Benefits of Micro-grids / Energy Storage for the Cement & Mineral Industries: Part II. The Green Hydrogen Option

The energy transition is accelerating under the general public pressure to fight climate change and thanks to the continuous reduction in price of the renewable energies, the advances in energy storage systems, and the various decarbonation technologies in the Cement Industry (transition from carbon to hydrogen, CO2 capture, clinker substitution in cement, 100% AF firing).The key word here is transition, meaning keeping but improving on the existing assets and infrastructures, as opposed to a revolution.With billions being invested in these issues certain convergences are surfacing. This presentation will provide some insight to some of these fast changes and how they affect or rather how the cement industry could take advantage of this irreversible movement.A Microgrid is defined as the combination of decentralized electricity production (from renewable energy, heat recovery or fossil fuels) with energy storage (thermal, chemical, mechanical) that can be either grid connected and / or operating as an islanded system. Hydrogen is increasingly seen as the key option for long duration energy storage but could also be used as a substitution to carbon-based fuels, especially "green" hydrogen produced by electrolysis as for each m3 of hydrogen produced ½ m3 of oxygen is also produced that could boost the combustion of low-grade alternative fuels and/or increase production without hitting bottle-necks.The presentation provides updates on the MiRIS industrial microgrid.Economically viable projects in advantageous areas such as a high cost south-western US state are happening at aggregate plants.Latest development in longer duration batteries (4 to 8 hours discharge time) and how hydrogen will provide the 10 to hundreds of hours energy storage needed to continue matching the increase in renewable electricity generation penetration and the potential benefits for cement plants.Specificities of the North American market will be outlined, with its low electricity cost but high demand charges, abundance of cheap natural gas, increase need of grid resiliency, absence of a CO2 federal policy, myriads of utilities and local policies … that energy storage/green hydrogen could alleviate.