thirdwave

Github Mirror

Week 12

H2 View: "In a bid to secure US Department of Energy (DOE) funding for the development of a hydrogen hub, the West Virginia Hydrogen Hub Coalition has officially submitted its proposal. The state becomes one of the first to officially submit a proposal with the Mountain State’s abundance of renewable energy set to be coupled for mass hydrogen production and the integration of several end applications to boost the hydrogen economy..

West Virginia already has a rich background in coal, gas and oil and thus could have an extensive list of potential hydrogen customers that can be utilised to surge demand for the clean energy carrier. Another important factor is the availability of skill energy workforce and with West Virginia’s already established energy sector, the jobs could transition to hydrogen and support the emerging technologies and wprojects.

US Senator Joe Manchin, Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said, 'With our abundant energy sources and strong partnerships, our state is uniquely situated to compete to develop a hydrogen hub..'"

Places for salt cavern storage in US, below, taken from paper

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And there is that huge ammonia option, a whole seperate mechanism that can store massive amounts of H2.

Presentation about underground H2 storage methods

PDF

Salt caverns, and lined rock caverns.. There is a third method, using pipeline pieces, underground.. We know a pipeline network itself is also a storage mechanism, well, why not use pieces of pipeline hardware and stack them on top of eachother underground, creating an uber storage system?

Here is another method

CNBC: "[2020] Caverns can be created in salt domes by drilling into the salt dome and injecting the rock with water, which dissolves the salt. The resulting brine is extracted, leaving a large cavity. The next step is storing hydrogen in the cavern...

'[One] formation has the potential to create up to 100 caverns, each one capable of holding 150,000 MWh of energy,' says Browning [CEO of Mitsubishi Power US, now at Fortesque]. 'It would take 40,000 shipping containers of batteries to store that much energy in each cavern.'"

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26.7 million dollars for 100 m3 storage. At 250 bars H2 has energy density is 700 kwh/m3, this is 70 MWh of storage. It's pretty cheap. The equivalent lion battery install would cost over $50 million.

Daily Scandanavian: "Hydrogen Storage Facility in Sweden Has Reached Halfway Point in Construction.. Construction of the 100-cubic-meter.. rock cavern storage facility 30 meters below ground is done by Vattenfall AB in collaboration with Swedish steel company SSAB AB.., iron ore miner Luossavaara-Kiirunavaara AB.. The three owners invested around USD 21.4m.. in three equal parts, with the Swedish Energy Agency contributing just over SEK 52 million towards the hydrogen storage construction.

The cavern is being built via the so-called lined rock cavern (LRC) approach, which involves covering the walls of the cavern with a selected matter. The technology for storing gas in a lined rock cavern (LRC) is well proven and has been used in southern Sweden for about 20 years for storing natural gas. However, the technology is now taking another step forward as it’s being developed for the first time with hydrogen gas on a large pilot scale... The finished plant will contain hydrogen gas pressurized up to 250 bar"

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H2 View: "The Australian town of Chinchilla, located in the state of Queensland, will soon be home to a brand-new hydrogen plant capable of producing 50,000kg of renewable hydrogen annually"

Al Jazeera: "China sets green hydrogen target for 2025, eying widespread use"

Ketanji BJ comes across as good judge.. Defended detainees at Gitmo?

"@DrLeanaWen [Public health professor George Washington Public Health]

For those who don’t agree that the vaccinated can return to pre-pandemic normal, I ask: What should we all do? Perpetual masking? Forever not dining out, avoiding large weddings & indoor gatherings, etc? Virtually everything has risk, and zero covid is not a viable strategy"

Ran the code below at different times, PM 2.5 is mostly above 80. Many other cities are in bad shape too, thanks to fossil. Data is from Openweathermap who take their data directly from SILAM. My access code is here.

import util, datetime
aqi, res = util.pollution(28,77)
print (datetime.datetime.now(), res['pm2_5'])

2022-03-23 20:41:17.464611 82.25

2022-03-23 16:41:01.053968 53.17

2022-03-23 10:22:56.050570, 91.42

2022-03-22 24:19:55.815364, 94.01

WION had a segment on New Delhi air quality. One report found over 96 mg/m3 PM 2.5 concentration? Segment had doubts on the sponsor of the report, IOAir, which sells air purifier products. Good to know... I double-checked though and it is true, PM 2.5 is high.

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Bruno Bete #UKR

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It sucks

Arab News: "Japan said Tuesday it 'strongly protests' Russia's decision to abandon talks on a World War II peace treaty because of Tokyo's strong response to the invasion of Ukraine."

Petrodollar vs gasruble

"Putin says will accept only rubles for gas sales to ‘unfriendly nations’"

Politico: "An immediate ban on Russian energy imports would trigger an economic recession in Germany and across Europe, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz warned Wednesday... arguing that sanctions 'must not hit the European countries harder than the Russian leadership.'"

