It’s time to summarize this year’s edition of one of the largest conferences related to hydrogen, technologies, and the use of the new fuel in promising areas of the Polish and European economy – Polish Conference on Hydrogen Technologies PCHET 2023. This year, SES Hydrogen Energy presented its hydrogen boiler for the first time. We encourage you to read the report from the event!
The PCHET conference was held on October 4-5, organized by the Pomeranian Regional Chamber of Commerce and the Cluster of Hydrogen Technologies. As every year, it gathered a crowd of experts, representatives of business and local government, who in twenty discussion panels discussed topics related to inter-sectoral cooperation and financing of projects based on “local content”, development of competencies, education, and knowledge transfer, the future of hydrogen applications, as well as certification and the creation of uniform standards for hydrogen at the international level.
It is also impossible to miss discussions on the use of hydrogen in broadly understood transport, as well as panels focusing on innovations, technologies, and patents in Poland. The panels also focused on the potential of using nuclear energy to produce hydrogen as a low-emission energy source and the key topic of hydrogen and energy storage. An important topic from the perspective of further development and popularization of hydrogen applications was also the discussion of the role of sustainable management of water resources in our country.
This year, the panels were additionally accompanied by workshop sessions and a panel related to hydrogen safety.
Hydrogen as the fuel of the future
The PCHET conference, like other industry events, aims to promote hydrogen solutions, technologies, and projects in Poland. It is a platform for conversation, exchange of knowledge, and establishing relationships and partnerships on the dynamically developing hydrogen market.
The challenges related to ongoing climate change and the adaptation of Polish energy policy to it are some of the most important topics of current public debate. Hydrogen has been described as a key decarbonization tool for several years, as evidenced not only by strengthened regulations at the EU level but also by the announced financial resources, including the European Hydrogen Bank, the first auction of which is planned for November this year.
Hydrogen is intended to increase the share of renewable energy sources in the national energy mix through long-term energy storage and increase the efficiency of installations, especially in periods of surplus production of renewable energy. It is also intended to contribute to the decarbonization of difficult and energy-intensive areas such as long-distance and heavy transport, maritime, aviation, heavy industry, and metallurgy. It is also an excellent alternative to conventional fuels in heating, housing, and industry, implementing the objectives of the MCPD, EED, and EPBD.
Hydrogen-oxygen boiler – the ecological future of the heating sector
It is to the decarbonization of the heating sector that we dedicate the developed hydrogen-oxygen boiler, which the company presented for the first time during the PCHET conference. The test unit on display has a nominal heating power of 500 kW and is currently undergoing further development work and functional tests to achieve certification and commercialization.
The key technological assumption is to design a hydrogen heating boiler unit that burns hydrogen in oxygen in a closed circuit without stack losses, as a result of which is water vapor, which is a carrier of thermal energy.
The use of hydrogen and oxygen as combustion substrates is a challenge and one of the key advantages of our solution over available hydrogen alternatives for medium- and large-scale heating. It ensures the complete elimination of COx emissions, as well as NOx, SOx, and dust emissions. If a hydrogen boiler is integrated with a hydrogen and oxygen generator powered by renewable energy, we will be able to generate emission-free heat at all stages of its production.
A hydrogen boiler will provide heat for a new housing estate in Śrem
As part of the will to cooperate concluded in 2022 between SES Hydrogen and Śremski TBS Sp. z o. o., the company will deliver a developed hydrogen-oxygen boiler for heating the new housing estate at ul. Farna in Śrem. Mateusz Sołtysiak, CEO of SES Hydrogen Energy, and Wiesław Małaszniak, President of the Management Board of Śremski TBS, talked more about this extraordinary project on the second day of the conference during the panel “Hydrogen housing estate of the future”.
During the Case Study presentation, they touched on the challenges currently facing the heating and building sectors in the EU and Poland. Their situation is strongly influenced by market prices of conventional fuels and the decreasing pool of available ETS allowances. The crisis in the energy market that we have witnessed since 2021 has proven that as a country we need transformation and investment in alternative energy sources and their diversification in the area of heating.
The EU directives Energy Performance of Buildings Directive and Energy Efficiency Directive will also play an important role. The first of them assumes that by 2028, all newly constructed buildings should meet the emission-free standard. For buildings of public bodies, it will be 2026. Moreover, from 2028, all residential buildings will be obliged to install PV installations. By 2035, national plans should be developed to phase out fossil fuels in buildings for heating, and from 2050, all existing buildings should be emission-free.
As presented during the panel, the housing estate at ul. Farna in Śrem envisages the construction of 195 apartments, which will be supplied with heat using a diversified system consisting of an innovative installation of a hydrogen boiler and ground heat pumps. Photovoltaic installations that will power the electrolyzer and external devices, energy storage installations, and an installation for collecting, purifying, and using rainwater will also be crucial for a sustainable and energy-efficient estate.
The project aims to revitalize the area and sustainably use the space, which currently has the status of wasteland. This is the first hydrogen-heated housing estate in Poland. Its construction is scheduled to start in 2025.
