Interview with the President of Romanian Association for Hydrogen Energy, Ioan Iordache

In July of this 2017 year we met with the President of Romanian Association for Hydrogen Energy, Ioan Iordache. He was presenting achievements of Romania in the field of hydrogen energy. It was in the frame of Czech hydrogen days, taking place along with the World Hydrogen Technology Conference WHTC2017 in Prague. Czech hydrogen activists were receiving their colleagues from many Eastern European countries: Slovenia, Romania, Poland, Bulgaria and Ukraine.
We used this opportunity to interview Dr. Iordache. 

Results from the session on hydrogen energy, held on the conference in chemistry Kyiv-Toulouse 2017

Recently in Kyiv there was a meeting on hydrogen energy. It took place June 6th in National University of Kyiv in the frame of the International conference in chemistry Kyiv-Toulouse 2017. The conference was created in 2001 and now it became an important event, uniting hundreds of participants from tens of countries.
This year for the first time a specific session was organized, which is dedicated to hydrogen energy. This field of clean energy technologies is developing very rapidly and requires constant attention from chemists to improve existing materials and processes and create new ones. That is why the chemical conference was the best place to meet researchers, especially because today Ukrainian hydrogen technology specialists do not have their own specialized conference.

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Ukrainian scientists presented their results in the format of seven oral and ten poster presentations in English, which were listened to and watched by dozens of visitors. The list of all presentations is published on the conference website.
Taking into account large number of interested researchers, it was decided to make a special issue of the French-Ukrainian Journal of Chemistry dedicated to hydrogen energy.
At the end of the presentations, all the attendees joined a round table discussion on the perspectives for the development of hydrogen technologies in Ukraine. The main obstacles to progress in this direction were named the lack of funding, recent reduction of state-targeted science programs and the insufficient level of self-organization and communication between players of the hydrogen sphere. It was proposed to join efforts to coordinate actions to renew targeted programs, as well as to distribute information on the usefulness of hydrogen technologies and the contribution of Ukrainian researchers to progress in this field.

Viacheslav Zgonnik

Presentations and round table about hydrogen energy to be held during International conference in chemistry Kyiv-Toulouse 2017

In June of this year in Kyiv will take place the ninth international conference in chemistry Kyiv-Toulouse. On the first day of the conference, 6 June 2017, it is planned to make a section devoted to hydrogen energy.

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Scientists are invited to make a presentation or a stand with the results of your research (in English). The subject of the report should be related with chemistry and such, which could interest students and young scientists.
Additionally, authors of presentations are invited to send their results in form of an article for publication in the French-Ukrainian Journal of Chemistry. This journal publishes articles in English, it has recently received DOI and it is indexed in many databases (the full list is on journal’s page).

After the presentations, a roundtable is planned to discuss the development of hydrogen energy in Ukraine.
All interested persons are invited to listen to presentations and participate in the round table. Presentations will be in English, round table in Ukrainian. Participation is free. Please register at this link.

Presentations start at 14:00, round table at 16:00 June 6th, 2017
Event Address: Faculty of Chemistry, 12, Lva Tolstogo str., Kyiv
Contact person: Viacheslav Zgonnik
+38(063) 211-9695, +33 650 47 95 92, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Report from the World Hydrogen Energy Conference WHEC 2016

In June 2016 Spain city Zaragoza hosted the World Hydrogen Energy Conference 2016. The event united 800 people from 60 countries. There were 400 presentations on 8 parallel sessions on the most recent developments in the hydrogen sector. Ukrainians were present on this conference as well.
Everything on the conference was confirming the fact that hydrogen technologies are ready and they started to spread all around the world. Below we present some examples to prove that.

WHEC2016 H2 cars

 

Interview with the president of the French Association of Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Pascal Mauberger

During the month of December, Paris was hosting the biggest international climate conference, COP21, dedicated to the problems of climate and energy transition. Coincidentally with this event, Paris inaugurated two first hydrogen refueling stations!
This interview with the president of French Association of Hydrogen and Fuel Cells (AFHYPAC) Pascal Mauberger was prepared by Viacheslav Zgonnik (UAHE) for the European Hydrogen Association.

First hydrogen refueling station in Paris - a big leap for the French's hydrogen sector. This isn't the first station in France?
Yes, there are already six other stations in France. First station was installed near Albi, South of France. There are also private stations that have been in operation for some time by Air Liquide. Then, there are those which were installed in Saint-Lô (La Manche) - the precursor territory for the hydrogen industry. One has been installed for several months and it is the first one from the deployment plan of hydrogen stations. In addition, there are two stations in Grenoble and Lyon, which were installed by McPhy. One of two Paris’ hydrogen stations was installed at the Technical center at Ivry-sur-Seine to fill delivery cars of the French post, and the second was installed by Air Liquide to fill Paris’ hydrogen taxies Hype.

McPhy H2 refueling station

 

Call for papers

You are working on hydrogen in Ukraine? Let everybody know about your project! 

