Aenert news. Energy resources and infrastructureToday, graphite has become the most discussed item among the so-called "critical" materials for future development purposes. This is not unexpected, as a number of experts have long been signaling the growing imbalance between production and demand for graphite. Nevertheless, after China imposed restrictions on exports of a number of the important graphite grades...
Aenert. Research Laboratory newsGeothermal energy is a type of renewable power which is found deep underneath the Earth. Other than wind and solar power, geothermal power does not require large surface facilities or produce harmful CO2 emissions. Traditional geothermal plants use water from reservoirs located deep underground to power turbines which then generate electricity. However, this...
Aenert news. Energy resources and infrastructureThe World Bank, in its the 2023 Gas Flaring Tracker Report, states that global gas flaring decreased by about 3% in 2022. Given that gas flaring has remained virtually unchanged over the past 10 years, this reduction is some progress. However, experts stress the need for greater efforts to end this wasteful and polluting practice. In addition, the report's troubling...
Aenert news. Energy resources and infrastructureThe new edition of the Europe Gas Tracker Report 2023 developed by Global Energy Monitor describes gas infrastructure in the European Union and surrounding nations, including gas pipelines, liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals, gas-fired power plants, and gas fields. 2022 war marked by record high prices on the global natural gas market. That, plus a massive...
Aenert news. Energy resources and infrastructureThe rapid growth in sales of various types of electric vehicles in 2021 and 2022 has caused a high demand for lithium from lithium-ion battery manufacturers. According to the USGS, batteries accounted for 65% of the global end-use markets for lithium in 2020. Now, according to some sources, this share may be as high as 80%. This seems quite obvious when taking into...
Aenert news. Energy Market & Energy StatisticsEurostat provided recent statistics on the share of energy from renewable sources overall and in three consumption sectors (electricity, heating and cooling, and transport) in the EU. These statistics are based on complete data for the year 2021, comparing them with figures dating back to 2004. In 2021, the share of gross final energy consumption...
Aenert news. Energy Market & Energy StatisticsAs every year, Baker Hughes has published 2022 rig counts for major regions and countries on its website in January. A change in the number of rigs may be indicative of the level of business activity in the oil and gas sector and form the basis for forecasting future oil and gas production. After a staggering 38% decline in the number of active rigs in 2020, the...
Gas to Liquid (GTL) technologies have several stages of long and relatively successful development, as well as a fairly developed infrastructure for their application. On the one hand, the now long history of operation of large GTL plants in Qatar, South Africa, Malaysia and Nigeria demonstrate the attractiveness of this technology, but on the other hand, high capital costs and troublesome dependence on the changing conditions of the...
Lithium is a mineral which occurs naturally and constitutes about 0.0007 percent of the Earth's crust. Lithium is contained in minerals and salts of natural brines which can be found underground or in seawater. Lithium can also form a byproduct of hydraulic fracturing. There it is mostly contained in fracturing fluids. Such brines and produced water also show high concentrations of rare earth elements and metals. Since the 1990s,...
The availability of a number of metals and minerals is becoming increasingly important for the development of renewable energy as they are used as components in various devices, as bases or alloying additives, as catalysts, etc. Among them, lithium, cobalt, palladium, rare earth metals, and gallium should be mentioned first. The reasons why these materials are of such great concern are limited raw material resources, complications in...
