and leaf blowers, as soon as 2024.

The bill, which adds a section to the air-pollution part of California's health and safety code, offers some rebates for switching to zero-emission electronic lawn tools. The bill's author told the Los Angeles Times the state was setting aside $30 million to help professional gardeners and landscapers switch to electric equipment.

The bill says small off-road engines, which it describes as those "used primarily in lawn and garden equipment," emit lots of air pollution.

Gas-powered chain saws, weed trimmers, and golf carts are also affected by the new law, the Times said.

"This is a pretty modest approach to trying to limit the massive amounts of pollution that this equipment emits, not to mention the health impact on the workers who are using it constantly," the author of the bill, Assemblyman Marc Berman, told the Times.

There are more than 16.7 million small engines in California, 3 million more than the number of passenger cars on the road in the state, the Associated Press reported.

The bill also stipulates that portable generators must be zero-emission by 2028.

So I am surfing YouTube and I dee (yes I said dee, you want to make something of it?) this Video posted,
"Game changing development in battery technology'". Then I look at the bottom of the post and it says "Posted three years ago"

Best Buy Solar Project is its Largest Renewable Energy Venture

Best Buy’s latest solar power involvement is the largest renewable energy project the company has been involved with and will offset the carbon impact of around 30% of its US stores.

The Prospero 2 Best Buy Solar field began operation in August and is located in Andrews County, Texas, covering more than 2,5000 acres. Best Buy, which has been active in solar power and renewable energy uses, says this project alone will offset the carbon impact of 300 of its stores. The Prospero 2 Best Buy Solar field was developed in partnership with U.S. Bank and Longroad Energy.

Best Buy also has solar energy projects in Fresno County, California; Marin, South Carolina; and another Texas facility in Bastrop County.

The Big Star Solar Project in Texas is part of an agreement between energy provider Constellation and Best Buy, PepsiCo, McCormick & Company and two Viacom CBS TV affiliates. That 10-year agreement was made in August and is expected to be in operation by the second quarter of 2022.

Renewable energy is seeing big growth in the US and solar power uses grew at the fast rate of all sources during the first half of 2021, the US Energy Information Administration recently said in its Monthly Energy Review. A Department of Energy study also found that solar could supply half the US’s energy needs by 2050.

Overall, Best Buy has been active in the business community in achieving sustainability.

It is part of a group of businesses worth $1.4 trillion seeking government action, and in 2020 joined the Climate Pledge, which now includes more than 200 companies from around the world.

Best Buy says it has reduced carbon emissions by 61% since 2009. The company also has helped recycle more than 2 billion pounds of electronic waste and appliances since it launched its recycling program that year.

Getting to zero
The first big energy shock of the green era

There are grave problems with the transition to clean energy power

Oct 16th 2021 edition

"NEXT MONTH world leaders will gather at the COP26 summit, saying they mean to set a course for net global carbon emissions to reach zero by 2050. As they prepare to pledge their part in this 30-year endeavour, the first big energy scare of the green era is unfolding before their eyes.

Since May the price of a basket of oil, coal and gas has soared by 95%. Britain, the host of the summit, has turned its coal-fired power stations back on, American petrol prices have hit $3 a gallon, blackouts have engulfed China and India, and Vladimir Putin has just reminded Europe that its supply of fuel relies on Russian goodwill.

The panic is a reminder that modern life needs abundant energy: without it, bills become unaffordable, homes freeze and businesses stall.

The panic has also exposed deeper problems as the world shifts to a cleaner energy system, including inadequate investment in renewables and some transition fossil fuels, rising geopolitical risks and flimsy safety buffers in power markets. Without rapid reforms there will be more energy crises and, perhaps, a popular revolt against climate policies.

Leaders must move beyond pledges and tackle the redesign of energy markets."

Continues, behind a paywall:

The first big energy shock of the green era | The Economist

or

Keep looking for Dodos.

Originally Posted by OhOh

Keep looking for Dodos.

