Energies Magazine Summer 2023 : simplebooklet.com

Energies Magazine / Summer 2023 / EnergiesMagazine.com2SUMMER 2023PUBLISHER Emmanuel SullivanEDITOR-IN-CHIEF Rebecca PontonMANAGING EDITOR Nick VaccaroASSISTANT EDITOR Sarah Skinner COPY EDITOR Shannon WestCREATIVE DIRECTOR Kim FischerCONTRIBUTING EDITORS Nick Vaccaro Elizabeth WilderADVERTISING SALES Diana George Connie LaughlinSUBSCRIBE To subscribe to Energies Magazine, please visit our website, www.energiesmagazine.com/subscribe. MAILING ADDRESS U.S. Energy Media P.O. Box 3786 Galveston, TX 77552 Phone: (800) 562-2340 e-mail: editor@usenergymedia.comCOPYRIGHT The contents of this publication are copyright 2023 by U.S. Energy Media, LLC, with all rights restricted. Any reproduction or use of content without written consent of U.S. Energy Media, LLC is strictly prohibited.All information in this publication is gathered from sources considered to be reliable, but the accuracy of the information cannot be guaranteed. Energies Magazine reserves the right to edit all contributed articles. Editorial content does not necessarily reect the opinions of the publisher. Any advice given in editorial content or advertisements should be considered information only. Cover photo courtesy of LanzaTech.LETTER FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEFCONTRIBUTORS — BiographiesRebecca Ponton, Editor-in-ChiefWe hope you all are enjoying the summer – especially those of you who are taking a vacation – and that you will enjoy reading the latest issue of ENERGIES Magazine wherever you may be.I rst became aware of LanzaTech in 2020 (although it has been around much longer than that) when I received a press release announcing the carbon recycling technology company’s partnership with beauty care giant L’Oréal and the French multi-energy company TotalEnergies. I will admit I was intrigued by the seemingly disparate trio. What could they possibly have in common? Building on a shared vision, they developed the rst sustainable packaging made from captured and recycled carbon emissions. This is just one of the many partnerships LanzaTech has formed, which span the spectrum of industries from cosmetic and clothing companies to steel manufacturers, resulting in what LanzaTech’s Chief Sustainability Ofcer Freya Burton refers to as, “This completely new industrial symbiosis.” In our cover feature with Aura Cuellar, the company’s new EVP of Growth and Strategic Projects, Cuellar says, “My contribution to LanzaTech is helping us grow exponentially,” as the company seeks to build more of its carbon recycling facilities around the world with the goal of creating what it calls “a post-pollution future.”Cuellar, who had a 24-year career with Shell before joining LanzaTech, is another example of how the line between the legacy and renewable energy workforce has blurred, with the skills and expertise being transferable from one sector to the other. The end result is new and innovative ideas of how the world can best transition to a net zero future.Continuing with the theme of recycling, Emilie Oxel O’Leary, CEO and owner of Green Clean Solar, discusses what her company is doing to eliminate industrial solar waste “and transform pain points of the industry into sustainable, circular economy-style solutions.” And cinematographer Susan Kucera, whose last three lms have dealt with issues around climate change, shares the amazing results of her DIY solar projects on her homes in Washington State and Hawaii.We hope you will nd these articles and the rest of the issue interesting and informative, as you enjoy your summer! We look forward to bringing you the next quarterly issue of ENERGIES Magazine this Fall.Nick VaccaroNick Vaccaro is a freelance writer and photographer. In addition to providing technical writing services, he is an HSE consultant in the oil and gas industry with eight years of experience. Vaccaro also contributes to SHALE Oil and Gas Business Magazine, Louisiana Sportsman Magazine, and follows and photographs American Kennel Club eld and herding trials. He has a BA in photojournalism from Loyola University and resides in the New Orleans area. Vaccaro can be reached at 985-966-0957 or navaccaro@outlook.com. Elizabeth WilderElizabeth Wilder is a freelance writer based in Houston, Texas. In addition to covering startups and nuclear energy in this issue, she has written about solar energy initiatives, including on Native lands. Her work has also appeared in Oilwoman Magazine.

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Energies Magazine / Summer 2023 / EnergiesMagazine.com4EMERGING TECHNOLOGIESBalancing Hydrocarbon Production and Energy Transition By Michaela GreenanMany energy companies are actually technology companies – as shown by horizontal drilling, leveraging sensors to drive safer and more optimized operations, and capturing data to make real-time decisions. The digitization of the energy industry is further accelerated by the push to free cash ow, energy transition, low carbon and long-term sustainability. While U.S. consumption of petroleum products remains relatively at, interna-tional demand is still growing and there-fore supports U.S. exports of petroleum and other liquids, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s Narrative 2023 report. Given the dynam-ics of international trade affecting do-mestic production of natural gas, petro-leum and other liquids, energy companies need to balance hydrocarbon and energy transition, and technology is playing a crucial role for these companies.Emerging Technology Driving Business ValueIt is common for energy companies to have a chief technology/digital ofcer (CTO/CDO) in their ranks, to ensure that new and emerging trends will be pri-oritized into the overall strategy, often in collaboration with the chief information ofcer (CIO) and the chief economist/strategist.The CTO/CDO will have at her or his disposal a variety of emerging informa-tion technologies to use individually or in combination to magnify value, such as:• Articial intelligence and machine learning – The use of algorithms for forecasting models and exception re-porting can help better anticipate and align resources.• Data intelligence and analytics – The large amounts of data that energy companies have collected over many years can be leveraged to make better decisions going forward. For example, geospatial data can be used together with AI to nd reservoirs easier. An-other trend is the growth of the data marketplace where companies can think through how to provide easy ac-cess to their employees for one source of truth.• Robotics – Energy companies are leveraging industrial robots in hazard-ous environments for performance, maintenance inspections, etc.• Integration of IT and OT – In the past, IT and OT were siloed when renery and rig systems were stand-alone. As data is integrated, we are seeing a convergence between the systems which introduces additional or heightened cyber security concerns. • Industrial internet of things (IIOT) – With more intelligence built into equipment and more connectivity, sharing of information is easier and can be leveraged across companies, helping to predict maintenance needs, productions, etc.• Virtual and augmented reality – Be-sides being incorporated as training equipment, companies are also discov-ering more ways to leverage VR/AR for knowledge sharing applications. For example, in remote operations where a more experienced person stationed at the central command control setting is coordinating and steering a more inexperienced person in the eld.• 5G, wireless and cloud network – The infrastructure conduit for transport-ing, storing and even pre-processing voluminous real-time data from sen-sors and IIOT at speed.• Digital twins and threads – Enabling autonomous operations, including simulations and predictions, in a man-ner which is less capital-intensive.Energy companies require a solid foundation for rapid decision making, Photo courtesy of wbraga – www.123RF.com

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Energies Magazine / Summer 2023 / EnergiesMagazine.com5EMERGING TECHNOLOGIESbetter understanding and analytics of their data, timely and accurate reporting, while leveraging new technologies to grow their business, reduce OPEX and improve safety. There has been an emer-gence of companywide transformations enabled by enterprise resource planning. Systems Applications and Products (SAP) is considered a major player in this space with its ecosystem partners, and seen as an enabler of the corporate backbone, fully embracing emerging technology for business operations and sparking innovations.Pragmatic Approach is RequiredIn addition, energy companies need a pragmatic approach for their environ-mental and social performance outlook over the next ve, 10 and 20 years. The core of this very complex problem is the need to balance hydrocarbon and low emissions, necessitating everyone to work on the solution together to address demand and supply dynamics, which are inuenced by factors such as economic growth, geopolitical head-winds and security. Companies will need to ramp up col-laboration within the industry and across other stakeholders around: • Carbon tracking, trading and offsets• Carbon capture and sequestration • Hydrogen, blue and green• Emission reduction and efciency• Wind, water and solar• EVs charging and retail (with the target to transform over time to no carbon solutions for fuel and electricity)Advancing Sustainability ProgramsEnergy companies have been very trans-parent about their sustainability programs for a long time. For example, Chevron, BP and Shell regularly publish reports on their sustainability efforts to illustrate their commitment and progress. Beyond reporting, they have incentivized their organizations to build sustainability as well as diversity, equity and inclusion into their KPIs. Many energy companies are focusing on the entire carbon footprint all the way through scope 3 emissions.The barriers to sustainability are multi-fold:• Existing older infrastructure that is costly to replace. For example, older reneries might not have any sensors on their equipment, so companies need to balance the benets of emerg-ing technologies versus the cost of implementation.• Regulation which might limit or has-ten innovations.• Challenges attracting talent due to the less than favorable reputation of the traditionally hydrocarbon intensive industry. Energy companies need to show the public that they are part of the solution.• Access to funding (free cash ow) – nancial institutions and investors are highly motivated by the green senti-ment. This is exacerbated by:o Bad actors who give the industry a poor reputation.o Accidents which are detrimental to the environment and are heav-ily publicized. Industry at a CrossroadsGiven all these factors, the industry is at a crossroads where emerging technolo-gies can play a big factor and innovation is happening very quickly. It also forces energy companies to sift through the hype of these emerging technologies and determine the solutions that work. Energy companies should also consider collaborating in new ways with internal and external partners, many outside their own industry, like technology companies, their vendors and customers to create new solutions that will advance the bal-ance that will ultimately be required.An example of an innovative partner-ship is the Energy as a Service offering where Infosys and BP are leveraging each other’s expertise to build a platform to manage energy efciency in buildings and cities by using technology to drive efciency as well as low carbon power, heating, cooling and mobility.Other innovations to consider include:• New LNG infrastructure which is eas-ier to build at a much lower price point and offers more exibility in uncertain times. There are new terminals coming online in Europe to reduce the reliance on Russian gas. In South America, Asia and Africa, LNG terminals enable easier and dependable access to gas.• Developing interoperability as a digital identier to track carbons across the value chain (e.g., Shell open footprint)• Creating innovation hubs which enable start-up for the energy industry (e.g., Haliburton Labs).Ultimately, for any program to be suc-cessful, it is crucial for the organization to have the propensity to embrace change or, better yet, be proactive by taking the lead to fully capture the value of emerg-ing technologies and innovations.Michaela Greenan is an accomplished executive with 25-plus years of global consulting experi-ence, successfully serv-ing multinational clients across several industries, most notably chemicals and energy.She is currently a partner at Infosys Consulting, where she leads the SAP Energy, Service and Resources team. Prior to this role, she was a partner in the PwC Energy practice, lead-ing multiple practice areas, including energy technology and chemicals, downstream and midstream. She also served as a global account partner. Previously, Greenan was also a part-ner at Ernst & Young, in the rm’s Energy and SAP practice, and a part-ner at IBM Global Business Services in the petroleum/chemicals practice.As a passionate community and education advocate, Greenan sits on the Houston Grand Opera Board. For over 10 years, she has also been deeply involved with the World Af-fairs Council of Greater Houston, one of Houston’s leading education-based nonprots. She is a former chairperson and member of the executive committee.

