TSC SB RAS and IHCE SB RAS joined the Technological Hydrogen Valley consortium.

On April 15, TPU initiated the first meeting of the Industrial Partners Council of the newly formed “Hydrogen Technology Valley” consortium. The Coordinating Council includes 16 Russian educational and scientific organizations from different regions of Russia, and Tomsk is represented by three of them: Tomsk Polytechnic University, Tomsk Scientific Center of SB RAS and Institute of High Current Electronics of SB RAS.

The meeting was opened with a speech by TPU Acting Rector Andrey Yakovlev:

- The consortium will become a platform for exchanging ideas and developing "pilot" projects that will combine the competences of different organizations. It will work according to the principle of complementarity, there will be no “key players”. One of the tasks of the consortium is to identify and remove barriers to the development of the hydrogen industry in Russia.

The meeting continued with the speeches by the industrial partners of the Technological Hydrogen Valley consortium: Gazprom Neft PJSC, TGE Gas Engineering, PAO Severstal, Pipe Metallurgical Co., two largest automobile concerns - Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Rus LLC and KAMAZ PTC. All in all, about twenty large industrial companies are already involved in interaction with the consortium. The dialogue between business companies and scientific and educational organizations will form the range of relevant tasks and projects that will be implemented with the participation of the consortium. Among them are: decarbonization of large production facilities, production, storage and transportation of hydrogen using the existing infrastructure, development of environmentally friendly transport of the future - personal cars, public cars and rail transport, as well as heavy-duty vehicles for various purposes.

Next, the research results by scientific and educational organizations, members of the consortium, were presented. Alexey Markov, TSC Acting President, reported on cutting-edge research on optimizing a hydrogen-fueled internal combustion engine. The algorithm developed for multi-pulse direct injection of hydrogen in a compact internal combustion engine for extended-range electric vehicles will significantly reduce harmful emissions. The second promising project of the TSC SB RAS is an infrared heating station using various gases, including hydrogen, which can be used both indoors and outdoors. As A.B. Markov noted, “Tomsk Scientific Center of SB RAS has considerable experience in obtaining high-temperature gas-permeable materials, which can be in wide demand in future consortium projects”.

Aleksandr Batrakov, Deputy Director for Science (IHCE SB RAS), reported on the interest in cooperation with other organizations to produce solid-oxide fuel cells. The Institute of High Current Electronics of SB RAS developed an advanced method for the formation of electrolytes using an electron beam. A.V. Batrakov noted successful cooperation with the TSC of SB RAS and TPU. Jointly with the Tomsk Scientific Center of SB RAS, we are working on creating gas-permeable electrodes. In cooperation with Tomsk Polytechnic University we are investigating the possibility of burning heavy hydrocarbons using plasma sources.

In the future, the consortium participants will have a rich program and first steps in the implementation of joint projects. The consortium meeting can be summarized in the words of Academician Valery Bukhtiyarov, Director of the Boreskov Institute of Catalysis of SB RAS:

- Many academic institutes, universities, and companies have developments in different areas of hydrogen energy. Our main goal is to bring them together on the consortium platform, create full-cycle projects, and obtain a high-margin product.