Most every time you post. Well done though, second time worked a charm..

^

Multiple appropriate threads, got to be inclusive, eh?

Fossil fuel alternative requirements debate and a very apt and amusing cover image.

Heerema team tests far out at sea installation

A team of researchers from TU Delft in collaboration with Heerema Marine Contractors and DOT are investigating the installation of wind turbines far out at sea in a high wave and strong wind environment.

The trio this week worked on the Sleipnir crane vessel as part of the Fox project to investigate the floating installation of wind turbines.

Delft researchers David Fidalgo Domingos, Peter Meijers and Panagiota Atzampou were on board.

They performed full-scale measurements of the movements and weather conditions for which Domingos has developed a set of sensors.

The aim is to develop new installation tools and control systems that will enable offshore locations in the future.

Domingos said: “Wind energy is on the leading edge of a current environmental revolution.

“The Fox project is performing a pioneering full-scale offshore installation. This gives the chance to gather unique data, important to draw the future of offshore wind farms.”

He is exploring through measurements new control systems that can reduce wave movements while the turbine is in the crane.

The ultimate goal is to design a floating crane vessel that is able, despite severe weather conditions and the water depth, to quickly and accurately place a wind turbine in newly built large wind farms.

Just google it David.

Smaller, more efficient tokamak could follow in ITER’s fusion footsteps | Ars Technica

Validating the physics behind the new MIT-designed fusion experiment | MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

SPARC | Research | MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center

This has been on the cards for some time now and look like its getting the Govt go-ahead. Hopefully this will allow the UK to move away from French and Chinese involvement. Good news but i'll be long retired.


UK poised to confirm funding for mini nuclear reactors for carbon-free energy

Rolls-Royce-led consortium already has £210m in private backing for plans to build 16 reactors across the country

The government is poised to approve funding for a fleet of Rolls-Royce mini nuclear reactors that the prime minister hopes will help the UK reach his target of zero-carbon electricity by 2035.

A consortium led by the British engineering firm had already secured £210m in backing from private investors for the small modular reactor (SMR) project, a sum that the government is expected to match or better. Confirmation is expected before the spending review on 27 October, according to well-placed sources.

The consortium, known as UK SMR, will rebrand as Rolls-Royce SMR to coincide with Westminster’s blessing.

Tom Greatrex, the chief executive of the Nuclear Industry Association (NIA), said: “Match-funding for Rolls-Royce would be a huge signal to private investors that the government wants SMRs alongside new large-scale stations to hit net zero. It would also show investors that the government believes in nuclear as a green technology.”

Backing from the government will pave the way for the consortium’s multibillion-pound plan to build 16 SMRs around the country, the first of which could be plugged into the grid by 2031.

Each reactor, designed to be easy to build and install, will have a capacity of 470 megawatts (MW), enough to power nearly 1.3m homes, based on average household usage.

Boris Johnson visited Rolls-Royce’s Bristol factory on Friday, where he was shown round the facility by the engineering firm’s chief executive, Warren East. Neither Rolls-Royce nor No 10 would comment on whether the future of SMRs was discussed during the visit but the firm this week touted the technology as a means of providing carbon-free power for producing sustainable aviation fuel.

SMRs are understood to be a key component of the prime minister’s pledge to eliminate fossil fuels from electricity generation by 2035, a landmark promise he made last month in the run-up to the UK’s hosting of the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow.

Rolls-Royce is being advised by HSBC, which has helped it secure £210m from private investors, a condition of the government stumping up the same amount.

Confirmed support for SMRs could signal a concerted effort within government to reverse the scheduled decline in the UK’s nuclear power capacity. About 20% of the nation’s electricity comes from 13 nuclear reactors capable of producing 7.8GW of power. But more than half of that capacity comes from reactors due to retire by 2025, and plans to replace them have stalled.