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Energies Magazine / Summer 2023 / EnergiesMagazine.com6BATTERY INNOVATIONLSU Mechanical Engineering Makes Big Strides in Non-Metal Battery Development By Nick VaccaroAs the world continues to grow and em-brace the concept of alternative energy, many pioneering the industry still act as modern-day wildcatters with their cru-sade to develop clean energy sources and perfect their development and implemen-tation. While battery power has stepped up to the proverbial plate as a viable form of power, others seek to improve upon its limitations, including life span, perfor-mance and development methodology.Battery use knows minimal limitations. Batteries already claim responsibility for enabling portable computers, smart-phones and the increasingly electric automobile. Since their power genera-tion comes from lithium-ion batteries, the demand for lithium has increased in parallel to that for battery power. How-ever, lithium battery power carries some baggage that consequently negates the spirit of clean and alternate energy.Known as “white gold,” lithium is an alkali metal found in excessive quantities in certain countries. The mining process is plagued with safety concerns and can negatively impact the environment. To combat those factors, an associate pro-fessor from the mechanical engineering department of Louisiana State Univer-sity (LSU) has used a grant to develop a replacement for the lithium battery. Associate Professor Ying Wang and her team of mechanical engineering students are working on a battery that is not only constructed of non-metal components but is also rechargeable.“Lithium-ion batteries have good per-formance, but several serious issues,” says Wang. “It’s not sustainable and is very expensive, and the U.S. does not have deep reserves for lithium. Also, if you are extracting lithium from mines, you are using a tremendous amount of water, which has a severe impact on the environment.”According to Wang, the concept of a non-metal battery is very new and con-sists of a molecular makeup that includes one part nitrogen and four parts hydro-gen. This same conguration drives sus-tainability as nitrogen and hydrogen exist in the air. They are, therefore, abundant in nature. Because the composition of lithium-based batteries must be extracted from the earth, potential environmental destruction can occur, and there are limi-tations to the material supply.Wang reasons that the non-metal makeup of her team’s design provides an ad-ditional benet. The non-metal battery allows for using non-metal electrolytes inside the battery itself. While lithium batteries utilize ammable and toxic solvents, non-metal batteries use water-based electrolytes, which are increasingly safer to handle and manage.“Lithium is not a stable metal, and the organic electrolyte in a lithium-ion bat-tery could be ammable,” says Wang. “There has been a lithium battery explosion in the news. This is a recur-ring problem because when lithium batteries fail or overheat, they release ammable, toxic gases that can spark a fast-spreading re. My group is designing an ammonium-ion battery that is much safer, lighter, more affordable, and can be biodegradable. It can also be thin and exible so it can twist and bend.”LSU engineering student, Shelton Kuchena, holding a cell used in the school’s non-metal battery prototype. Photos courtesy of LSU School of Engineering.

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Energies Magazine / Summer 2023 / EnergiesMagazine.com7BATTERY INNOVATIONAssortment of battery cells used by the LSU School of Engineering in its non-metal battery development project.Wang admits that lithium-ion batteries offer a better performance rate than non-metal batteries, but counters that more research is still needed in developing these new battery designs. Her team’s ammo-nium-ion battery features an aqueous electrolyte with a high salt concentration. This is an active ingredient in lowering the freezing point, enabling use in sub-zero temperature settings.By dissolving ammonium salt in water, the electrolyte can reject freezing. The amount of salt used will vary to achieve the desired freezing point. This also inuences the ions’ conductivity and the battery’s electrochemical makeup.With an enhanced need for safe and in-creased power and energy density capable batteries, Wang feels her LSU team has found the purpose and placement of its battery. Identifying those factors, Wang contacted NASA ofcials to evaluate the potential use of her team’s non-metal battery. The space program has typi-cally considered lithium-ion batteries an energy source, but Wang indicates that increased safety issues have plagued their use. The LSU ammonium-ion battery stands as a prospective alternative in power generation.“This study is expected not only to open a new direction of research on non-metal batteries, but will also enhance NASA research and technology while contribut-ing to the overall research infrastructure, science and technology capabilities, diver-sity in higher education, and economic development of Louisiana,” says Wang.If one considers the evolution of the automobile, changes in design can be witnessed frequently. Reasoning ranges from enhanced aerodynamics to simple boosts in aesthetics to surpass the com-petition. With every change in design, critical components needed to run and operate the vehicle must be strategically placed within the vehicle. The same can be said for boats and aircraft. The com-monality exists in the potential need for non-metal batteries.Wang indicates that without the metal structure, non-metal batteries allow their shape to be manipulated through exercis-es like bending to make t and placement more efcient. This potentially decreases the time and money spent on specic designs that might be limited in supply. Instead, non-metal battery development offers the ability to meet needs through batteries developed through a sense of mass production. A battery that pro-vides a “one size ts all” nature can meet customer needs while driving decreased production costs by eliminating the need for multiple shapes and sizes.Decreased production times offer an ad-ditional caveat to non-metal battery devel-opment. These new batteries provide the chance to enhance clean energy through the nal product put into production and the manner in which they are created and later discarded. Their development elimi-nates mining and the potential environ-mental hazards associated with mining, and the energy spent during creation sees a reduction.Because non-metal batteries offer multiple scenarios of use because of their ability to be manipulated, size needs are reduced. One non-metal battery can alter its shape and t various conditions of service. This reduces the need for high quantities of different shapes and sizes. This reduction allows less energy to be consumed dur-ing the production phase. By saving that energy, the carbon footprint benets from the drop. Any energy saved instead of spent contributes to reducing emissions that inuence the carbon footprint.Non-metal batteries’ waste minimization factor enhances their stature as a clean en-ergy source. While their current life cycle might not mirror lithium-ion batteries, they are biodegradable. At this juncture of research and development, their waste statistics contribute to their ability to serve as a clean energy source, even at the end of their life cycle. When they no longer have a use, they offer no harmful environmental side effects.Through the results derived during development and production, non-metal batteries offer a viable place in the current world of alternative energy. Still, Wang says an even more pronounced stakehold will come through increased research. With the results and capabilities already identied, the future of non-metal bat-teries like LSU’s ammonium-ion subject should see endless opportunities as an effective component in helping solve the world’s energy crisis.Nick Vaccaro is a free-lance writer and pho-tographer. In addition to providing technical writing services, he is an HSE consultant in the oil and gas industry with eight years of experience. Vaccaro also contributes to SHALE Oil and Gas Business Magazine, Louisiana Sportsman Magazine, and follows and photographs American Kennel Club eld and herding trials. He has a BA in pho-tojournalism from Loyola University and resides in the New Orleans area. Vaccaro can be reached at 985-966-0957 or navac-caro@outlook.com.

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Energies Magazine / Summer 2023 / EnergiesMagazine.com10BATTERY TECH Innovating a Better, Cleaner and Cheaper Battery By Melissa A. SchillingZeta Energy is a Texas-based battery technology start-up that has developed a safe, low-cost, high performance, and sustainable battery built around a combination of two proprietary innova-tions: A sulfurized carbon cathode and a 3D structured metallic lithium anode. This combination yields a battery with a much higher energy density and lower cost than traditional lithium-ion bat-teries, while also offering comparable cyclability and better safety. The elimina-tion of metals like cobalt, manganese and nickel also dramatically simplies the supply chain for battery manufactur-ing. From the outset, Zeta developed its processes using industry standard equip-ment to enable its near seamless integra-tion into existing gigafactories. Zeta also partnered with best-in-class equipment manufacturers to build trust, reliability and condence with its partners and licensees. Zeta Energy’s FoundingZeta Energy was founded in 2014 by Charles Maslin, an entrepreneur and investor with an avid interest in technol-ogy. Like many others, Maslin believed that the key to reducing environmental degradation and climate change was better batteries. Batteries that were lower cost, higher capacity and sustainably manufactured could enable more people to use solar power in their homes and could make electric vehicles competitive with vehicles that used fossil fuels. Most analysts consider the largest market for rechargeable batteries to be electric vehicles, followed by grid storage (large-scale energy storage used within an electrical power grid). However, better, cheaper batteries also have the potential to expand the markets for con-sumer electronics, industrial equipment, medical equipment, aviation, aerospace, military and more. Maslin thus knew that better battery technology could have enormous com-mercial potential. He began funding and licensing research being done on lithium metal batteries at Rice University. The group Maslin supported was led by world-renowned chemist and nano-technologist Dr. James Tour, and was advancing the state of the art in carbon graphene nanotubes. Soon, Maslin had hired two of the group’s postdoctoral fellows, Abdul-Rahman Raji and Rodri-go Salvatierra, and founded the company Zeta Energy with the intention of pro-ducing and selling extremely advanced lithium metal batteries. Maslin recalls, “There were urgent needs to be met... the need for the energy security and independence of a local, obtainable supply chain; the need for safer, higher performance batteries, the need for the capability of produc-ing these batteries at a price point that would usher in rapid adoption of envi-ronmentally friendly alternative energy solutions. The urgent needs were clear, the inventors, brilliant, and the technol-ogy revolutionary. It did not take much vision to see the opportunity at hand, nor much convincing to attract a world class, seasoned, management team to bring that vision to fruition. That team includes our newly appointed CEO, Tom Pilette, our CCO, Michael Liedtke and our CFO, Michael Zemble – each of whom have been mission critical team members in both the formulation of our strategy and in its execution.” The Technology By the early 2020s, the lithium-ion technology that dominated rechargeable battery applications was clearly mature.1 The price per kilowatt hour had dropped close to 90 percent from its 2010 level of $1,191. However, further cost reduc-tions were becoming unlikely as materi-als were now around 70 percent of the battery cost (see Figure 1). Materials costs can often increase rather than decrease as production volumes scale up.2There was widespread consensus that a breakthrough innovation in battery tech-nology would be necessary to signi-Figure 1: Cost breakdown for lithium-ion battery cell. Source: Based on Data from Bloomberg NEF

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Energies Magazine / Summer 2023 / EnergiesMagazine.com11BATTERY TECH Figure 2: Anode with Vertically Aligned Carbon Nanotubes (VACNTs). Source: Zeta Energy, 2022cantly advance applications in these and other markets. By this time, it was also already well understood that lithium metal batteries – those that contained lithium in metal form instead of just lithium ions in an electrolyte – offered signi-cant potential advantages in terms of how much energy a battery could hold for a given volume or weight. However, lithium metal batteries had not been widely commercialized because they suf-fered from some serious problems that needed to rst be solved.3 One of the most signicant of these is dendrites. In a lithium metal battery, dendrites (pointy projections of lithium particles) tend to form on the anode and can ultimately penetrate the separator between the anode and cathode, causing short circuits in the battery. Dendrites limited both the ability to recharge lithium metal batteries and created safety hazards. Zeta was able to solve these issues by cre-ating a 3D structured lithium metal anode built on a carpet-like carbon nanotube (CNT) structure where billions of CNTs hold a tremendous amount of lithium while preventing the formation of den-drites (see Figure 2)4. This enables a lithium metal battery to simultaneously achieve both an extremely high energy density and have a low rate of degradation. The team also invented a roll-to-roll deposition method that enables CNTs to be grown directly in foil at high speed, ensuring that anode production would be scalable. To realize the full potential of their anode, however, the team also needed a better cathode, leading to Zeta Energy’s second breakthrough: A sulfurized car-bon cathode. Sulfur cathodes had been of considerable interest in the scientic community because sulfur is cheap and abundant and offers the theoretical po-tential of increasing the energy capacity of a battery up to 500 percent compared to conventional lithium-ion battery mate-rials.5 However, several challenges to real-izing this potential had limited their use. Namely, sulfur cathodes suffered from ADVERTISE WITH US!Are you looking to expand your reach in the renewable energy marketplace? Do you have a product or service that would beneﬁt the industry? If so, we would like to speak with you!CALL US (800) 562-2340 EX. 1 We have a creative team that can design your ad! EnergiesMagazine.com/advertise Advertising@USEnergyMedia.comContinued on next page...