Send us an article describing your ongoing research, your past results or your plans for the future, and we will publish it on our website. It will give you better visibility, which may lead to new contacts, new collaborations and for more financial possibilities.
There are a lot of interesting research projects take place in Ukraine (see, for example, this list , in Ukrainian). One of main problems of Ukrainian science is a lack of communication: citizens and investors are ignorant about the progress in research and development programs. However, it is very important to communicate about your achievements and future plans. It may allow you to be found by investors, who are looking for your expertize and technology.

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Let everybody know about your project! It will take only 30 minutes of your time to write a text, but it could bring you fame, new contacts and probably even investors.
Contact us here , we are waiting for your texts.

 

Natural hydrogen gas is seeping from within the Earth

A recent scientific study indicates that hydrogen gas is seeping from within the Earth in places where historically no one had expected it before.
Scientists have now identified thousands of sites in the European part of Russia where natural hydrogen gas may be found seeping out of shallow depressions. In research paper, published in Natural Resources Research , scientists have examined many of these subcircular, shallow surface depressions seeping hydrogen gas, ranging in size from a hundred meters to several kilometers in diameter. These have been identified throughout a region extending from the Moscow region to Kazakhstan.
Using portable gas detectors, researchers found the concentration of molecular hydrogen gas in the soil of these structures was very high, up to 1.25% at 1.2 m deep. The results obtained by the authors were confirmed by gas chromatography analysis of the samples.
 
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Photo: Satellite picture of one of the shallow depressions investigate for the presence of natural hydrogen gas. The structure is situated near the city of Borisoglebsk, Russia.
 
 

Why association with EU is good for hydrogen technologies in Ukraine

Political and economic crisis, started in October 2013 in Ukraine, and still ongoing in July 2014, has complex origins. One of the main reasons – is energy dependence from foreign sources, what gives a possibility for economic and political pressure. That is why the question of energy independence is extremely important for Ukraine.
 

Ukraine has a lot of possibilities for the diversification of its energy sector, such as shale gas, shelf gas, coal gasification and renewables. Notably, hydrogen technologies open a large window of potential for introduction of projects of domestic energy production. Hydrogen could be used as a fuel for cars, trucks and boats, or for back-up power for hospitals, cell phone stations and more. Hydrogen is considered as the most promising alternative fuel: it could be obtained from many different sources, is completely clean in use, giving only water as a by-product. Worth to note, that last year Hyundai launches serial production of hydrogen cars (so-called Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (FCEV)). These cars, corresponding to all safety standards, already run in Denmark, Great Britain, South Korea, USA and France.

 

Multiple demonstration projects, implemented in Europe during 2000s, allowed to prove the reliability of hydrogen technologies and to develop complete and comprehensive safety standards for hydrogen technologies. Our neighbors actively work on hydrogen technologies. Turkey opened its first hydrogen station in 2013. There are several other ongoing hydrogen projects in Hungary and Bulgaria. But before we can implement any hydrogen project, safety and industry standards for hydrogen technologies should be accepted in Ukraine. This will allow introduction of hydrogen systems, which are already largely used in EU and other countries. 

No! It was Not the Hydrogen

The era of hydrogen-filled airships came to an end on one tragic night in 1937, when the German passenger airship LZ 129Hindenburg caught fire and was destroyed during its attempt to dock, causing 35 fatalities. Now, half a century after the disaster, one undeserved legacy still remains. Any mention of the Hindenburg disaster immediately brings to mind the word hydrogen; and hydrogen, disaster, danger and death are all too often considered intimately related.

Although the Hindenburg disappeared in a ball of flame, it has been conclusively shown since then that the hydrogen gas giving the great ship its buoyancy was not the source of the fire. It has been proved that the real danger to the airship was the aluminum powder and nitrate doping used on the outer skin to reflect sunlight and reduce interior temperatures. Most of the passengers were burned by the diesel fuel used to power the engines and by the burning fabric cover that gave the airship its shape.

 

 A little research into the Hindenburg tragedy will reveal that even though it contained 200 000 m3 of hydrogen - it did not explode. 32 passengers who perished either died from burning diesel fuel or jumped to their deaths. Those 77 who lived, rode the Hindenburg to the ground as it burned. It took 37 seconds for complete destruction. If the hydrogen had actually exploded it would have happened all at once and no one would have lived through it. Although it is certain that hydrogen contributed to the burning rate, the lack of confinement prevented an explosion. The energy content of the 200 000 m3 of hydrogen was equivalent to over 68 000 L of gasoline and was stored above the passengers. One can only imagine the terror and death the spilling and igniting of this quantity of gasoline would have caused.

 

Hydrogen Gas analyzers

Laboratory "Development and making of sensors based on MIS-structures" from National Research Nuclear University MEPhI, Russia, developed and producing now Hydrogen Gas analyzers. Such devices are probably the best from all available on the market now. They operate in large range of hydrogen concentrations (from 1 ppm to 1%) and they are selective only to Н2 (has no sensitivity to Н2S, NO2, alcohols, hydrocarbons, СО2 and СО), which is extremely important for the reliability of obtained results.

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Picture of Hydrogen Gas analyzer.