Hydrogen like domestic alternative source to gas. On the green one in particular, which Europe has included in the RePower EU programme, experiments capable of changing our future are being born, but also products ready for sale.
The first 100% hydrogen water heater
The Japanese Rinnai has launched the first 100% hydrogen water heater, intended to replace old gas or electricity appliances. An absolute preview that is somehow linked to the European goal of having 2030 million tons of renewable hydrogen available by 15. The use of new clean source it will have to establish itself both in industry and in homes. This is why we are working hard on several fronts to have non-polluting appliances available e hybrid gas and hydrogen infrastructures. In Europe, laboratories and research centers are also committed to gaining access to EU funding planned for various purposes. The timing of the ecological transition will be decisive.
The experimentation of hydrogen for residential buildings
One experiment which, in the meantime, is touring Europe is the all-Italian one ofhydrogen for civilian homes.
The University of Sannio and the Stress Scarl studio have inaugurated in Benevento the first nearly zero-energy residential building. A project in which everything has been designed to have a very low environmental impact to be repeated in the new buildings.
The energy that is consumed is obtained from a solar or geothermal source. It is flanked by a hydrogen micro-generator. In this way the building runs on a solid oxide fuel cell system fueled with pure hydrogen. With the machines running, the designers explained, you will have a combined energy supply to the building electricity and heat what is needed.
Operation it does not produce harmful emissions, nor is there consumption of non-renewable energy. Due to its characteristics, the building has already had two environmental technical certificates: n-ZEB, nearly Zero Energy Building e H-ZEB, Hydrogen Zero Emission Building. Scarl Stress, a development company for eco-sustainable building, and the University of Sannio have been working on these systems for some time which, as we have seen, also stimulate giants such as Rinnai to market zero-emission appliances. To get an idea of the savings, consider that 1 kg of pure hydrogen has the same energy as 2,4 kg of methane or 2,8 kg of petrol. A feature that allows you to heat more using less fuel, explains Rinnai.
In Benevento the first experiment for housing a hydrogen
“The transformation of nZEB, thanks to the application of advanced technologies that use hydrogen, makes the almost zero energy house prototype, built in Benevento” explained the Rector of the University of Sannio, Gerard Canfora. Academic satisfaction becomes self-satisfaction when the Rector himself remembers that the building is one of the first tests in southern Italy, around which a new generation of young researchers is forming in the fight against climate change.
“With the nZEB of Benevento we fully enter the revolution indicated by Europe with the EU Repower directive as a response to climate change, air pollution and freedom from energy procurement from third countries” – he says Angelo Moreno, one of the scientific directors of the project. Everything must be based on one total paradigm shift: and hydrogen is certainly one of the main protagonists.