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Energies Magazine / Summer 2023 / EnergiesMagazine.com12BATTERY TECH a polysulde shuttle effect that resulted in “leakage” of active material, leading to degradation of the battery.6 Sulfur also expanded as it took on lithium ions, creating instability in the battery’s struc-ture. As a result of these effects, lithium sulfur batteries had a history of poor “cyclability,” meaning that they could not be recharged very many times, making them commercially nonviable for most applications.7 After considerable experimentation, the Zeta Energy team created a break-through method of polymerizing sulfur that solves these problems. Zeta’s sul-furized cathode contains no elemental sulfur and yields no polysuldes. The cathode was tested by third-party labora-tories that veried the cathodes could be cycled more than 300 times with negli-gible loss of performance. As Chief Science Ofcer Rodrigo Salvatierra notes, “Sulfur cathodes have existed since the 1960s, but they didn’t perform well in applications that require many recharging cycles. We designed a special class of sulfurized carbon that enables us to use a high quantity of sul-fur, is polysulde free, and works across a broad range of electrolytes.” Remarkably, Zeta’s process is also com-patible with unrened sulfur, saving the company even more money and energy compared to processes that use puried sulfur. Zeta holds numerous patents (and has many more pending) on both the carbon nanotube anode and the polym-erized sulfur cathode (Figure 3). The combination of a dendrite-free, high-density anode, and a sulfur cath-ode with excellent “cyclability” achieved what Forbes termed “The Holy Grail”8 in battery technology. As a bonus, Zeta’s battery does not use cobalt, nickel or manganese. Eliminating cobalt from the production of batteries is highly desir-able since cobalt is primarily mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country that is notorious for using child labor in cobalt mines.9Winning AccoladesZeta Energy’s achievements earned it a spot on the World Materials Forum’s “Top Ten Technologies” list in 2021, the “Coup de Couer Scale-Up Award” from World Materials Forum in 2022, and $4 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy ARPA-E’s EVs4ALL program in 2023. As of May 2023, Zeta Energy is scaling up its commercial production and validation center in Houston, Texas, and is in talks with several global automakers, leading aviation companies developing eVTOLs, and organizations developing grid stor-age capacity. 1 www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights/latest-news-headlines/as-battery-costs-plummet lithium-ion-innovation-hits-limits-experts-say-586132382 Ibid.3 batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/experimen-tal_rechargeable_batteries4 www.nature.com/articles/ncomms2234; https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acsnano; https://content.rolandberger.com/hubfs/07_presse/Roland%20Berger_The%20Lithium-Ion%20Battery%20Market%20and%20Supply%20Chain_2022_nal.pdf 5 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium%E2%80%93sulfur_battery6 www.electropages.com/blog/2020/01/why-lithium-sulphur-batteries-are-taking-so-long-be-usedcom-mercially 7 www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fen-rg.2019.00123/full8 www.forbes.com/sites/rrapier/2019/05/16/the-holy-grail-of-lithiumbatteries/#55f989243d63 9 www.ft.com/content/c6909812-9ce4-11e9-9c06-a4640c9feebbMelissa A. Schilling is the Herzog Family Professor of Management at New York University Stern School of Business. Professor Schil-ling is a world-renowned expert in inno-vation strategy. Her research focuses on innovation and strategy in high technology industries such as smartphones, video games, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, electric vehicles and renewable energies. Her research in innovation and strategy has earned numerous awards such as the National Science Foundation’s CAREER Award, the Best Paper in “Management Science and Organization Science” for 2007 Award, the 2022 Sumantra Ghoshal Award for Rigour and Relevance in the Study of Management, and the 2018 Lead-ership in Technology Management award at PICMET. In addition to publishing in the leading academic journals, Schilling’s work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, the Finan-cial Times, Harvard Business Review, Bloom-berg Business News, CNBC and more. Her textbook, Strategic Management of Technological Innovation (now in its 7th edition), is the number one innovation strategy text in the world. She is also the author of Quirky: The remarkable story of the traits, foibles and genius of breakthrough innovators who changed the world, and coauthor of Strategic Management: An integrated approach (now in its 14th edition). Figure 3: Zeta Energy battery with lithium-metal carbon nanotube anode and sulfurized carbon cathode. Source: Zeta Energy.Zeta Sulfurized CarbonNo loss of active materialElectrochemically stableHigh thermal stabilityZeta Lithium VACNTsDendrite-free Li metal anodeMinimal volume changeFast charging

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Energies Magazine / Summer 2023 / EnergiesMagazine.com13BOOK EXCERPTQuirkyBy Melissa A. SchillingWhy are some people so remarkably innovative? We are not talking about the one-hit-wonders who have one great idea or those people who seized a single opportunity offered by a moment in time. We are talking about the people who created one game-changing innovation after another; people who spent most of their lives generating and pursuing startling ideas, chal-lenging assumptions, and accomplishing the seemingly impos-sible. Is there something special about them that makes them so willing and able to change the world? Consider, for example, Elon Musk. Musk created and sold his rst videogame when he was 12 and was a millionaire by the time he turned 28. Over the next 10 years he devel-oped an electronic payment system that would be merged into a company we now know as PayPal, founded SpaceX, a company with no less of an objective than to colonize Mars, and helped to create Tesla Motors, the rst new car company to go public in the U.S. in over 50 years. In 2010, SpaceX successfully launched a spacecraft into orbit and then brought it safely back to Earth, a remarkable achievement that had only ever been accomplished by the national governments of three countries: the United States, Russia, and China. Furthermore, he had demonstrated the viability of reusable rockets – something the space industry had long said was impossible. Musk did not come from a family with strong connections to any of these industries nor did he come from exceptional wealth or political advantage. Musk did not grow up with any special access to computing, automo-tive or space technology prior to founding these companies, nor did he spend years accumulating unusually deep experience in these elds prior to his innovations. Thus, Musk had no special experience or resources that enabled him to accomplish these feats – his successes seem to have been attained through sheer force of will. What made Musk able and driven to create such a remarkable series of profoundly important innovations? Nikola Tesla (the man for whom Musk’s car company is named) was equally, or perhaps even more, prolic. During his lifetime, he created over 200 stunningly advanced breakthrough innova-tions, including the rst long distance wireless communication systems, alternating current electrical systems, and remote-control robots. His fervor in pursuit of innovation was hard for most people to understand, especially given the skepticism and lack of nancing he encountered throughout his life. Like Musk, Tesla had no family background or other advantage in the elds he would come to revolutionize. Though he studied physics in college, it is not clear that he ever completed a degree. Also, like Musk, he left his home country as a young man and arrived in the United States near penniless. Tesla was an unusual man, to put it mildly. He was riddled with phobias and odd habits, and he lacked the kind of social intelligence and charisma that could have made it easier to get nancial support for his projects. Yet, also like Musk, he would accomplish a series of technological achievements most had deemed impossible. Albert Einstein achieved equally remarkable accomplishments in physics: During a four month period, when he was all of 26 years old, he wrote four papers that completely altered the scientic world’s understanding of space, time, mass and energy. Each was a signicant breakthrough, including work on particle physics that would set the stage for quantum mechanics to overthrow classical physics. What is all the more remarkable is that he accomplished these feats while working as a patent examiner because every physics de-partment he applied to turned him down for an academic post. His disrespect for authority had earned him the ire of his college profes-sors, and they refused to support him in his quest for a university position. Even after writing the four remarkable papers, he faced considerable resistance: Having the impu-dence to challenge well-established theories, and being Jewish in a time of rampant anti-Semitism, combined to make him the subject of frequent attacks. These attacks made his life harder, but they did not induce him to show more reverence for the work of his peers. For Einstein, bowing to authority – including the authority of social norms – was a corruption of the human spirit. He had no intention of marching to anyone else’s drum. This position would make it harder for him to gain support and legitimacy for his ideas, yet it also freed him to think beyond the existing theories of his time. He would go on to win the Nobel Prize and become, arguably, the most famous scientist of all time. What makes these people so spectacularly innovative? Is it genetics, parenting, education or luck? Excerpted with permission from the author. The book Quirky: The re-markable story of the traits, foibles and genius of breakthrough innovators who changed the world, combines the science of creativity with case studies of eight serial breakthrough innovators – Marie Curie, Thomas Edison, Al-bert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin, Steve Jobs, Dean Kamen, Elon Musk and Nikola Tesla – to identify the traits and experiences that drove them to make spectacular breakthroughs, over and over again. It also shows how we can nurture breakthrough innovation in our own lives. (PublicAffairs; February 2018).