Toshiba pulled out of a plant at Moorside in Cumbria in 2020, and Hitachi withdrew planning consent for a project at Wylfa Newydd, on Anglesey, this year. While Hinkley Point C is due to start generating electricity from 2026, only one new project, Sizewell C, is now in the works, with no final investment decision yet made.

Britain’s ability to build new nuclear reactors has been further complicated by the government’s unwillingness to allow any further involvement from the state-backed China General Nuclear. CGN has a 20% stake in Sizewell C but ministers have been looking into ways to remove it from the project before it moves to the construction phase. The Chinese company was due to take a lead role in the Bradwell reactor in Suffolk, which is now highly unlikely to go ahead.

The business secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, said last week that weaning the nation off fossil fuels would involved building at least one new nuclear project, alongside renewables such as wind and solar.

The prediction is likely to hinge on whether the Treasury, which has clashed Kwarteng’s department over household support for energy suppliers, backs a new funding model for the industry.

Industry players are keen to see the government legislate to approve the regulated asset base (RAB) model, which allows private investors a more reliable stream of revenues from nuclear power plants – which typically require tens of billions of pounds to build – by piling costs on to household energy bills.

Greatrex said RAB funding “could at last mobilise the funding for nuclear large and small to restore a backbone of clean, reliable British power to our energy system”.

Rolls-Royce has said it could create 6,000 UK jobs within five years if the government backs its SMR plans. It has also reportedly held discussions with customers overseas, including companies such as Amazon that operate energy-hungry datacentres.

The nine-strong consortium also includes the National Nuclear Laboratory and Laing O’Rourke, the construction firm, alongside Assystem, SNC Lavalin/Atkins, Wood, BAM Nuttall, the Welding Institute and Nuclear AMRC.

Small modular reactors were first developed in the 1950s for use in nuclear-powered submarines. Since then Rolls-Royce has designed reactors for seven classes of submarine and two separate land-based prototype reactors.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/oct/15/uk-poised-to-confirm-funding-for-mini-nuclear-reactors-for-green-energy

The underwater cable from Australia to Singapore could be a future Mendip job

Ford to convert British factory into electric vehicle plant

Ford announced Monday that it intends to spend £230 million ($315 million) transforming a factory in northwest England into a site that will make components for electric vehicles.

The vehicle transmission facility in Halewood, Merseyside, will be turned into an electric power unit production plant, the U.S. motor giant said.

Ford stressed that the investment is subject to and includes U.K. government support, which reportedly amounts to £30 million.

“This is an important step, marking Ford’s first in-house investment in all-electric vehicle component manufacturing in Europe,” said Stuart Rowley, president of Ford Europe, in a statement.

“It strengthens further our ability to deliver 100% of Ford passenger vehicles in Europe being all-electric and two-thirds of our commercial vehicle sales being all-electric or plug-in hybrid by 2030,” he added.

Ford said it will start making the electric power units at Halewood in mid-2024, adding that it plans to produce around 250,000 of them at the site each year.

Last year, the U.K. government created a £500 million pot to try to persuade electric vehicle manufacturers and battery makers to expand their operations in the U.K. It wants sales of new petrol and diesel cars to end in the U.K. by 2030.

Elsewhere this year, Nissan and Stellantis, the world’s fourth-biggest car maker, have also announced electric vehicle investments at their U.K. plants. BMW already makes the electric Mini at a site in Oxford.

U.K. Business Minister Kwasi Kwarteng said in a statement: “Ford’s decision to build its first electric vehicle components in Europe at its Halewood site is further proof that the UK remains one of the best locations in the world for high-quality automotive manufacturing.”

Ford said 500 jobs at the factory will be safeguarded as a result of the investment.

A special experimental white paint that recently made it into the Guinness World Records could one day help keep the world from heating up. John Yang explains from West Lafayette, Indiana.

The whitest paint is here – and it’s the coolest. Literally.