H2 Fuel News: "Saudi Arabia to start its Neom green H2 plant construction this month"

H2 View: "UAE, Germany strengthens hydrogen collaboration with several key strategic partnership agreements.. The UAE has received a boost to its hydrogen ambitions with ADNOC securing several strategic partnership agreements with leading German hydrogen companies"

H2 View: "Thyssenkrupp Steel partners with STEAG to integrate hydrogen into ‘Europe’s largest’ steelmaking site"

H2 View: "The University of Sydney’s (UNSW) SMaRT Centre has found that coffee could provide a means to produce hydrogen instead of coke and coal for green steel... Coffee, rubber, and plastic all can be broken down to generate hydrogen within the process and thus can substitute coke and coal, two carbon intensive ingredients, to provide a clean variant of steel"

H2 View: "Green hydrogen prize is huge for Middle East if strategic hub approach is adopted.. Momentum is building to scale up green hydrogen production in the Middle East.. to support industrial decarbonisation and create a new export economy..

The UAE’s Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure chose COP26 in Glasgow as the launchpad for its Hydrogen Leadership Roadmap. And earlier this month one of its senior officials said hydrogen will be ‘crucial to decarbonise industries, transportation, and the fossil fuel sector.”..

There is clear evidence across the region of buy-in to hydrogen’s potential, epitomised by Saudi Arabia’s stated aim of becoming a leading global supplier of hydrogen. Plans are already in motion for a multi-billion dollar production plant in the country’s north western region, with a daily production target of 650 tonnes of green hydrogen, planned to be on stream by 2026"

H2 View: "The heat waves of today would be laughable compared to those in a 2050 Earth in which climate change efforts have not been made in any way"

Attic Tree - To Let Go #music

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WSJ: "Hong Kong eases quarantine amid angst over ‘zero COVID’ isolation"

At a very coarse level (and that is all they see) people perceived 'potus wanted something not done, it was done'. Simple really. Bada bing, bada boom. Wanted no bada boom, but there was bada boom.

Most of that brief uptick is now gone #netapprov #biden

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The Independent: "Former president vows 2024 return to White House"

Al Jazeera: "US sends Patriot interceptors to Saudi to ease tensions"

Outers are feverishly trying to peel off some inners to entice them to join their side.

😂

"In what has been perceived as a historic move, Australia has repatriated 29 antiques to India"

WION: "EU aims to form a rapid reaction force.. US-led military alliance NATO has for decades provided the bedrock for European defence and the war in Ukraine has reinforced the instinct among many EU members to keep Washington close.. But there has also been a push led by France for the bloc to bolster its own capacity to act. The new strategy is designed to strike that balancing act while boosting defence cooperation between EU states"

Daily Mail: "Missile attack on Ukrainian military base launched after Russian troops hacked into British phones.. As a result, Kremlin agents were able to confirm the presence of former British servicemen on the massive base — and choose which buildings to hit"

The uber-antagonism backfired. Russians are now gunning for your ass, in a recent UKR attack they specifically chose buildings so they could smoke out Brits. See above.

Remember the July 2021 event. It was just bizarre..

Kinda like this move.

But Putin isn't impressed, guy doesn't f--k around.

UK was part of the inners (the EU), but left it due to a stupid choice (that's what you get when you ask 'people' on policy) and naturally became part of the 'outer belt'. The recent Johnson comment on UKR/Brexit makes this clear; in the Brexiter mind these two issues are linked, not in the way BJ expressed obviously, but in a larger sense, exclusively being in that alliance forced them to be a "good soldier", extremely pro-Ukraine, antagonistic against RU which was unavoidable after Brexit.

Japan has been the ultimate "money guy" for the group. They picked up the tab for the entire Iraq war effort (the first one).

Japan after giving up on its imperial ambitions became a pacified part of the 'outers'. They are a recent addition to the Five Eyes network too actually (I guess now the org is Six Eyes).

Wapo: "[After little job-well-done, pat in the back, the inevitable 'but' arrives here] Finally, the Western democracies need to think about how the war ends. While the ideal outcome would be a complete defeat for Putin and a humiliating withdrawal of all his forces from Ukraine, that appears unlikely — especially given the nuclear arsenal with which Russia can in effect blackmail the world.

Here the lesson of the Russo-Finnish War is that a diplomatic compromise may be necessary. Ukraine may have to provide a guarantee of neutrality and agree to give up some of the territory that is already de facto in the hands of Russia: Crimea and the Donbas region in the east"

WSJ: "As global brands shun Russia, Asian firms sit out controversy"

Arab News: "‘What I saw, I hope no one will ever see’ says Greek diplomat returning from Mariupol"

ISW: "The Ukrainian General Staff reported for the first time that the Kremlin is preparing its population for a 'long war' in Ukraine"

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H2 Fuel News: "First hydrogen fuel cell car in India is the Toyota Mirai"

H2 generation from NG using steam-methane reforming + CCS is one of the cheapest methods. Both of those producers should be able to generate the needed supply. They obviously also have some mad solar DNI.

