Giacomini Spa presented an innovative approach to sustainability through the development of a hydrogen-based energy storage and management system. This emphasizes the necessity for storing renewable energy due to its intermittent nature and proposes hydrogen as an ideal solution.
Giacomini's patented technology utilizes catalytic combustion of hydrogen to produce heat without emissions. In particular, the system comprises various components, including electrolyzers and fuel cells, managed by an AI-powered system. Moreover, maintenance is simplified, and at the end of its life cycle, the units can be recycled without generating hazardous waste.
GUIDO GALLIANI, Technical Development with R&D Giacomini, illustrated this innovative technology during the Fourth Session of the 23rd Infopoverty World Conference
READ THE FULL STATEMENT BELOW
“I first wish to join my colleagues in expressing our deepest gratitude to OCCAM and its president Pierpaolo Saporito for granting me, this opportunity.
My task today is to illustrate how the attention to sustainability and the continuous effort in research that, as my colleagues already explained, is part of Giacomini’s DNA, have brought to develop a product that, in our opinion, not only answers the need (I’d like to say the urgent need) of reducing the carbon footprint of the Western world but also an interesting opportunity for the developing countries.
Let’s start with a fact: renewable energies (wind and photovoltaic above all) are not available 24/7, and anyway, their availability is beyond human control.
At the same time, the basic energy needs (domestic hot water, heating, electrical power) generate a consumption that varies over time, in a way that it is not, and can’t be, aligned with the availability of the energy sources mentioned before.
It is then necessary to store energy, harvested when available, to be then able to use it when necessary. And it is necessary to do it in a sustainable way, without having to use substances that are polluting, expensive, or difficult to dispose of once they have completed their mission. We need a “battery”, let’s call it, made of green, sustainable materials, that could stand an infinite number of charge/discharge cycles and that wouldn’t generate, during its life or at the end of it, pollution.
Giacomini (and not only Giacomini, by the way) thinks that the ideal solution to this problem is called hydrogen: available in almost infinite quantities and with a very good energy density per kilo, hydrogen is the obvious choice, at least from a technical point.
Once the energy vector is identified, we need to be able to transform it in thermal energy in an easy, clean, and sustainable way.
Thanks to a 20-year long research program, Giacomini has developed and patented a technology to produce heat based on catalytic combustion of hydrogen, that, obviously, does not produce CO2 and, being flameless, not even NOx, but only H2O in the form of water vapor. Furthermore, again being flameless, the system is intrinsically safer that a traditional burner and requires less maintenance.
So, we now have all the necessary bricks to build a system to store and manage energy:
- Hydrogen catalytic combustor
- Electrolyzer
- Hydrogen tanks
- Fuel cell
- Energy Management System (AI-powered)
This system is obviously scalable and applicable to different scenarios in different parts of the world, but could be very easily and efficiently realized in the form of a pre-assembled unit, that could be built where we have the competencies and the production capacity to do that, and then transported and easily installed wherever needed in the world.
The “bricks” used are relatively simple and easy to maintain during the operational life of the unit. Eventually, major refurbishing works could be achieved by replacing the scheduled unit with another one and then having the maintenance in a specific place where adequately skilled technicians are available.
Finally, at the end of the units’ planned operational life, during which no pollutants have been produced/emitted, these can be easily recycled, without major quantities of hazardous waste like lithium, cobalt, or the like.
Thank you.”
The FINAL DECLARATION of the 23rd Infopoverty World Conference is now available! The Plan of Action including a list of projects and proposals that emerged from the discussion will be available soon. STAY TUNED!
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