• Record levels of renewable energy drive down electricity prices across Australia

Record levels of renewable energy drove down electricity prices across Australia in the September quarter, with prices zero or negative for one-sixth of the time, the Australian Energy Market Operator has said in its latest report.

There was also little sign of the Morrison government’s much-touted “gas-led recovery”, with a supply disruption at Victoria’s Longford gas plant initially leading to record or near-record spot prices for the fossil fuel in Adelaide, Sydney and Melbourne. Gas’s share of the power mix also slumped one-fifth from a year earlier for the quarter as a whole.

By August the arrival of milder weather and ongoing weak electricity demand caused by Covid-related lockdowns in Victoria and New South Wales sent gas and electricity prices plunging, Aemo said.

For the quarter, electricity from wind, solar and hydro plants supplied almost a third of demand in the national electricity market, at a record 31.7%. For one 30-minute period on 24 September, renewables met 61.4% of demand – also a fresh high.

The share of black coal in the electricity mix fell below half for the first time for a September quarter, while the share of gas also retreated from a year earlier.

The electricity industry has been decarbonising much faster than other parts of the economy. While still contributing about one-third of Australia’s carbon emissions, the power sector has been the main reason Australia’s Paris agreement climate pledge to cut 2005-level emissions by 26% to 28% for 2030 is likely to be exceeded.

Toyota announces the bZ4X: the carmaker’s first mass-produced electric vehicle

Toyota has released details about its first mass-produced electric vehicle in a significant step for the world’s second-biggest carmaker.

The bZ4X is an SUV with optional rooftop solar panels that will be sold in both front-wheel or all-wheel-drive variants.

The public had its first look at the concept for the bZ4X – “bZ” stands for “beyond zero” – at the Shanghai motor show in April this year, but Toyota only published the details of the car on Friday.

The announcement is a step forward for Toyota, which has been slower to move into purely battery-powered electric vehicles than its competitors, relying heavily on hybrid technology instead.

While the car isn’t Toyota’s first electrified vehicle – that title was held by the short-lived RAV4 EV – it marks the first electric vehicle that will directly compete with industry rivals such as the Hyundai Ioniq and the Tesla Model Y.

Toyota already produces the second-generation Mirai, an electrified vehicle powered by a hydrogen fuel cell.

The bZ4X will be launched in Europe on 2 December, with orders to be placed by reservation. It is expected the model will enter series production from the middle of next year across “all regions worldwide” – though the precise timing, price and variants available has yet to be released. Toyota expects this will form an extended range of 70 electrified vehicles by 2025.

Subaru helped developed the vehicle and is expected to reveal its own EV model next year.

It is anticipated the bZX4 will arrive in Australia by late 2022. As Australia’s most popular car brand, it is expected the model will help Toyota take a dominant position in the country’s growing electric vehicle market, as its competitors have been put off by a lack of clear political leadership in making the transition.

Hybrid vehicles accounted for nearly a third of Toyota’s total sales in Australia this year. The bZ4x will be the first of 15 planned zero-emissions vehicles offered by Toyota, including seven bZ models.

The front-wheel drive version comes with a 150kw motor with 265 Nm of torque that is capable of zero to 100km/h in 8.4 seconds.

The all-wheel-drive model comes equipped with two 80kW motors that produce a combined 160kW and 336Nm of torque, capable of zero to 100km/h in 7.7 seconds.

Both variants will have a top speed of 160km/h, and will come with a 71.4kWh battery offering a range of roughly 500km. Toyota says the 150kW DC charger will allow the batteries to be recharged to 80% in 30 minutes.

Solar panels can be built into the roof for use while driving or when parked. Toyota says these panels will add an extra 1800km of driving distance each year, while allowing the car to be charged when parked or where there are no charging stations easily available.

At 4.69m long, 1.65m high and 1.86m wide the bZ4X will be similar in size to the Hyundai Ioniq.

While the company has not released complete details of the interior, among the more unique aspects is the steer-by-wire system which works without any direct mechanical link between the steering wheel and the tyres.