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Energies Magazine / Summer 2023 / EnergiesMagazine.com14HYDROGEN HUBThe University of Houston Responds to the DOE Call for a Clean Hydrogen Hub By Nick VaccaroAt the close of 2022, the United States Department of Energy (DOE) answered concept papers submitted in response to the call for a Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub program. Focused on prime areas across the country, the group’s goals include shoring up clean energy invest-ments, career opportunities, and a system that enhances energy security to avoid cyber threats. This serves as a signicant step in meeting President Bien’s net zero carbon goal by 2050.Hydrogen hubs offer a viable path to making a signicant impact on reduc-ing the carbon footprint. They make their impact in multiple ways. Hydrogen hubs strip carbon dioxide from natural gas through a chemical process. The carbon dioxide typically released into the atmosphere is known as a greenhouse gas (GHG) and is the direct opponent to a clean energy future. Once the carbon dioxide is removed from natural gas, the hydrogen hub continues its green energy-friendly process by storing that carbon di-oxide at least one mile or deeper beneath the ground’s surface. Carbon dioxide sequestered underground at hydrogen hubs resides in porous rock resembling the same state in which oil is found in the earth. It remains trapped in place due to the impervious layers above.Carbon dioxide storage serves as a signi-cant win in planetary preservation. Still, the results of removing the harmful gas from natural gas offer an additional driv-ing force for hydrogen hub construction. After the carbon dioxide is removed from natural gas, hydrogen remains. Produc-tion of other energy sources is plagued with harmful byproducts that almost crip-ple the process. With hydrogen produc-tion, water becomes the only byproduct at hand.Both stored carbon dioxide and the water byproduct offer economic oppor-tunities. Many groups and consortiums look to capitalize on DOE funding for these reasons, as well as efcient energy solutions. While the program gained traction, the DOE’s Ofce of Clean Energy Demonstration identied a Texas consortium leading the way in developing a clean energy hub on the Gulf Coast and suggested that the team submit an application answering a Fund-ing Opportunity Announcement rooted in the bipartisan Infrastructure Invest-ment and Jobs Act. The Texas hub fea-tures a variety of contributors, including the Southern States Energy Board and the National Technology Laboratory, with the University of Houston taking the point position. Additional members include INEOS, Linde, MPLX and 13 other well-known organizations.With a 53-year oil and gas career, Paul Doucette holds the position of UH Energy’s Hydrogen Program Ofcer. He plays a critical role in the consortium’s push to develop the new Gulf Coast hydrogen hub. Doucette focuses on uniting voices of UH who show interest in hydrogen use, support the hydrogen transition effort, and promote hydro-gen utilization. When the potential hub opportunity surfaced, Doucette found himself entrenched in the efforts.“The DOE started requesting concept papers at the end of last year,” says Doucette. “Thirty-three teams were asked to submit proposals on April 7, 2023.”As the leading partner of academia in the consortium, UH solicited eight univer-sities and ve community colleges to collaborate on the hub project. With the zero carbon goal driving the project, UH Energy’s Center for Carbon Management in Energy has also joined the group in establishing the Gulf Coast as the next signicant step in a hydrogen future. “UH is the Energy University, and it is committed to being part of the solution Elmer Ledesma working in the UH School of Engineering Lab.

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Energies Magazine / Summer 2023 / EnergiesMagazine.com15HYDROGEN HUBHydrogen vessel in the UH School of Engineering Lab. Photos courtesy of UH School of Engineering.by sharing our research and expertise in clean energy, carbon capture, hydrogen and more,” says Doucette. “To do this right, it was important to collaborate and bring together a broad base of perspec-tives and complementary knowledge in several key areas to make our proposal the best it can be. This is especially important in areas such as environmental justice and equity, community, labor, and stakeholder engagement, policy and regulation, and workforce and skills development.”According to Doucette, the DOE initi-ated the clean hydrogen call to action in September of 2022 as a $7 billion funding opportunity to develop multiple hydrogen hubs domestically. The program’s roll-out was designed to take place in stages, with the rst being a request for concept papers, with 79 being submitted, all of which were due November 7, 2022. Ap-proximately $60 billion accounted for the federal funding requested in the papers. The applicants’ proposed plans included in aggregate over $150 billion of private capital to partner with the funds awarded in the federal grant.“The grants will require a 50/50 cost share,” says Doucette.After reviewing the concept papers, the Ofce of Clean Energy Demonstrations contacted the applicants and communi-cated whether each should or should not move forward and submit a full applica-tion. Those decisions were wagered based on specic criteria. Each applicant’s capa-bilities, qualications and experience were considered. Potential contributions to an extensive hydrogen network, production development, end-use, possible facilities to connect with and enhance the use, and how each could benet the community were additional facets to evaluate during the decision-making process.According to Doucette, in the fall of this year, the DOE will announce and identify the projects selected to be awarded with funding. Approximately six applicants should receive grants and execute their hub projects. While the DOE does not dictate what a hub is, Doucette and UH think southeast Texas reigns as a premier location with vast opportunity. “A natural hydrogen ecosystem exists along the Gulf Coast spanning from Chevron in Pascagoula, Mississippi, to the Port of Corpus Christi,” Doucette points out. “Anchoring a hydrogen hub in this area would create an incredible opportu-nity to reduce emissions.”Both onshore and offshore opportuni-ties exist, and a vast amount of prime real estate remains available for develop-ment. Although other states like Louisiana are bidders for hydrogen hub locations, Doucette reasons the Port of Corpus Christi still makes sense as the optimum place for hydrogen development, so it would be only tting to input a hub alongside present activity. Because the state of Texas owns a large portion of the land at the port, the prospect of acting swiftly and in favor of the hub project at hand would be met with minimal op-position and red tape. With the support of clean energy in general, Texas and its topography could serve as a prime hydro-gen hub location. In addition to the ability to sequester car-bon dioxide both onshore and offshore, Corpus Christi has maintained long-lasting relationships with energy moguls possessing the ability to make hub opera-tions a reality. Another major factor in making the Port even more attractive for a hydrogen hub location is the infrastruc-ture available to ship the gas anywhere in the world.“There are other places that might be sufcient for hydrogen hub locations,” Doucette says, “but we feel southeast Texas offers the absolute best opportunity.”Nick Vaccaro is a free-lance writer and pho-tographer. In addition to providing technical writing services, he is an HSE consultant in the oil and gas industry with eight years of experience. Vaccaro also contributes to SHALE Oil and Gas Business Magazine, Louisiana Sportsman Magazine, and follows and photographs American Kennel Club eld and herding trials. He has a BA in pho-tojournalism from Loyola University and resides in the New Orleans area. Vaccaro can be reached at 985-966-0957 or navac-caro@outlook.com.

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Energies Magazine / Summer 2023 / EnergiesMagazine.com16VIRTUAL POWER PLANTSVPPs Can Help Improve the Resilience of the Texas Power Grid By Maureen S. Golan and Javad MohammadiTexas is growing accustomed to experi-encing system-wide power grid disrup-tions. The rst recent major event was winter storm Uri in February 2021, which left 4.5 million homes in the dark, cost $195 billion in property damage, and caused the deaths of over 50 people due to a combination of factors stem-ming from generation technology failure (natural gas, coal, nuclear, wind and solar), natural gas shortages, transmission and substation outages, frequency issues, planned generator outages, and a lack of reserve capacity.1 Despite this stark warning sign of a lack of power grid resilience, climate change, along with electri-cation, economic growth and other geopolitical driv-ers, has caused increasing uncertainty in business as usual for the Electric Reli-ability Council of Texas (ERCOT). Since restoring power after Uri, winter storm events and spring/summer heat waves have caused a continuous cycle of outages, requests for energy conservation, and volatile electricity markets. And now, heading into summer 2023, the Public Utility Commission (PUC) and ERCOT have issued warnings that supply may not meet demand under certain circum-stances.2 Clearly, business as usual is not working for Texas, but there are no-regret resilience strategies that can minimize the impacts of these disruptions. One especially promising strategy is a virtual power plant (VPP), or aggregated distributed energy resources (DERs) that are coordinated with the grid to serve the same function as a power plant. These DER portfolios can be actively controlled by utilities and may include rooftop solar, smart thermostats, smart water heaters, electric vehicles and batteries.3In contrast to a traditional power plant, these resources are decentralized, provid-ing power sources closer to the end user and can be controlled and coordinated in near real-time response to the grid’s current performance. VPPs are power-ful tools for ancillary services (such as providing reserve resources), emissions reductions, transmission and distribu-tion investment deferral, and resilience. In Texas, they would bypass three critical weaknesses of the ERCOT power grid as demonstrated by recent outages: The inability to construct new centralized (dispatchable and renewable) generation facilities, transmission congestion, and distribution network outages. Centralized generation facilities have traditionally served as baseload and peak-ing energy supply. In order to mitigate acute and chronic demand increases to the Texas grid, additional power genera-tion is necessary. Traditional generation facilities can take a decade to plan, permit and build, requiring land not just for the facility itself, but also for new substations and transmission lines to connect to the existing grid infrastructure. These costly facilities also need an energy source avail-able. For Texas, this would likely entail the delivery of natural gas which, due to recent climatic events, would need to undergo strict winterization. Grid scale renewable projects, such as wind, solar and batteries, also face similar siting and land management issues. All megawatts added to the grid are not created equally. VPPs do not face the same infrastructure siting and land management challenges since their components are dispersed throughout the existing network. This also means cost savings. According to a recent study by Brattle, compared to natural gas red plants and grid scale batteries, VPPs can provide the same resource adequacy at a signicant cost discount. This makes sense as DERs do not require large infra-structure investments or land use changes and are intended to maximize energy efciency, leading to a no-regrets resilient generation capacity expansion.Photos courtesy of ERCOT.