Al Jazeera: "Germany courts Qatar and UAE for alternatives to Russian gas.. [German Economy Minister] Habeck, before the trip starting on Saturday, said the goal was to 'establish a hydrogen partnership in the medium term'"

H2 Fuel News: "A state-of-the-art coating facility [for the generation of cost-competitive green hydrogen] is being developed by TFP Hydrogen Products in North America"

Movie backdrop is the 80s.. Ancient history!

Panama (2022), good movie.. the rhythm feels different, un-Holywood, but that's fine.

The show on WeWork called WeCrashed should be named WeSuck. Thumbs down.

Two words: Indo-Pacific

Jane's Defense: "DARPA sets goals for Liberty Lifter heavy-lift seaplane.. The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has revealed ambitions to develop and flight test an experimental low cost, wing-in-ground effect-capable seaplane for long-range, low-cost seaborne strategic and tactical lift"

RU is a weapons exporter would not have urgent need for weapons from others. This is a mudslinging move to shame China into their corner.

NDTV: "Amid Flack, China's US Envoy Says Beijing Now Not Sending Arms To Russia"

RU invades UKR, an outer outpost on its border, the most fervent denials come from US, UK, Oz. Distance-wise these countries are far, far away, the feverishness of the protest makes no sense; but from a larger view it does.

France has been active on the high-seas, a seafaring nation, but its history and strategic needs is too tied to the greater Eurasian landmass, so it mostly behaves like an inner. That is why FR is never accepted to "the club", the "Five Eyes"; see the recent AUKUS debacle. They didn't just kick out France, they reveled in it.

It might make sense to look at the broad IR landscape through a inner vs belter (outer) lens, using terminology of The Expanse. China, Russia, Europe are the "inners", US, Oz, UK the outers. Outers want the inners to stay where they are, contained.

Interesting to note during WWII when Japan was attacking Soviets, and China, the US was fine with that. After the northward attack stalled though, and Japan changed focus to the south, the islands, then US put sanctions on Japan cutting its oil (which triggered a Japanese gamble on Pearl Harbor to cripple US while it could take all those resources, US responded).

But US priority was clear, attack the land-based powers, keep them locked in their places, that's fine.. If you try to be a naval power yourself, you are in trouble. When Japan tried that it was nuked, firebombed into submission.

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"Ten million people have fled their homes in Ukraine, according to the UN Refugee Agency"

"Russia-Ukraine live news: Russian tanks in Mariupol streets"

Guy sets up an entire heating/cooking system with chimney at camp, in a tent. Extremely wasteful IMO.

WION: "‘Let’s Go Brandon’ store opens in New Jersey, gets flagged by Facebook"

Motor Authority: "Ford Patents Hydrogen-Fueled Combustion Engine"

H2 View: "[2019] Siemens announced its “Murchison Renewable Hydrogen Project – a large scale (up to 5,000 MW) combined solar and wind farm to produce low-cost renewable"

H2 View: "[2020] The Asian Renewable Energy Hub will generate 26,000 MW of renewable energy in Western Australia"

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H2 Fuel News: "Oklahoma’s hydrogen fuel industry could get a shot in the arm from a new bill..SB 1857 would widen tax credits for businesses that use H2 as a source of fuel or energy"

H2 View: "Petrofac to develop 125,000 tonne per year green hydrogen to ammonia project in Egypt.. The exports will be achieved through a facility based at Ain Sokhna Port on the Gulf of Suez, providing a corridor for international exportation of ammonia... [Petrofoc manager:] “Egypt is moving fast to develop its natural advantages for green energy with its abundant solar and wind resources, coupled with its strategic geographic location for exporting zero carbon products, and Petrofac is thrilled to be supporting this growth.”

Denmark to establish 6GW electrolyser capacity by 2030

H2@Scale: "It is expected that Japan will start importing carbon free ammonia as fuel for power generation to replace 20% of the coal from 2030"

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Because they have leftism there.. See post

"Finland has been named the world's happiest country for the fifth year in a row"

"@mkerrhardy

Welp, @Meta locked me out of my Facebook account because I don't have two-factor authentication set up. When I try to set it up, I get an error. Fun!

My account is now so secure that even I can't access it"

It's like a joke.

