The MAIN JOURNAL for POWER GRID SPECIALISTS in RUSSIA
3 - 6 J U N E 2 0 1 9
MADRID, SPAIN
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CY PROPOSALS
"Fuel of Freedom" Originated in Russia
– Alexander Yegorovich, your
enterprise has been engaged in
non-civil hydrogen technologies
for several decades. Is it pos-
sible, without violating privacy, to
tell us how far these technologies
have advanced today? Do we have
a competitive (even not the cost,
but the effi
ciency) storage devic-
es or sources of hydrogen-based
electricity? Where and how are
they applied?
– Hydrogen technologies are
the core of the historical path of the
Special Design Engineering Bureau
in Electrochemistry with experimen-
tal factory (SKTBE), which started in
1941. Thus, our enterprise has been
developing in this direction for more
than 75 years, having accumulated
valuable and somewhat unique
practical experience. Today, SKTBE
occupies a vanguard position in the
development of hydrogen technolo-
gies in Russia. This is the only com-
pany in the country that has been
dealing with this topic so seriously
and for such a long period of time. At
the same time, SKTBE not only car-
ries out large-scale research work
on hydrogen technologies, but also
is engaged in practical implementa-
tion of the results.
At this stage, SKTBE directed its
eff orts to one of the most dynamically
developing segments of the world
energy market, where a number of
American, Japanese and Chinese
companies have already taken lead-
ing positions in the production of
energy storage. In Russia, this mar-
ket segment is extremely poorly de-
veloped. But the future is still in this
direction. A serious constraint to the
development of their production is
a high cost of the process.
SKTBE is ready to enter this mar-
ket, and not just enter, but to take
serious positions. We have abundant
reasons for this: we know the secrets
of energy storage devices.
– For ordinary consumers, hy-
drogen energy is a distant future,
but for now, engineering compa-
nies are solving issues related to
the high cost of equipment and ma-
terials, the complexity and danger
of storing hydrogen. What do you
think about the prospects of hydro-
gen energy? Is it possible now to
implement small, but reliable and
safe energy systems that are fully
powered by hydrogen fuel?
– The prospects for hydrogen en-
ergy are great and obvious. That is
why humanity has been stubbornly
trying for 100 years to master hy-
drogen energy. Russia did not stand
aside from this global process. So, in
the USSR, a consignment of Kvant-
RAF minibuses powered by hydro-
gen engines that traveled around
Moscow during the 1980 Summer
Olympics was created. In 1988,
a unique domestic Tu-155 aircraft
with the NK-88 hydrogen engine
fi rst fl ew into the air, setting 14 world
records during testing. By the way,
SKTBE was directly involved in the
development of their power plant.
Today, a new stage in the de-
velopment of hydrogen energy has
begun. At the present stage, the
creation of a purely hydrogen power
system is inappropriate because of
its high cost. The only solution is to
integrate hydrogen energy storage
devices into traditional energy sys-
tems, which will ensure their unin-
terrupted operation. Simply put, the
development of hydrogen energy to-
day should begin through hydrogen
energy storage. Their prospects lie in
the ability of hydrogen to give energy
for a long time.
The use of hybrid energy storage
has more than great prospects in the
fi eld of alternative energy. It’s known
Interview with
Alexander Y. YATSUK,
General Director of
Special Design Engineering
Bureau in Electrochemistry
with experimental factory
(SKTBE)
...the transition to new alternative energy sources is a dire necessity. Scientists may be
mistaken for 50 or even 100 years, but fossil fuels will be exhausted someday. Loss of
energy sources is the same "end of the world", as any other global catastrophes and
troubles. That country, the scientists and specialists of which will be the fi rst ones to fi nd
the optimal solution to the problem of switching to inexhaustible energy sources, will gain
a dominant position in the world. This is especially important for Russia...
From the book of V. Andreev and others "Attention – Gases. Cryogenic fuel for aviation",
published in 2001 at the Moscow Worker Publishing House
2
1
that solar and wind power plants are
highly susceptible to natural cycles
(poor weather, strong smoke due to
fi res, etc.), which make their opera-
tion irregular. Lithium-ion batteries
are most eff ectively used in the daily
cycle, while the hybrid battery, due
to the hydrogen part, is able to cover
a longer absence of electricity (for
a month or more). In addition, the hy-
brid storage is much better solution
to the problem of long-term energy
storage, because in this regard, hy-
drogen has no alternative.
In fact, a hybrid storage is a hy-
drogen fuel energy storage system,
and in this matter SKTBE can safely
compete at the global level.
Speaking about further global
prospects for hydrogen energy, it is
worth paying attention to the follow-
ing fact: 1 kg of hydrogen releases
35 kW of electricity, while 1 kg of
gasoline releases three times less.
Therefore, we can confi dently say
that it has a great future, but the
price of this future is extremely high
today. In this regard, humanity is ac-
tively looking for the ways to reduce
the cost of hydrogen production.