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Energies Magazine / Summer 2023 / EnergiesMagazine.com17VIRTUAL POWER PLANTSTransmission congestion is also at the heart of some of ER-COT’s recent system-wide disruptions. A lack of network “backbone” has led to calls for energy conservation and the severe electricity price swings during times of unanticipated dis-ruptions. Transmission congestion occurs when electricity demand is located far away from genera-tion sources and the transmission system does not have enough capacity to supply electricity to the end user. Traditional measures of alleviating this rely on building dirtier “peaker” plants in urban areas that avoid the transmis-sion bottlenecks, building new transmission lines or implement-ing other costly transmission line upgrades that do not provide long term solutions. VPPs are, by denition, located in areas of electricity demand and are generally able to bypass the transmission system. In so doing, they do not require extensive transmission planning, but are able to supply clean and reliable power during times when the grid would not otherwise be capable of transmitting enough electricity to meet demand. This no-regret resilience strategy for alleviating grid congestion also leads to a more efcient and less resource intensive system, while avoiding the need for conges-tion pricing.After the traditional steps of centralized generation and trans-mission, comes distribution. The distribution network is the more localized set of electric poles and lines that directly bring power to the end user. These lines are commonly built overhead in Texas and increasing storm severity from climate change, along with aging infrastructure and urban development, will likely bring increasing disruptions to this network, causing more localized power outages. A common response to this issue is undergrounding the lines. However, this comes at a high cost and may incur other issues as climate change is also impacting groundwater levels and salinity content. Networks of DERs can help alleviate distribution network outages by ensuring that more sources of energy (e.g., solar PV, microturbines), stored energy (e.g., batteries, thermal storage) or smart metering systems (e.g., demand response systems) are connected throughout the distribution network so that damage to any one line or pole is less likely to cause cascading power outages. In other words, with VPPs, there is more likely to be a way to isolate the disruption and reroute the electricity without compromising overall grid performance and other stakeholder objectives such as low carbon electricity. Implementing VPPs as a distribution network safety net is also a no-regret resilience strategy. It is no surprise then that given the decreasing resilience of the Texas power grid, ERCOT and state regulators approved a pilot VPP program in late 2022, making Texas one of the rst states to begin implementing the technology.3 Now ERCOT has a chance to ip the narrative and exemplify power grid resilience strategies while serving as a case study for the many grid operators in similar positions. In its 2023 Summer Reliability Assessment, the North Ameri-can Electric Reliability Corpo-ration (NERC) concluded that should summer temperatures spike, two-thirds of North America will have an inad-equate supply of electricity. As our old grid infrastructure begins to feel the stresses of changing electricity consump-tion patterns, climate change, and other cyber-physical threats, smarter means of opti-mizing power ow through the grid need to be leveraged. VPPs are one no-regret strategy that can make our grid more resilient. Maureen S. Golan is a PhD candidate in the Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, researching power grid resilience and effective quantication methods. She has a Master of Science in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and is a returned Peace Corps volunteer (Vanuatu). She can be reached at mgolan@utexas.edu.Javad Mohammadi is an assistant professor in the Depart-ment of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin. Prior to joining UT, he was a faculty member in the Electrical and Computer Engineering department at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). His research is focused on developing optimization and machine learning techniques to address energy systems’ resiliency and decarbonization problems. Dr. Mohammadi’s research efforts have been supported by the federal (Depart-ment of Energy), institutions (Sloan Foundation and CMU’s Block Center for Technology and Innovation), and industrial (Portugal’s national grid operator) sources. Dr. Mohammadi frequently disseminates the ndings of his works to the pub-lic through print media, radio broadcasts and live televised interviews. Dr. Mohammadi is a senior member of IEEE and a member of the academic council of Grit Venture. He can be reached at javadm@utexas.edu. 1 energy.utexas.edu/research/ercot-blackout-2021 2 www.fox4news.com/news/ercot-warns-about-tight-power-grid-condi-tions-this-summer

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Energies Magazine / Summer 2023 / EnergiesMagazine.com19FEATUREAura CuellarHyperlocal Solutions To A Global Problem BY Rebecca Ponton Aura Cuellar is a woman of action. She speaks quickly – in a number of languages – and likes to act swiftly. She granted this interview just two weeks after being named Executive Vice President of Growth and Strategic Projects for LanzaTech, the carbon recycling technology company whose goal is to accelerate the transition to a circular carbon economy. Like others, she has come from the legacy side of energy, capping off a 24-year career with Shell as its Vice President Energy Transition, overseeing an annual capital projects port-folio of $500 million. During her tenure there, she advanced across various global senior executive roles including Head of Projects and Turnarounds in The Neth-erlands. In the words of LanzaTech CEO Jennifer Holmgren, “We have found the right leader in Aura and the right [nancial] partner in Brookeld Renewables. To-gether, we can… start solving our carbon emissions problem today. This is what the world needs us to do.”Colombian-born Cuellar came to the United States to study, earning a Bachelor of Science in Environmental and Civil Engineering from Seattle University (’99), and then an MBA from Western Washing-ton University (’02). She later completed programs through INSEAD and Harvard Business School.Very early in her college career, Cuellar worked for an environmental consulting company during the school year and for Shell in the summers. Even then, she says, “I saw the opportunity to create impact at scale – and that has stayed with me [throughout] my career.” Despite having other opportunities, upon graduating, she joined Shell full time and went to work as an environmental engineer at its Puget Sound Renery in Washington State. She recognized the company “as a place where you could grow as an individual, as a leader, but at the same time have an impact that really mattered for the world.”Lasting ImpactNot surprisingly, Cuellar says she “very quickly progressed” to projects, opera-tions and commercial roles all over the world, with her assignments taking her across the globe to Europe, Africa, Asia, South America and numerous locations in the U.S., giving her the opportunity to strengthen and develop skill sets outside of engineering that would later make her such an attractive hire to LanzaTech. “[These skills] are applicable, quite frankly, to any place in the energy industry, starting with people and leadership skills.” Speci-cally, she is referring to the ability to bring people together and develop high perfor-mance teams that can achieve measurable results that will create impact.Having spent her career on the down-stream side, working in industrial plants much of the time, Cuellar had the op-portunity to personally witness the impact the company had on communities, such as job creation, and the products it produced and sold, which were intended to improve people’s lives. “For me, all of that has [a] very large meaning.”Citizen of the WorldWhen Cuellar lives somewhere outside of her home country, she takes pride in not just being a visitor, but truly embedding herself, learning the culture and the lan-guage, and fullling her need to connect with the local society. As a result, she says her biggest takeaway in the framework of the energy transition is, “The solutions that the world needs are hyperlocal,” taking Photos courtesy of LanzaTech.“I saw the opportunity to create impact at scale – and that has stayed with me [throughout] my career.”Continued on next page...

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Energies Magazine / Summer 2023 / EnergiesMagazine.com20FEATUREinto consideration the natural resources that are available, economic conditions, and external factors that impact the local community.Despite individual circum-stances, Cuellar points to the fact that technology that is deployable can be leveraged across the world. She urges companies and leaders to be mindful when talking about matters like policy, infrastructure or solutions for decarbonization, emphasizing the importance of asking how the global elements of development, such as technology, can be applied to a local set-ting in a way that makes it effective.Cuellar is clear that when she says “local,” that doesn’t mean thinking in a bubble, but refers instead to catering to local needs and being aware of where a specic location is in the journey, while also having a global connection. “I always love to say, I like to operate on the ground – [right] here, right now – and at the same time be extremely strategic and onboard that larger vision to the local level.”When asked about the pivotal moment when she experienced her own personal transition, leaving Shell after 24 years to take up her role with LanzaTech, Cuellar sums it up in one word: inspiration. “That captures it all,” she says. The prospect of simultaneously bringing new projects to life and accelerating the energy transition through protable decarbonization is exhilarating to Cuellar. Ad-ditionally, she is inspired by what CEO Jennifer Holmgren – a fel-low Colombian, she points out – has accomplished in the dozen or so years she has been at the helm of the company, which began as a New Zealand startup. (In 2014, LanzaTech moved its headquarters to the U.S.)Founded by biologists in 2005, the idea for the company was a reaction to the need to nd sustainable pathways to fuels. The founders of the company had been working for a biomass-to-fuels company that went bankrupt because, ultimately, the technology didn’t work. Brainstorming for a better feedstock that was available, low cost and point sourced, they realized there is a ubiquitous source – pollution. Capitalizing on their area of exper-tise, they looked deep into how biology could help unlock the potential carbon in pollution. If pollution or waste gases could be harnessed, they believed it could be transformative. Taking their redundancy money, LanzaTech was born.Scaling the TechnologyCuellar is quick to clarify that leaving Shell and moving to Lanza-Tech were not related events – “They’re separate decisions. But what really got my attention was what Jennifer said to me. ‘We want to show a new business model where we scale up technol-ogy – cleantech specically – in a protable way,’ so that’s what moved me the most. I [thought], ‘I want to be part of that,’ and I want to use all my of business skill sets to be able to grow rapidly and scale technology.”Freya Burton, LanzaTech’s chief sustainability ofcer, who is sit-ting in on the interview, reiterates that Cuellar’s background and expertise will enable the company to accelerate its growth. As she explains, in 2022, LanzaTech developed a partnership with Brook-“While we’re building an asset, [we’re doing it] in such a way that we’re connecting with the local community.”

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Energies Magazine / Summer 2023 / EnergiesMagazine.com21FEATUREeld Global Transition Fund (BGTF), the largest private fund in the world focused on the energy transition. “LanzaTech CEO Jennifer Holmgren worked with the BGTF team, and Brookeld will be LanzaTech’s preferred capital partner for project oppor-tunities in Europe and North America. Following initial investments total-ing $500 million, Brookeld could commit to making an additional $500 million available for investments in the strategic partnership if sufcient projects are available at the agreed milestones.”“This is a signicant fund that can be deployed based on our technology,” Burton says. “We see this as enabling what we call distributed growth. We need to accelerate deployment of capital and build plants and that is what Aura’s specialty is.”Cuellar says, “My job, at the core, is to help us grow at a scale and be able to build as many plants as we can to be able to capture carbon, recycle it, and take the pollution out of the earth.”Carbon – From Liability to Opportunity“Carbon is not the bad guy,” Burton emphasizes. “We all need carbon. We just need to think about where our carbons come from.” She poses the question as to whether that should be what the company calls “linear carbon” that is extracted and emitted or circular carbon that is recycled and reused, keeping virgin fossil carbon underground? “We offer people a choice. Our ethos is that there’s enough carbon already above the ground,” that can be utilized.A prime example of the industries the company is seeking to form part-nerships with is municipal solid waste, which typically is either discarded into landlls or incinerated, creating more pollution and releasing car-bon into the atmosphere, when instead it could be recycled and reused. “We’ve shown it’s possible,” Burton says, “and that’s really exciting be-Freya BurtonA benchtop bioreactor, a key step in scaling up new microbial strains, at LanzaTech’s headquarters in Skokie, IL.A pilot reactor at LanzaTech’s headquarters in Skokie, IL.

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Energies Magazine / Summer 2023 / EnergiesMagazine.com22FEATUREcause carbon no longer has to be a liability. It goes from liability to opportunity.”In what Burton calls, “This completely new industrial symbiosis,” LanzaTech is working with industries as diverse as cosmetics and beauty manufacturers to steel producers. Its partners include companies like L’Oreal and Unilever, and luxury brands like Gu-cci, which falls under the Coty umbrella of companies, as well as energy companies TotalEnergies and Indian Oil Corporation. As of 2021, LanzaTech had been granted over 1,000 patents.Equity as a Core ValueIn order to recycle the pollution already in the atmosphere, and make it into products that people use in their everyday lives, the company’s goal is to build assets in various parts of the world adjacent to existing facilities.The company already has plants operating in China and India, where there is a lot of interest from heavy industry. Burton says, “[These are] large countries that are making a lot of effort in try-ing to bend their carbon curve.”According to a 2021 Climate Change article, China and India rank rst and third, respectively, among the top 10 biggest carbon polluters in the world (with the U.S. second). In addition to gen-erating a high percentage of the world’s pollution, those heavily populated countries also manufacture large amounts of steel – an industry that is a natural market for LanzaTech and one of its big-gest success stories to date.The steel industry is undergoing its own transition away from using old processes, like coking coal as a reducing agent. Until different technologies are employed to manufacture steel, the industry can use LanzaTech on its carbon emissions. Even when other technologies, like hydrogen or electric arc furnaces, are in widespread use, those approaches will still emit carbon and the industry can continue to use LanzaTech, which evolves as the steel industry transitions to its own net zero future.“My contribution to LanzaTech is helping us grow exponentially,” Cuellar says. “That means building as many plants as we can that allow us to recycle the carbon and make it into those products that everybody can use every day. An important part that is worth mentioning is, while we’re building an asset, [we’re doing it] in such a way that we’re connecting with the local community, pro-viding jobs and making sure that equity is at the core of what we do – that matters to us.” The Process Integration Lab at LanzaTech’s headquarters in Skokie, IL.