"@HeerJeet

If Hillary Clinton had won in 2016, she planned to nominate Howard Schultz to be Secretary of Labor. He's currently returning to Starbucks to head their union busting efforts"

Karsh Kale - Supernova #music

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NYT: "Mail Ballot Rejections Surge in Texas, With Signs of a Race Gap A new Republican voting law led to the sharp rise in rejected ballots in the state’s recent primary election. An analysis shows that Black areas of Houston disproportionately had votes thrown out"

Cuck Todd.

It's still funny

US gov is 'condemning' the move? 'We dont want piece anywhere' basically..

Al Monitor: "Syria's Assad visits UAE, first trip to an Arab state since war"

Devine, Laptop from Hell: "Five days after Costello’s late-night call, on Wednesday, October 14, 2020, the New York Post published the first of a series of front-page bombshells,.. culled from the contents of Hunter’s laptop. The story, headlined 'Biden’s Secret Emails,' revealed a bombshell 2015 email indicating that Joe, as vice president, had met in Washington with a high-ranking representative of the corrupt Ukrainian energy company that was paying his junkie son a million dollars a year to sit on its board. Eight months after the meeting, Joe flew to Kyiv and threatened to withhold $1 billion in US aid unless the Ukrainian government fired its top prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, who was pursuing Burisma for corruption at the time. The email was news, in anyone’s language.

But soon after the Post’s story broke online, social media censored it. Facebook announced it had throttled the story’s reach. Twitter locked the Post’s account for two weeks, then admitted after the election that it had made a mistake. It was a chilling exercise of raw political power by an unaccountable Big Tech—the term given to the oligopoly of global corporations that dominate the information technology industry.

The coordinated censorship of America’s oldest newspaper, with the fourth largest circulation in the nation, amounted to election interference. It was a historic moment that rang alarm bells around the world and would harden resolve on Capitol Hill to rein in the power of the social media giants"

Even some in the establishment must have seen the current state of play in UKR is no good, largely US's fault. The Hunter Biden thing resurfacing might be a message to WH.. The HB expose is key bcz it has the word 'Ukraine' written all over it.

This is good

F24: "Ukraine's leader Volodymyr Zelensky made a fresh appeal for meaningful talks with Moscow on Saturday to end the war as Russia said its soldiers had entered the centre of the besieged city of Mariupol, 'tightening the noose' around the key port"

Various end results for UKR-RU are possible .. One assesment I saw claimed RU will take everything east of the Dnipro river; i.e. all of Eastern Ukraine. UKR is close in culture to Russians, but the East is even more so.. Then maybe RU is feeling out how things develop, doing a little head fake on the North, but invading strongly from Southeast, and if no agreement is forthcoming, no substantial concessions in tune of what they wanted, they'll just take Eastern Ukraine and call it a day.

Combined geographically w previously acquired regions, the whole block actually makes sense, there is a geographical boundary between East and West anyway, a river, and it connects nicely with the 'seperatist' regions, plus Crimea. RU's needed 'buffer' will get bigger, and the remaining gov in the West will probably not utter the word NATO ever again.

Today India and Russia need eachother in case of a resurgent China and China needs Russia against what they view as a overly meddling West. So I dont think "the Quad", or any other pact can override the India-Russia relationship.

"Gravitas Plus: India & Russia: A time-tested friendship"

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I wouldnt expect too much from pulling India out of its Russia friendship either.. See history (above)

The Guardian: "Beijing’s readout of the [Biden-Xi] call did not suggest any Chinese role in ending the war. It quoted Xi as referring to a favourite aphorism, 'Let he who tied the bell on the tiger’s neck take it off' , a seeming reference to China’s position that the US and Nato are ultimately to blame"

"The U.S. believed that a brief period of non-assertive foreign policy from the mid-1980s to mid-1990s had become the new norm for Russia. This period was not the norm but an anomaly. Putin’s foreign policy has always been assertive, similar to Russia’s historic foreign policy"

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Al Jazeera: "This is not the time to brand Vladimir Putin an ‘evil madman’. Simplifying the war in Ukraine into a binary of ‘good’ versus ‘evil’ will not save us from another world war...

Whether it’s describing Saddam Hussein as a 'madman,' Gaddafi as 'insane,' or Putin as a 'megalomaniac,' such caricatures serve broader political objectives by simplifying any conflict into a clear binary of 'good' versus 'evil'... The Israeli state often indulges in such framing to delegitimise Palestinians – even questioning their intelligence, by repeating ad nauseum the trope that they 'never lose an opportunity to lose an opportunity'...

Such framing is now being tactfully employed to explain away the Russian invasion of Ukraine – a manipulative discourse construction that facilitates a fog of war"

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Al-Monitor: "Soaring bread prices sparked by Russia's invasion of Ukraine have bitten into the purchasing power of consumers in Egypt"

How can a food/energy self-sufficient country face such shortages due to sanctions?

I think they are blowing smoke up your ass..

"UK intel says Russian troops facing food and fuel shortage as Moscow faces new sanctions"