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Glossary

The Kallanish Glossary aims to be a useful resource for complex industry specific terminology. We are constantly adding to our glossary, so if you have a suggestion or amendment please do get in touch.
BEV (battery electric vehicle)

BEV (battery electric vehicle), also known as pure electric vehicle or all-electric vehicle is a type of electric vehicle (EV) that exclusively uses chemical energy stored in rechargeable battery packs, with no secondary source of propulsion (e.g. hydrogen fuel cell, internal combustion engine, etc). BEVs use electric motors and motor controllers instead of internal combustion engines (ICEs) for propulsion. 

Billet

Billets are long, continuously cast semis. Similarly to blooms, they are cut-to-length after casting and are reheated for rolling. Billet is the starting point for rolling products like rebar, plain bar, merchant bar and light sections, narrow strip and wire rod. 

Bill of Lading

This is a document generated by a shipper that details a shipment of merchandise, giving title to the goods, and requiring the carrier to release the merchandise to a named party at the destination. 

Bipolar plate

A fuel cell stack component which allows electricity to be conducted between adjacent fuel cell membrane electrode assemblies in a stack. They are often designed to channel the flow of gases and heat to and from the cell

Blast Furnace

The blast furnace is crucial for steelworks using iron ore as their principal raw material. The furnaces are tall and shaft-like structures which extract iron from ore in a continuous thermal process that produces molten iron (pig iron) for conversion into steel in a basic oxygen furnace. Iron ore, coke and limestone are the main inputs and are charged to the top of the blast furnace. 

Blooms

Blooms are large and elongated cast pieces of steel that are cut-to-length immediately after casting. After reheating, blooms are used to roll medium and large sections, as well as large profiles such as sheet piling, and rails. 

Blow-down

To vent gas from a well or production system. Wells that have been shut in for a period often develop a gas cap caused by gas percolating through the fluid column in the wellbore. It is often desirable to remove or vent the free gas before starting well intervention work.

Blow Out

An uncontrolled flow of reservoir fluids into the wellbore, and sometimes catastrophically to the surface. A blowout may consist of salt water, oil, gas or a mixture of these. Blowouts occur in all types of exploration and production operations, not just during drilling operations.

Blow Out Preventer

A large valve at the top of a well that may be closed if the drilling crew loses control of formation fluids. These high pressure valves are designed to shut off the uncontrolled flow of hydrocarbons.

Blue hydrogen

Blue hydrogen is derived from natural gas through the process of steam methane reforming (SMR). SMR mixes natural gas with very hot steam, in the presence of a catalyst, where a chemical reaction creates hydrogen and carbon monoxide. Additional water is added to the mixture converting the carbon monoxide to carbon dioxide and creating more hydrogen. The carbon dioxide emissions produced are then captured and stored leaving nearly pure hydrogen.

Blue hydrogen follows the same same process as grey hydrogen, except for the additional step where the the carbon is captured and stored.

Body in White

Body in white refers to the stage in automotive design or automobile manufacturing in which a car body's sheet metal components have been welded together. This process occurs before painting and before moving parts have been added. Both hot and cold rolled steel coil, most or all of it galvanized, is used to fabricate the parts that make up the body in white.

BoP

The balance of plant in a fuel cell system is the auxiliary equipment requires to ensure the fuel cell operates as a reliable power source. This may include fuel reformers and pumps,for example

Borehole

A borehole is a narrow shaft, bored in the ground, either vertically or horizontally. A borehole may be constructed for many different purposes, including the extraction of water or other liquid (such as petroleum) or gases (such as natural gas). As well as pumping petroleum from an underground well through a borehole, liquid or gas can be pumped into it, for that process, or for underground storage of unwanted substances. 

Boron

Boron is a chemical element with the symbol B and atomic number 5. Produced entirely by cosmic ray spallation and supernovae and not by stellar nucleosynthesis, it is a low-abundance element in the Solar System and in the Earth's crust. It constitutes about 0.001 percent by weight of Earth's crust. Boron can be added to Li-ion battery electrodes, and when combined with other stabilization strategies such as protective coatings, could boost the energy density and stability needed to push the driving range per charge of EVs beyond the 300-mile mark.

Brown hydrogen

Brown Hydrogen comes from brown coal, also known as Lignite. This ‘younger’ coal contains a considerably higher percentage of oxygen and hydrogen than the more familiar and older, black variety. The ‘gassification’ of brown coal creates a synthesis gas which is a mix of mainly carbon monoxide with hydrogen, steam and carbon dioxide. This syngas is then cleaned in conventional ways to recover the hydrogen but that then leaves a considerable volume of greenhouse gases to deal with. Using black coal or lignite (brown coal) in the hydrogen-making process, these black and brown hydrogen are the absolute opposite of green hydrogen in the hydrogen spectrum and the most environmentally damaging. 

 

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