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Energies Magazine / Summer 2023 / EnergiesMagazine.com23FEATURELanzaTech Timeline Highlights 2023• LanzaTech and Plastipak partner to produce world’s rst PET resin made from waste carbon.• ADNOC and LanzaTech enter a strategic partnership to explore biotechnology solutions for lower carbon fuels and chemicals.• Plans announced for Wales’ rst sustainable aviation fuel production in Port Talbot.• H&M Move partners with LanzaTech to launch capsule collection using captured carbon emissions.• Coty launches the world’s rst globally distributed fragrance made with 100 percent carbon emissions-derived alcohol from LanzaTech’s process.• LanzaTech demonstrates leadership in supporting a circular bioeconomy with RSB Certication.• LanzaTech Global, Inc., begins trading on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange (Nasdaq: LNZA).• AMCI Acquisition Corp. II and LanzaTech establish the rst public carbon capture and transformation company. 2020• Partnership with L’Oreal and TotalEnergies to make polyethylene for packaging.• LanzaJet is founded to accelerate the commercializa-tion of sustainable aviation fuel technology. 2019• ANA’s latest jet delivered from Boeing using a blend of drop-in jet fuel produced from steel mill emissions. 2017• Indian Oil Corp. Ltd. announces statement of intent with LanzaTech to construct the world’s rst renery gas-to-ethanol plant. • 1,500 gallons of jet fuel has been produced from “Lanzanol” ethanol. 2015• Team wins EPA Presidential Green Chemistry Award. 2014• New Zealand Super Fund invests in LanzaTech. HQ and lab facilities are moved from Auckland, NZ, to Skokie, Illinois, in the U.S.. Mitsu leads investment in LanzaTech’s $60M Series D round.2022 • Inauguration of ArcelorMittal Steelanol agship facility, the rst European facility to use LanzaTech’s process to capture and transform carbon emissions.• Third commercial plant comes online in China.• Waste to ethanol plant with Sekisui in Japan starts up.• Brookeld Renewable commits up to $500 million to build new commercial facilities with LanzaTech’s process, with potential for up to an additional $500 million commitment.• On presents the rst ever shoe made from carbon emissions in partnership with LanzaTech, Borealis and Technip Energies. 2021 • Second commercial plant comes online in China.• Unilever detergents made with CarbonSmart™ ethanol on sale in Germany, China and South Africa.• Coty partnership announces to use CarbonSmart™ ethanol in most fragrance production from 2023.• First ZARA collection launched using polyester fabric produced from CarbonSmart™ ethanol.2018 • First commercial scale utility facility begins operations in China converting steel mill emissions into ethanol.• Virgin Atlantic uses sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) made by LanzaTech on a commercial ight from Orlando, Florida, to London Gatwick, using a blend of drop-in jet fuel produced from steel mill emissions.2016 • LanzaTech is awarded $4 million from the DOE for low-carbon jet and diesel demonstration facility.• ArcelorMittal, LanzaTech and Primetals Technologies announce partnership to construct breakthrough €87m euro facility in Belgium.Source: LanzaTech. For a complete timeline, go to www.lanazatech.com.

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Energies Magazine / Summer 2023 / EnergiesMagazine.com26RARE EARTH ELEMENTSChina and Rare Earths: Current Challenges North America Faces with Decoupling Supply Chains By Luisa MorenoWith an estimated 44 million tons of rare earth reserves, China is by far the largest producer of rare earth elements (REE) in the world. In fact, China produced 61 percent of global rare earths in 2021, compared to the USA’s 15.5 percent, so there is a signicant gap to close in the market. Although countries like the U.S., Australia and Canada are looking for ways to onshore their processes, shifting dependence away from China is not easy.Thanks to government funding, lower environmental standards in the past, and the ability to keep working wages low, mines throughout China in the 1980s and ‘90s blossomed and REEs supply in-creased signicantly. During that period, western manufacturers looking for lower production costs were excited to move east. At the same time, they basically exported their processing and manu-facturing technologies from the west to the east, allowing China to seriously develop its own mineral resources and manufacturing capabilities. The develop-ment of the manufacturing infrastruc-ture, coupled with a signicant supply of critical minerals, has allowed China to hone its extraction process and become a dominating force globally in the REE supply chain. North America’s DependencyAlthough North America has its own REE deposits, its extraction and process-ing capabilities are currently nowhere near China’s. For example, companies with REE projects in the U.S. have not been able to complete the nal process of economically producing oxides and there is no economic or sizable produc-tion of rare earths metals, alloys and magnets. The only mine producer in the U.S., MP Materials, located in the Mo-jave Desert in southeastern California, exports its mineral concentrate material to China for processing. Demand is only expected to continue increasing, with an estimated 315,000 tons of REEs needed by 2030. The demand is high because REEs are used in a multiplicity of applications, including technologies like at-screen televisions, smartphones, electric vehicles and wind turbines, to name a few. In addition, REEs are critical to the military as they are found in ghter jets, night vision goggles, rearms, sonars, missiles and many other crucial technologies. Because of this heavy dependence on Chinese REEs, the U.S. and other countries are highly concerned that they are strategically vulnerable and could be cut off from REE supply at any time, if their trading relationship with China signicantly deteriorates. It’s becoming more and more clear that avoiding these chokepoints in the supply chain is a mat-ter of national security. Current Action PlansSo, what is North America doing to onshore production and move away from dependence on China? Certain opera-tions, such as MP Materials’ Mountain Pass mine, intend to restore a full supply chain in the U.S. This includes plans for establishing hydrometallurgy and separa-tion facilities, along with a manufacturing facility that is being built in Fort Worth, Texas, which is expected to be completed in 2025, and will convert rened materials into metals and alloys. The Mountain Pass mine should produce enough REEs to fulll all of the Pentagon’s requirements; however, the process of decoupling from Chinese supply chains is slow given the technological complexity and is a risky nancial investment for developing com-panies if there is no government support. Looking Forward Although it is a phenomenal effort for Photo courtesy of Defense Metals.

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Energies Magazine / Summer 2023 / EnergiesMagazine.com27RARE EARTH ELEMENTSEnergies Cartoonwestern countries to move away from reliance on China and create domestic REEs supply chains, economic and regulatory support from the govern-ment is critical, and there are efforts to make funding available for advanced REE projects and downstream capac-ity. However, if U.S. President Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau decide to put more investment upstream to support junior mining companies at all stages, we could see this signicant gap between domestic/regional sup-ply and demand being fullled by local producers instead of foreign sources. Unfortunately, with demand on the rise (electric vehicles alone will require 200,000 tons of rare earths over the next decade), there is a need to begin planning, investing and executing new mining and processing facilities sooner rather than later. Key Takeaways Despite efforts in places like North America, China will continue to domi-nate the REE market in the foreseeable future thanks to its signicant capacity and established infrastructure. However, this likely won’t be the case forever, as countries like the U.S., Australia and Canada look to expand their local operations, develop domestic supply chains, and reduce their political risk, as they work to decouple their supply chains from China moving forward. Dr. Luisa Moreno is the president of Defense Metals. She is a physics engineer, with a PhD in Materials Science and Mechanics from Imperial College London, in the United Kingdom. She is known as a leading analyst in rare earths and has published several reports and articles for the investment com-munity. Dr. Moreno has co-authored a book on mineral processing and project nancing, and authored a number of advanced industry and technical reports on several technology minerals. She can be contacted on LinkedIn or by email at Sherrycasp@gmail.com. Website: www.defensemetals.com.

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Energies Magazine / Summer 2023 / EnergiesMagazine.com28SOLARShining a Light on Utility-Scale Solar Recycling By Emilie Oxel O’LearyUtility-scale solar projects are pivotal in the global transition to renewable en-ergy, and these projects contribute to a predictable and stable renewable energy source. Predictions indicate that utility solar will continue to dominate solar installation projects in the coming years, pushing us closer to a renewable energy dominated world by the mid-2030s.However, with these large-scale proj-ects comes an equally large-scale waste problem. It’s not just broken panels, as many headlines may imply. It’s also the batteries, metal, plastic and cardboard that pose a challenge. It’s the seemingly innocuous wood crates from PV panel shipments that begin to pile high as we discuss megawatts worth of equipment needs. These crates, critical to safe ship-ping, accumulate in alarming quanti-ties on large project sites, demanding a responsible and efcient solution.From Solar to Solar WasteWith a decade-long journey through the solar sector, I’ve had a front-row seat to the thrilling boom of renewable energy and also the less glamor-ous reality of the waste we generate. I’ve stood on vast utility solar elds, and been at the helm of massive pile-driving projects, all the while witness-ing the mounting waste that our indus-try – despite its green intentions – inevitably produces. Today, the Interna-tional Renewable En-ergy Agency (IRENA) projects that up to 78 million metric tons of solar panels will reach the end of their life by 2050, with an annual increase of six million metric tons of new solar waste. This stark statistic has driven me to turn this challenge into an opportunity for the entire solar industry. The great thing is that people want to see this change, and those in the solar industry welcome better waste practices.As the CEO and owner of Green Clean Solar, it’s not just about cleaning up after projects; it’s about revolutionizing the way we think about solar waste management and transforming pain

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Energies Magazine / Summer 2023 / EnergiesMagazine.com29SOLARpoints of the industry into sustainable, circular economy-style solutions.My path into the solar industry started with my rst solar business, a leading mechanical installation company, where I learned the industry ropes. During my time on site, I would have clients comment on the waste; it made the beautiful newly installed arrays look bad. That’s when I began to ensure a cleanup process accompanied every in-stallation; it became a bit of a strategy for me. I would make sure the site was ready for commissioning by removing all the waste, and it became a standard to have a pristine site that looked better than my competitors. A clean solar site reads as competent, efcient and safe, and owners like to see this.The industry standard, however, has been to get huge roll-off bins and send all the waste to the landll – no separat-ing, no recycling. After a while, knowing we were installing these massive clean energy systems that produced all this waste didn’t sit right with me.So, in 2022, I launched Green Clean Solar, a company dedicated to recycling waste from large-scale solar sites. I was convinced that this is a crucial issue that needs tackling, and someone must lead it because it’s not just the broken or spent panels. We’ve adopted a com-prehensive approach, aiming to recover all materials from a site, including cardboard, wood pallets, scrap metal, plastic and whatever else is unique to a site that we can nd a market for. What Recycled Materials Get Made IntoWith many of the solar installation sites on vast elds in the middle of the country, often without a ton of local resources, we have to get very creative in how we address recycling. Each job needs a dedicated assessment to see what is being produced. Then we use our network of local recyclers, and this is where geography takes over in response to what various materials are made into: It really depends on the needs of the region. Cardboard BoxesCardboard plays a signicant role in the shipping and installation of solar panel systems, particularly in large-scale proj-ects. Often, cardboard boxes are used to transport solar panels to installation sites, with an estimated 133 boxes per MW of installed solar capacity. For in-stance, a 74.5 MW facility developed by Florida Power & Light reportedly used approximately 9,900 cardboard boxes for shipping their panels. After use, these boxes typically end up in rented dumpsters and, ultimately, landlls.However, cardboard is highly recycla-ble, with 75 percent of existing card-Continued on next page...SEPTEMBER 17 -2124wpc.com15,000Visitors5,000Delegates100+Countries200+Exhibitors24TH WORLD PETROLEUM CONGRESSVisitor Registrationis now openREGISTER NOWENERGY TRANSITION:THE PATH TO NET ZERO