The technology is similar to the fly-by-wire system used by modern jet aircraft and means the driver will only receive feedback from the road, as they will not feel vibrations from the tyres via the steering wheel.

This aircraft feel is extended with the option for a “yoke” steering wheel similar to the Tesla Model S. Toyota says its version will deliver better performance with 150 degrees of lock so the driver will not have to change hand positions when turning.

Toyota bZ

British firm to unveil technology for zero-carbon emission flights at Cop26

A British company being launched at the Cop26 summit on Friday will unveil technology it claims could enable zero-carbon emission flights running on liquid ammonia by 2030.

It aims to build lightweight reactors to “crack” the chemical to produce hydrogen to burn as fuel, a design it says could allow existing planes to be modified to store liquid ammonia rather than paraffin.

Hydrogen is currently seen as the only possible “clean” fuel for future long-haul aviation, but the difficulty of safely storing it in fuel tanks, either as a gas or highly cooled liquid, means aerospace manufacturers have argued that vastly different planes would be needed.

Small reactors could be retrofitted into passenger planes to allow the hydrogen to be obtained from ammonia, according to Oxford University scientists on the UK’s state-funded Science and Technology Facilities Council, who have demonstrated that a mix of cracked ammonia can burn with similar properties as the paraffin normally used as jet fuel.

The new joint venture, as yet unnamed, will combine their findings with rocket engine technology from Reaction Engines, with seed funding from cleantech investor IP Group.

They believe the first sector likely to adopt their technology is shipping. Ammonia has already been seen as a cleaner fuel for the maritime sector, and could be a readily available fuel, as a product that is currently widely transported and stored globally.

However, most of the world’s ammonia is produced from fossil fuels in an energy-intensive process that is responsible for 1-2% of global carbon emissions. To be truly carbon-neutral, the new aircraft would have to run on “green ammonia”, produced from water and air using renewable energy.

Cracking the ammonia using the reactors on the plane produces hydrogen and nitrogen, and the emissions are water and nitrous oxides (NOx). NOx is an indirect greenhouse gas and can lead to the formation of health-damaging air pollutants such as particulate matter.

The cost of ammonia, or hydrogen, would far outstrip paraffin as a jet fuel, but the firms hope carbon taxes and legislation will alter the future economics.

Aviation and shipping currently account for 5% of worldwide CO2 emissions and their impact is expected to grow without significant technological or behavioural change.

The British government last year set up a jet zero council with the aim of decarbonising flight, with Boris Johnson suggesting that the UK could build an actual zero-emission transatlantic plane by 2050.

The industry has signed up to a net zero pledge for 2050, which relies heavily on offsetting and sustainable fuels. Cracking ammonia onboard, if proved feasible, could give zero-carbon flight 20 years earlier, the new joint venture suggests, although large challenges would remain to decarbonise production of ammonia, reduce NOx, and tackle the effects of aircraft contrails that contribute to global warming.

Bill David, STFC senior fellow and professor of energy materials chemistry at Oxford, said: “I am excited about the impact that our technology can have in enabling low-impact transitions in hard-to-abate energy sectors.

“Playing to the complementary strengths of ammonia and hydrogen, our cracker technology can rely on the global ammonia infrastructure to provide, at scale, blended ammonia-hydrogen fuels that mimic fossil fuel performance and offer affordable retrofitted energy solutions.”

David said that they were “on a journey” to show NOx emissions could be reduced with the right mix and temperatures. Ammonia itself is a large part of the AdBlue used to reduce NOx emissions from diesel combustion engines.

Robert Trezona, head of Cleantech, IP Group, said the combination of technologies was “a profound breakthrough” with “myriad applications”. He added: “This is a credible, amazing combination of science and engineering … it’s a possible thing.”

The firm will aim to raise tens of millions in funding from other investors next year to build larger scale demonstrations - initially very much on the ground, Trezona said: “This works – but we know we need to show hardware to get investment.”