Taking geothermal energy generation quite literally to the next level, Iceland is drilling a hole to tap into the Earth’s magma, a virtually unlimited potential power source.

The Iceland Deep Drilling Project (IDDP) is drilling 5 kilometers down into the Earth’s crust using its rig named “Thor” in order to reach hot zones between tectonic plates.

Unlike conventional geothermal, their pursuits are taking them to places where 400 to 1000 degrees Celsius can be expected, far hotter than similar approaches.

“People have drilled into hard rock at this depth, but never before into a fluid system like this,” Albert Albertsson of an Icelandic geothermal-energy company involved in the project. Researchers are hoping to find “supercritical steam,” which holds more heat energy than either liquid or gas. A potential 50 megawatts of energy could be generated from this steam, powering up to 50,000 homes. Similar techniques could be employed around the world near young volcanoes and similar subduction zones.

The post Iceland is Drilling a 5 KM Hole to Harvest Geothermal Heat from Magma first appeared on Gajitz.

It sounded preposterous to many when it was proposed, but a few years (and over $300,000,000) later the underground ice wall designed to contain a vast nuclear spill is almost finished.

Groundwater from the compromised plant in Fukushima poses a serious threat to Japan and the rest of the world. Over 1,000 tanks are storing hundreds of thousands of tons of the stuff, but it continues to flow.

The 100-foot-deep, mile-line Land-Side Impermeable Wall solution is designed to keep radioactive water out of the oceans. It consists of pipes filled with brine and frozen in place, kept cool by refrigeration units consuming the equivalent of 10,000+ homes’ worth electricity.

Critics point out that a concrete and steel wall would have been simpler and more predictably effective. Many see this as a last-ditch or half-baked effort, experimental at best. Only time will tell, once the system is fully operational, whether this was the right way to try and contain this crisis.

The post Fukushima Nuclear Fence: Japan’s Ice Wall is Nearly Done first appeared on Gajitz.

Japanese drivers can now drive up to sewage treatment centers and fill up their rides with biogas-based hyrodgen, thanks to a new toilet-to-tank initiative, the first of its kind in the world.

The methane and carbon dioxide piped into the first operational plant (more in the works) are being turned into usable fuel thanks to a grant from the government of Japan. The first such station is open for 12 hours a day, a prototype for a more expansive program. Landfills, animal manure and industrial facilities could all help in the effort to generate more hydrogen for the country’s cars.

“Sewage sludge is completely untapped today as a fuel source,” said Yoshikazu Tanaka, chief engineer of the Toyota Mirai. “We believe it’s very promising and would bring ultimate self-sustainability to communities.”

The government, meanwhile, is also pushing hydrogen-powered cars with fuel cell subsidies, which Toyota and other manufacturers are using as incentives to ramp up production. “After years of chicken-and-egg debate about which should come first, the cars or the stations to support them, the numbers of both are mushrooming.”

“Japan now has about 80 stations operating, and Germany has 50. In California, 20 retail hydrogen stations are now open, making it possible to drive from the Mexican border to far Northern California, and another 16 are slated to come online this year, according to the California Fuel Cell Partnership.”

The post Flush & Fuel: Drivers Can Gas Up at Sewage Plants in Japan first appeared on Gajitz.

For a cost-rich country like Australia, oceanic wave energy is a ready and largely-untapped source of essentially unlimited power, and the Perth-based Wave Energy Project has just set a new world record after 14,000 total hours of operation.

Located off the coast of Western Australia, the CETO 5 energy system has been live for a year and not only generates clean energy but also desalinates water for human consumption.

This remarkable project also represents another milestone: the first array of wave power generators tied directly into a country’s electrical grid. Each unit of their next-generation variant has a one-megawatt capacity (four times the current version 5 output), all with zero emissions.

“ARENA is proud to help local companies, like [Carnegie Wave Energy Limited], develop new renewable energy solutions that have the potential to change the way the world generates electricity,” said ARENA CEO Ivor Frischknecht. “We do this by providing Australian innovators with the support they need during the critical RD&D period, when patient funding is essential.”

The post Record-Setting Ocean Wave Energy Plant Hits 14,000 Hours first appeared on Gajitz.

Engineers and scientists at Iceland’s Hellisheidi power plant are taking captured carbon outputs and transforming them into solid stone. Their unique process mixes carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide from the plant with water and basalt underground. After a few months, the result is rock-hard carbonate that keeps harmful pollutants out of the atmosphere.

The CarbFix Project team combined the efforts of researchers from Columbia University, the University of Copenhagen, the University of Iceland, and Reykjavik Energy.

Initially, it was thought that the solidification reaction could take decades, centuries or even millennia, but results of experiments showed that it could take just months to years for partial and complete reactions.

The key is proximity to volcanic basalt, which is readily available in Iceland but not everywhere. In order to implement a similar process globally, other substitutes will need to be tested. Water is also critical, but again, for island nations like this one, that is not a problem. From here, the challenge is exporting the technology and finding ways to make it more efficient. So far, however, in places like Iceland where these materials are plentiful, the process is shockingly cheap, turning a ton of CO2 into rock for around $30.

The post Icelandic Power Plant Converts Carbon Emissions to Stone first appeared on Gajitz.