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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

The Supreme Council of Ukraine approved a law freeing imported vehicles equipped with electric motors from taxes.
Since hydrogen cars are also equipped with electric motors, this law also covers them!

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

 

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.

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.

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.

Picture of Hydrogen Gas analyzer.