2019-10-28 17:32:00

Efficiency – the ultimate challenge!

Ever further away from coal, ever closer to hydrogen.

Welcome to the Green Gas era

The energy system of the future is clearly defined: it must be powered by safe and clean sources that will trace a path of determined advancement towards the achievement of de-carbonisation.

The experimentation of "green gases", mixtures of hydrogen-methane for example, represents an indispensable step to reach this goal.

Hydrogen produced from low-impact sources, such as photovoltaic energy, wind or biomass, can fuel combustion that eliminates or significantly reduces end-user carbon dioxide emissions.

A real opportunity...

The hydrogen economy is a real opportunity for change supported by scientific research, investments in the private sector and facilitated by local and European institutional incentives. By making the necessary changes to the means of transportation of these mixtures, the current gas distribution system has great potential as a storage and energy transport infrastructure, such as the extensive storage capacity and capillarity of the network..

...an opportunity to be seized!

To fulfil this vision, we must deal with technical criticalities and safety aspects that must be tackled with strong interdisciplinary skills, especially when the focus is on functionality at the installation site, the operation of the gas condensing boiler itself.

For these reasons, Ferroli and the Technical University of Eindhoven (TU/e) have started a joint project with the aims of developing a boiler that works with mixtures of methane and hydrogen. Ferroli is a specialist in condensing boilers, whereas TU/e is the world leader in combustion simulation.

The future is in the pipeline.

The project will address the design of a device capable of working with mixtures of methane and hydrogen, based on theoretical analyses, experimental tests and computer simulations. Key components will be defined, performance and pollutant emissions will be characterised, and the operating range of the appliance will be determined.

Despite the various critical aspects that need to be overcome before we shall actually see the large-scale deployment of hydrogen, the potential benefits far outweigh the challenges ahead.

Such challenges can no longer be postponed given the need and market demand for systems that aim for high efficiency and the lowest possible environmental impact.

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