SKTBE has found this way through
the creation of modern hydrogen
generators. By the way, in the de-
velopment of this direction, our com-
pany has reached one of the leading
places not only in our country, but
also in the world. We hope that our
development will make a signifi cant
contribution to the strategic process
of reducing the cost of hydrogen en-
ergy, which will become a prerequi-
site for the global energy revolution.
Its consequence will be a new hy-
drogen economy. Following this, the
hydrogen revolution will entail enor-
mous shocks and the restructuring
of the world order. It is not for noth-
ing that the American press called
hydrogen "the fuel of freedom".
– Please tell us in more details
about the pilot drive of a hybrid
type with a capacity of 1 MW.
What technologies were used to
create it? What is the peculiarity
of the drive, how did it prove to be
in operation?
– The development of a pilot high-
capacity battery based on hydrogen
and Tesla technologies (HCB-HTT)
started within the walls of SKTBE
several years ago. Observing the
problems and key trends in the de-
velopment of the energy sector, we
have relied on energy storage, mak-
ing it a focus on the civilian vector
of development for our enterprise.
Conversion is an extremely diffi cult
and risky path for any enterprise,
but it motivated us to think about the
diffi culties of developing the civilian
market and the future life of the en-
terprise.
SKTBE challengingly embarked
on this diffi cult path. As a result, we
developed many technical innova-
tions: new electrodes and catalysts,
a spraying system, hydrogen and
oxygen generators, a hydrogen stor-
age system in explosion-proof fi llers,
compressors and other machine
units based on completely new op-
erating principles, etc. But hydro-
gen technologies are not enough to
create a high-capacity battery. We
began to develop other promising
technologies – power electronics,
automatic control systems, compos-
ite materials and, of course, Tesla
technology.
We would like to pay special at-
tention to it. Today it is an advanced
direction in the development of en-
ergy. The most interesting thing is
that SKTBE has signifi cant achieve-
ments in this area. Regardless of
Tesla, Inc., we were moving in the
same direction in parallel with it,
although we are pursuing diff erent
tasks. By learning from our own ex-
perience the key secrets of Tesla
technology, we managed to create
our own laboratory samples of lith-
ium-ion batteries, as well as to de-
velop our own innovative technolo-
gies – parallel-series connection of
batteries controlled by a balancing
device (balancer), a modular design
based on one standard size of lith-
ium-ion batteries, etc. SKTBE em-
ployees gave them the name – Tesla
Technology. Participating in various
exhibitions and conferences, we
notice that before us this term has
not been used or introduced into lan-
guage of science.
Ultimately,
having
managed
to organically combine all of the
above-mentioned technologies into
a single whole, SKTBE was able to
create the HCB-HTT energy stor-
age device, which allows combining
the advantages of both hydrogen
and battery storage devices. Due to
this, HCB-HTT, on the one hand, is
cheaper relative to traditional energy
storage devices, and on the other
hand, it has a wide range of useful
properties and functions that give it
undeniable competitive advantages.
– At what stage is this devel-
opment? You have mentioned
that a charging station for electric
vehicles has already been imple-
mented on the basis of the stor-
age device and a mobile platform.
What is this platform, what is its
purpose?
– On June 26, 2019, we presented
the HCB-HTT energy storage project
at the 7th Russian International
Energy Forum (RIEF-2019) in St.
Petersburg. In July, SKTBE began
assembling and testing the storage
device, and in October it is planned
to fi nish it.
At the output, we get a universal
mobile energy platform that can ac-
cumulate signifi cantly greater energy
intensity due to the combination of
hydrogen and battery storage devic-
es. Its functionality will be very wide:
energy shift in time, reduction of peak
loads, reactive power compensation,
voltage regulation, primary / second-
ary frequency regulation, etc. At the
time of creating HCB-HTT, we have
already developed new Russian
technologies that perform related
functions – a universal gas station for
hydrogen consumers and a charging
station for mobile energy consumers,
for example, electric buses. In addi-
tion, HCB-HTT can operate indepen-
dently of hydrogen batteries only on
lithium batteries and vice versa. In
perspective, the
HCB-HTT energy storage device
can become the basis for the mass
introduction of a new generation of
hybrid storage devices both for re-
newable energy sources and smart
power supply networks (Smart Grid),
and for power supply to stationary
power consumers.
Р
Interviewed by Alexander PAVLOV
12, Selskokhozyaystvennaya St.,
Moscow
Tel.: +7 495 656 7998,
+7 495 662 7116
www.intelhim.ru
24th World Energy Congress
Special issue, September 2019
Оригинал статьи: «Fuel of Freedom» Originated in Russia
…the transition to new alternative energy sources is a dire necessity. Scientists may be mistaken for 50 or even 100 years, but fossil fuels will be exhausted someday. Loss of energy sources is the same «end of the world», as any other global catastrophes and troubles. That country, the scientists and specialists of which will be the first ones to find the optimal solution to the problem of switching to inexhaustible energy sources, will gain a dominant position in the world. This is especially important for Russia…
From the book of V. Andreev and others «Attention – Gases. Cryogenic fuel for aviation», published in 2001 at the Moscow Worker Publishing House