Please see below for a snippet of what our speakers will be discussing.
An introduction to Measurement for Our Planet
By Charlotte Massey
Understanding the impact of human activity on our climate is a complex problem and minimising further increases to the Earth’s temperature is no easy task. The UK has set a legally binding target of achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 (2045 in Scotland). Governments and policy makers will depend on science and data to enable evidence-based decision making as they set new climate policy.
Similarly, the transformation of industry that is needed to achieve net zero will require measurement, to inform and facilitate the transition. As the UK’s National Metrology Institute, NPL has a key role to play. The Measurement for our planet programme shines a spotlight on our work in delivering solutions for climate science, emissions measurements and showcases how we are supporting the innovation that will drive the decarbonisation of power, heat, manufacturing, agriculture and transport.
Measurements to enable the stability of net-zero electricity grids
By Deborah Ritzmann
The integration of very high levels of renewable generation into electricity networks in line with net-zero targets is introducing new grid stability challenges, in particular due to lower grid inertia. This case study will look at NPL’s work on grid measurements to enable network operators to increase hosting capacity for renewables while maintaining security of supply.
Case Study: Reducing the cost of water electrolysers for green hydrogen production
By Gareth Hinds
Electrochemistry Group, NPL
Reduction in the cost of polymer electrolyte membrane water electrolyser (PEMWE) technology is urgently required for the realisation of commercially viable green hydrogen production. However, at present up to three quarters of the manufacturing cost of a PEMWE stack is associated with the current collector components, with platinum-coated titanium a common material of choice.
Recent work at NPL has demonstrated for the first time that the corrosion potential of the anode current collector is completely decoupled from the potential of the anode electrode due to the low ionic conductivity of the deionised water phase, meaning that local conditions are nowhere near as corrosive as conventionally assumed in the industry.
This new observation opens up the possibility of using cheaper materials such as carbon and carbon-coated stainless steel for PEMWE current collector components, which could lead to a dramatic decrease in the cost of the technology. This presentation will give a brief overview of these ground-breaking measurements and the ongoing experimental and modelling work to validate the new design concept under commercially relevant conditions.