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Energies Magazine / Summer 2023 / EnergiesMagazine.com30SOLARboard made from previously recycled cardboard. It is also energy-efcient to recycle, as it takes only 75 percent of the energy needed to make new card-board. Recycling cardboard produces 50 percent less sulfur dioxide, a harm-ful air pollutant, compared to making cardboard from raw materials. One ton of recycled cardboard can save about 380 to 475 gallons of oil and other fos-sil fuels and 5,000 kilowatts of energy. Given these factors, it is benecial for the environment and cost-effective for companies to recycle cardboard.We’ve had our cardboard boxes recycled into new boxes for a famous N.Y. deli. In Hawaii, where land is precious, and all efforts to divert from landlls are appreciated, cardboard was used at a lo-cal tree nursery as ground cover around trees. The cardboard biodegrades and the soil retains more moisture. Our partners share their stories with us, and the outcome of their usage varies from region to region.Wood PalletsIndeed, the pro-duction of wood pallets is a global operation, and a portion of them end up in landlls. Reselling undam-aged pallets, com-posting them into landscape mulch or recycling them into wood chips for vegetation growth are some of the strategies that can help reduce the wood waste footprint of solar projects. The percent-age of recycled wood pallets can increase with concerted efforts from the utility solar industry to reduce post-proj-ect pallet waste or by leveraging solutions like PVpal-let that offer reusable pallets for panel transport. MetalRecycled industrial scrap metal, particularly steel, undergoes a transformative process to be reused in a variety of applications. The recycling process reduces the material’s carbon footprint signicantly, making it a key player in the quest for sustainability. Recycled steel and aluminum can be used in the construction of racking, contributing to the renewable energy sec-tor. It can be used in the manufacturing of products like cars, appliances and packaging.

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Energies Magazine / Summer 2023 / EnergiesMagazine.com31SOLARThe symbiotic relationship between the steel or aluminum and solar industries is facilitating the transition towards a greener future, and the reshoring of steel production to the U.S. is further supporting this mission. The use of re-cycled steel helps to conserve natural re-sources, reduce emissions, and support the goal of net zero emissions in steel production by 2050. In one project, we cleaned up scrap steel, which became rebar, and went back into the construc-tion industry. Minimizing Waste from the SourceAs the solar energy industry contin-ues to expand, it’s crucial to consider the circularity of the manufacturing process, most of the supply chain, and packaging choices along the way that make it easier to recover materi-als downstream. An often overlooked aspect of this process is the packaging materials used for solar equipment. These materials, which can include ev-erything from plastic straps to wooden crates, often end up as waste. However, by starting with the producers and re-thinking their packaging approach, solar manufacturers can reduce this waste and make their operations more sustainable.One of the main challenges in this area is using mixed materials, which are often hard to recycle. Plastic straps with metal staples, for example, can’t eas-ily be separated for recycling, making them more likely to end up in the trash. However, manufacturers can make their packaging more recyclable by simpli-fying packaging materials, opting for reusable options where viable, choosing mono-materials to avoid cross-contam-ination, and reducing empty space. In addition, they can educate customers on proper recycling procedures and work with suppliers to nd more sustainable packaging solutions. Through these efforts, the solar industry can move toward a more circular model, reducing waste and improving overall sustainabil-ity in a measurable way.Emilie Oxel O’Leary is the CEO and owner of Green Clean Solar. She has a strong pas-sion and expertise in the solar industry focusing on waste management and landll diversion services while building a diverse workforce. Her previous com-pany (which she started and sold!) installed solar on many well-known companies across the nation such as Amazon, L’Oreal, Target, Perry Ellis and Blue Cross Blue Shield. O’Leary continues to develop and foster relationships with EPC, owners and solar manufacturers throughout the U.S. while making Green Clean Solar a leader in the industry. Phone (770) 229-7168. www.greenclean-solar.com

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Energies Magazine / Summer 2023 / EnergiesMagazine.com32SOLUTIONSReducing Energy Consumption with BPS’ Magnetic Filtration Technology By Nick VaccaroWhile many companies employ research and develop-ment teams to create new processes within the energy industry, Black Powder Solutions (BPS) developed a solution to rid process and other equipment of iron compounds and contaminants that plague the rening, gas plant, chemical and pipeline sectors. While these contaminants deplete machinery life cycles and lead to cost-ly repairs, they also have a negative impact on the environment by causing spills and uncon-trolled releases of harmful greenhouse gases. The beauty of the Black Powder technology lies in its ability to be fully integrated into multiple scenarios, validating its importance with current rene-ment processes and others as technol-ogy develops.According to Black Powder Solutions President, Roger Simonson, hydrocarbons and hydrocarbon derivatives contain black powder, an abrasive and reactive contami-nant found throughout the energy industry. Its initial form is identied as iron-based compounds, silica and other minerals that are the result of microbial and chemical corrosion along with erosion. When the contamination accumulates, it wreaks havoc on pipelines, pumps, turbines, compressors, and various types of equipment used in reneries and other renewable energy production sources.However, excellent news nds its way to the surface with the magnetic separation technology that Simonson and Black Pow-der Solutions developed. Simonson reasons that his magnetic separation technology not only improves system operations and increases production, but improves product quality and en-hances workplace safety while reducing harmful impacts on the planet. With an efciency rating of more than 99 percent for all ferrous particles and 95-plus percent for those of the non-fer-rous category, the BPS Magnetic Separator System is essential in removing harmful contaminants that plague process equipment. Depending on the application, the BPS technology increases maintenance intervals from six months to two-plus years.“Black powder causes unplanned shutdown for cleaning and repair,” says Simonson. “By deploying our magnetic ltration technology, these costly services can be avoided.”Protecting the Planet and ProtsAccording to Simonson, the benets can be felt throughout the rening arena and other energy production areas. Not only can magnetic separation protect expensive equipment and machin-ery, it also improves the product quality of rened prod-ucts. By installing magnetic separation equipment from the gathering lines through to the customer, corrosion plaguing pipeline walls can be trapped and removed from systems. By eliminating the corrosion, the potential for unwanted release reduces in proportion. While money saved converts to prof-its earned, the environment avoids the harmful impact of what would have been a release prior to corrosion removal.“Cleaning black powder from feedstock will reduce energy consumption and improve pro-duction,” says Simonson. “Our technology accomplishes this with minimal ow restriction and high efciency.”In a typical pipeline scenario, oil is sent to a renery tank farm. BPS identies black powder particles larger than 10-mi-cron black powder particles buildup in the tank bottoms and displaces storage capacity. A very large amount of these particles is under ve microns and are so small that they realize little effect from gravity and remain suspended and travel with the feedstock into the renery. Magnetic separation technology can be strategically placed in varying areas of the renery to clean black powder, such as magnetite precipitates, from the various hydrocarbon liquids during rening processes. By ensuring the highest standard of cleanliness for these liquids, energy profes-sionals are proactive in reducing the carbon footprint. Eliminat-ing failure points manufactured by black powder buildup directly contributes to carbon footprint reduction.When considering the complete blueprint of the renery foot-print, magnetic ltration provides maximum benet not just at the input and output of the renery, but inside as well. Black powder slows the rening process by hindering equipment operation. Simonson indicated that heat exchangers are a criti-This is the company’s patented technology that catches and rids uids of black powder contaminants that can destroy equipment and reduce the value of the product owing through the pipe.

