The agreement between researchers and businessmen on cooperation in the field of hydrogen power engineering and fuel cells is the first precedent in Russia when large-scale Russian companies wish to give financial support for scientific research.

"I would not hesitate to say that the future of the country itself depends on the way our intellectual potential is used," says Yuri Osipov, President of RAS. "We welcome in every possible way the efforts of large businesses to cooperate with science. We have at least eight large organizations actively cooperating with "Norilsk Nickel," says academician Gennady Mesyats, who will guide the academic hydrogen power engineering program. "Our program plans to combine the effort of approximately two dozens of institutes and to get a merchantable product in three to five years."

"Russia has two advantages over all other countries of the world in the field of hydrogen power engineering -- fundamental science and our company that produces more than half of the world volume of palladium," said at the signing ceremony Mikhail Prohkorov, General Director of "Norilsk Nickel" company. "We hope with the help of the Russian Academy of Science to demonstrate, that palladium is the base of hydrogen technology. Palladium is crucial for the development of effective catalysts and for production and storage of pure hydrogen."

According to the program scientists of the Russian Academy of Science will create fuel cells on polymeric and oxide electrolytes for various applications and fuel processors for converting hydrocarbonate fuels into hydrogen. Another goal of the program -- the hydrogen infrastructure: the equipment for hydrogen production, storage and transportation.

The fuel cell is a device where the fuel energy is directly converted into electric current without using various turbines. That allows significantly increase the coefficient of efficiency, by several times. The hydrogen cell is considered to be the most promising device, since electric current is generated as a result of the reaction of water molecule formation from the hydrogen and oxygen.

The high price for the fuel cell's is the first problem for the inventors of hydrogen power engineering. Currently, the solid-state polymeric electrolyte or proton membrane is considered the most promising material. This material is very expensive. Generally, one kilowatt of the battery capacity costs about US$ 5,000. The fuel cell could compete with other energy sources when the price is a hundred or two hundred dollars per kilowatt.

Russia has inherited the liquid alcaline electrolyte fuel cells from the Soviet "Buran" space shuttle. Later, such kind of a battery served the power source for the "Niva" hydrogen automobile demonstrated at the 2001 Moscow Auto Show.

However, the Russian researchers works with other electrolytes, particularly with the solid-state oxide electrolytes. "In our program, we shall further develop all the work we have started, including alcaline, polymeric and oxide electrolytes," says Gennady Mesyats. "Some institutes will be engaged in creation of small batteries for office equipment, others will be involved in the design on higher capacity systems."

The second problem is the fuel and its handling. One of the major obstacles to hydrogen power engineering is the absence of infrastructure for hydrogen production and delivery to the consumer. Therefore, at the initial stage, the developers of the hydrogen automobile or hydrogen power engineering are planning to utilize current fuel infrastructure -- gas pipelines or petrol filling stations. In this case a fuel processor is to be installed next to the fuel cell. The processor turns gasoline, ethanol, methanol, natural gas or any other fuel into hydrogen. The cost of the processor makes about one third in the price of the power plant based on fuel cell.

The energetic system on the hydrogen fuel cells is considered pollution-free due to the fact that it produces only water or water and carbon dioxide. In addition, it does not produce noise as the only rotating device of the processor is a fan, which drives the gases along its tubes. If such a processor is available, any fuel will suit hydrogen power engineering. It is assumed that petrol will be used for automobiles, and methanol or ethanol will quite fit for small home applications. Large-scale energy plants will run on natural gas.

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