Hydrogen powers zero emissions and energy security
The HYDROSOL-PLANT project, supported by the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint undertaking (FCH JU), has developed a technology that could slow climate change and create a sustainable future.
Europe relies on harmful natural gas and fossil fuels from limited sources, generating greenhouse gases that accelerate climate change and its consequences.
The EU-funded HYDROSOL-PLANT, alongside FCH JU, has developed a technology that could produce cost-effective hydrogen on a large scale.
HYDROSOL-PLANT project co-ordinator Athanasios Konstandopoulos said: “We need to intensify our efforts and investments into the R&D of renewable energy now before it’s too late.
“Unfortunately, there is less of a financial and political incentive to develop alternative clean and renewable fuels because of the low price of natural gas and oil. The production of green hydrogen is the answer to these complex environmental, geopolitical and economic challenges.”
HYDROSOL technology produces hydrogen from water using solar thermochemical engineering, which involves two chemical processes in a HYDROSOL reactor. These processes are of oxidation and reduction. The former splits water vapour by trapping oxygen, creating an oxidised state, and releasing pure hydrogen gas into the effluent gas stream; the latter absorbs heat from the Sun to drive the oxygen from the metal oxide, producing a reduced metal oxide and oxygen in the same reactor where the oxidation process takes place.
Konstandopoulos added: “My vision for the future is a sustainable economy that uses a variety of clean energy sources, not only is a hydrogen future possible, it is likely to start in Europe.”
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