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Energies Magazine / Summer 2023 / EnergiesMagazine.com33SOLUTIONScal application for the technology as they become plugged, reducing heat transfer efciency and nally become plugged off, resulting in repair or replacement. Extending Seals and Environmental LifeBPS partnered with Alliance Pipeline to help with a cyclopentane cogen heat exchange system. The goal included the reduction of pump seal changeout, increasing uptime, and reducing costly maintenance while protecting the envi-ronment. An updated report from April 2021 showed that the BPS technology continued to yield high efciency allowing the customer to benet from continuous annual OPEX and ESG reduction. Black powder buildup proved troublesome while prematurely wearing seals, pumps, meters, and other critical system compo-nents. This wear potentially could have caused losses of primary containment.The seals themselves yield a signicant cost of $20,000 each. While the results processed by BPS prove impressive, the time span mirrors the same. BPS part-nered with a customer in the Permian Basin, and by providing a better-quality product of condensate, a return on investment was achieved in only two days. The customer required assistance with a 200,000 mmcf/d gas plant delivering plant-recovered stabilized condensate to a receiving terminal/pipeline system at a 5,000 barrel per day rate, but the product received from a third party via pipeline was contaminated with black powder.BPS determined that sulde contamina-tion was 37 mg/kg and out of specica-tion. This equates to a representation greater than 50 lbs/day of black powder based on 5,000 barrels daily. The receiv-ing pipeline specication for suldes was less than eight mg/kg. During testing procedures, BPS evaluated that the range of suldes in the black powder samples averaged 100 mg/kg.Because the volume of black powder contamination was so large, BPS designed a system that utilized two magnetic lters in parallel. System internals included 14 magnetic elements and an 882-pound holding capacity. With an estimated clean-ing cycle of two weeks, a more extensive system offers extended cycles. With a two-week return on investment, even the current cleaning cycle provides signi-cant nancial savings to the customer. Increased prots were further realized by BPS’ ability to avoid environmental disaster. Remediation practices command large price tags, and the best solution is to avoid lasting harm to the planet. Magnetic ltration removes harmful particles and leads to improvement in managing the carbon footprint.Safety and Environmental WindfallsSimonson believes the BPS technology offers multiple benets throughout the energy sector when strategically installed in problem locations to reduce mainte-nance costs and increase protability, safe-ty, and environmental footprint. By reduc-ing the maintenance intervals, the touch points decrease in parallel. This enhances workplace safety and aids companies in maintaining incident-free operations. If a repair or maintenance issue is eliminated, the potential risk of incident and injury no longer exists.BPS magnetic ltration plays a prominent role in reducing the carbon footprint. Black powder contamination attacks crit-ical equipment, including meters, engines, compressors and valves. Simonson says each one serves as a source of methane leakage. By implementing BPS’ magnetic ltration system, black powder contami-nation sees a reduction and extended life of all potential equipment that could be damaged and allow harmful greenhouse gas to enter the atmosphere.As the focus on reduced maintenance costs grows, so does the importance of efciency and safety. BPS provides a solution that fullls each of these pillars. With its ability to capture harmful con-taminants at multiple locations, BPS can ensure the rening process, and others see an increase in productivity with a re-duction in maintenance and non-produc-tive time. BPS additionally sets a course for increased prots with a ne balance of safety enhancement at no expense to the environment. The BPS magnetic ltration technology offers a full-circle solution where all facets benet and not at the cost of another.“Our customers are seeing the benets of our magnetic separation technol-ogy throughout their businesses,” says Simonson. “They see it work in one area and recognize the opportunity in another area of their facilities. With a long ser-vice life of 25-plus years, the value our technology provides will continue to re-duce operational costs of the business.”Nick Vaccaro is a free-lance writer and pho-tographer. In addition to providing technical writing services, he is an HSE consultant in the oil and gas industry with eight years of ex-perience. Vaccaro also contributes to SHALE Oil and Gas Business Maga-zine, Louisiana Sportsman Magazine, and follows and photographs Ameri-can Kennel Club eld and herding trials. He has a BA in photojournalism from Loyola University and resides in the New Orleans area. Vaccaro can be reached at 985-966-0957 or navac-caro@outlook.com. 4Black Powder Contamination Black powder is an oil and gas industry term for the abrasive, reactive contamination present in all hydrocarbons and hydrocarbon derivatives. It is a mix of various forms of iron sulde and iron oxide, along with other compounds and substances including chlorides, sodium, calcium, mill scale, sand, glycol and varying types of ‘dirt’, such as silica and other particulate. It is also known as rouge, black, brown, red, yellow dust and various other names.Black powder originates in producing formations and precipitates out throughout the hydrocarbon value chain: during transportation, processing, storage, fractionation, rening, petrochemical production and loading and ooading.• Black powder initially forms as a sulfur-based corrosion product from microbial and chemical interactions.• It continues to build as iron sulde and iron oxide through hydrocarbon pipelines and facilities.Iron oxide rust contamination built up in piping resulting from black powder build up. Black powder removed from the suction of a kerosene product pump.BPS_Brochure_v12.indd 4BPS_Brochure_v12.indd 4 2023-03-01 11:27 PM2023-03-01 11:27 PM4Black Powder Contamination Black powder is an oil and gas industry term for the abrasive, reactive contamination present in all hydrocarbons and hydrocarbon derivatives. It is a mix of various forms of iron sulde and iron oxide, along with other compounds and substances including chlorides, sodium, calcium, mill scale, sand, glycol and varying types of ‘dirt’, such as silica and other particulate. It is also known as rouge, black, brown, red, yellow dust and various other names.Black powder originates in producing formations and precipitates out throughout the hydrocarbon value chain: during transportation, processing, storage, fractionation, rening, petrochemical production and loading and ooading.• Black powder initially forms as a sulfur-based corrosion product from microbial and chemical interactions.• It continues to build as iron sulde and iron oxide through hydrocarbon pipelines and facilities.Iron oxide rust contamination built up in piping resulting from black powder build up. Black powder removed from the suction of a kerosene product pump.BPS_Brochure_v12.indd 4BPS_Brochure_v12.indd 4 2023-03-01 11:27 PM2023-03-01 11:27 PMThe picture on the left shows black powder contaminants that collect on the magnetic lters used by BPS. The picture on the right shows what can become of piping if black powder contaminants are not removed. Piping is destroyed and results in iron oxide buildup.

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Energies Magazine / Summer 2023 / EnergiesMagazine.com34TRANSPORTATIONOff-Road Air Suspension Wheel Makes Big Contribution to the Clean Energy Movement By Nick VaccaroWhile many debate the importance of clean energy and planetary preserva-tion, others concentrate their efforts mainly on the oil and gas industry. The strategy becomes replacing fossil fuels with wind, solar and other means of clean burning replacement fuel sourc-es. Side-stepping that controversial debate, those seeking an extended life span for the earth can nd it in addi-tional contributions to conserve energy and reduce harmful emissions.According to GACW President and CEO Zoltan Kemeny, PhD, the com-pany’s Air Suspension Wheel (ASW) rolls into place as one of those far less controversial methods outtted with the same goals as clean energy seekers. This new wheel contains a rigid rim, and hub interconnected to nitrogen-lled shocks, which provide suspen-sion. The ASW offers the ability to be utilized in a driving or towing scenario, providing a 30 percent reduction in resistance against rolling. The result includes a potential 15 percent in fuel savings and another 15 percent reduc-tion in greenhouse gas emissions. The ASW shocks provide nega-tive rolling resistance to the rolling action. With elastic coupling and the ability to limit torque, vehicle life benets by extension and reduces main-tenance by over 20 percent. By reducing the energy exerted and the energy dispersed in main-tenance situations, energy waste is avoided, as well as the potential to emit harmful emissions.“GACW reinvented the wheel,” says Kemeny.Design and Construction Drive SuccessCommonly referred to as the actual reinvention of the wheel, the ASW has proven itself as a successful alterna-tive to off-the-road, or OTR, mining tires fabricated from pollut-ive rubber. They have consistently been proven to withstand overheating and deformity. Their additional ability to avoid uneven tread wear completely grandstands conventional tires and prevents the need for rotation and eventual replacement. Life expectancy far exceeds that of OTR tires by three to ve times. In addition to the tire’s nitrogen-lled cylinders, six oil-lled dampers provide suspension. The outer drum is outt-ted with steel treads bolted on, but polyurethane treads can also be tted to the drum. Fabricated from high-performance steel, the inner wheel and outer tire components are welded and bolted together to survive harsh use. Its heavy-duty construction ensures a long life span that dictates energy sav-ings through reduced repair situations. Additionally, the ASW design encom-passes a 100 to 200 percent safety factor that decreases potential incidents and injury in its own right.The ASW nitrogen cylinders feature a pressure rating of 2,500 PSI to support the bidirectional movement waged with the rim and drum. Main-Air Suspension Wheel by GACW. Photos courtesy of Global Air Cylinder Wheels, Inc.Dr. Zoltan Kemeny, PhD

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Energies Magazine / Summer 2023 / EnergiesMagazine.com35TRANSPORTATIONThe mining and construction industries have embraced the use of the ASW on large earth movers and trucks to maneuver and transport loads throughout the work site. tenance is further reduced because the cylinders are hermetically sealed to prevent the entrance of mud, water and other contaminants that create wear. The internal lubrication inside the cylinders, partnered with elasto-meric seals, promotes life extension and reduces servicing needs.The ASW’s design and construction combination promotes a wheel with an overall improved performance com-pared to the conventional wheel. The better traction reduces skid risk, and the ASW can be customized to meet the customer’s needs. While payload capacity nds limitations with regular tires, the ASW offers up to 40 percent greater payload capacities. A 25 percent overload safety factor has also been included in the design. Clean Energy FriendCustomization further ensures the ASW serves as a clean energy product. Because it is available in multiple scenarios, it increases versatility. The more it is used to replace the conventional tire, the less energy is spent producing environmen-tally unsafe tires and emitting unneces-sary harmful gas into the atmosphere.The conventional tire is brought to life through fossil fuel production. Tire manufacturers use fossil fuels to produce synthetic rubbers during the assembly process. When conventional tires outlive their use, they can release chemicals into the air, ground and water that destroy the ecosystem when discarded in landlls. As they break down in the sun, methane exits the tires and ascends into the atmosphere only to increase the carbon footprint. The ASW counters such harmful behavior. Because they are 100 per-cent recyclable, the environment is spared the release of toxic chemicals and gases. Decreased energy exertion gained through ASW use in 30 percent lower rolling resistance reduces CO2 and NOX emissions proportionality.Emissions see further reduction through ASW use because of lower costs associated with their use. On average, costs per hour/mile realize a 50 percent reduction. The eight percent reduction in fuel use supports a de-crease in emitting harmful gases to the environment.Continued on next page...

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Energies Magazine / Summer 2023 / EnergiesMagazine.com36Energies Magazine / Summer 2023 / EnergiesMagazine.com36TRANSPORTATIONImplementing Their ImpactAccording to Kemeny, the ASW dem-onstrates the most signicant impact in off-road use. The mining and con-struction industries have experienced the benet of its service. The forestry and military sectors have addition-ally used ASWs. The potential of this technology does not discriminate against the conventional vehicle found traversing our interstate highways.Kemeny indicated average fuel sav-ings calculations made in various areas were signicant through ASW use. Estimates show an average of eight percent fuel savings for ASW use with highway trucks. Mining trucks, along with construction and military vehi-cles, can see double-digit results at 12 percent. Racecars can see an average of three percent fuel savings, while vehicles and vans see the savings in-crease to an average of ve percent.The ASW displays characteristics promoting an eco-friendly product, but it appears to double down, with some of them promoting a healthy planet through multiple outlets. The fuel savings alone catalyzes reducing emissions. The less fuel burned real-izes a reduction in gases emitted. The decreased need for that fuel theoreti-cally drives down the demand for the fuel that, when created, emits harm-ful gases into the atmosphere. Their versatility allows their use, not only in heavy machinery, but also passenger or light vehicles, which widens the reach of fuel savings and reduction in emissions. With the ASW’s ability to deploy a tire solution that outper-forms the conventional tire on all fronts while positively impacting the environment at every level, a GACW mining customer said it best: “This will change everything.”Nick Vaccaro is a freelance writer and photographer. In addition to providing technical writing ser-vices, he is an HSE consultant in the oil and gas industry with eight years of experience. Vaccaro also contributes to SHALE Oil and Gas Business Magazine, Louisiana Sportsman Magazine, and follows and photographs American Ken-nel Club eld and herding trials. He has a BA in photojournalism from Loyola University and resides in the New Orleans area. Vaccaro can be reached at 985-966-0957 or navac-caro@outlook.com. The ASW allows large trucks used in the mining industry to carry sizable loads. The ability to customize the ASW’s size makes it valuable as it can be used in varying truck and equipment sizes.This diagram provides a breakdown of the ASW (Air Suspension Wheel) breakdown. Nitrogen lled cylinders connect the rim to the outer drum. The wheel can be manufactured with a steel or polyurethane tread system.

Energies Magazine Summer 2023

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