Description of the Original EBH2 ProjectPROBLEMI DI SICUREZZA NEI LABORATORI DI RICERCA. DIPARTIMENTO DI INGEGNERIA MECCANICA NUCLEARE E ..........
2.0 THE EBH2 PROJECT
The EBH2 project is funded by the Tuscany Region and was born from the association of seven research partners with different skills in the production and storage of hydrogen. The purpose of the project is to help improve the technical knowledge necessary to make it possible to develop a hydrogen economy that is competitive with other existing energy technologies.
The various partners bring their knowledge in very specialized fields and are committed to improving the results obtained in previous researches, so as to make the current project the natural continuation of research that have already given good results. This multidisciplinary collaboration allows you to follow the path hydrogen in all its production and storage phases in the most complete way.
Right away a brief description of the type of research carried out by the various partners in the individual laboratories is given.
At the laboratories of the Institute of Chemistry of Organometallic Compounds of the National Council of Researches based in Sesto Fiorentino (Florence) (hereinafter referred to as ICCOM CNR) are being studied new anode electro-catalysts capable of making the production of hydrogen economically feasible by electrolysis of aqueous solutions of ammonia. Laboratory research materializes in the evaluation of the efficiency of these catalysts in a pre-established test system in which, from time to time, the different specimens are introduced. Basically it is a small electrolytic cell at the which various measuring instruments are connected.
The Institute for the Study of Ecosystems of the National Research Council based in Sesto Fiorentino (Florence) (hereinafter referred to as ISE CNR) deals with selecting some strains of microalgae that are capable of developing hydrogen. In the laboratories, selections of mutants are grown to test the production of hydrogen in different culture conditions (light, crop turbulence, contained in chlorophyll, etc).
In the laboratories of the Complex Systems Institute of the National Research Council based in Sesto Fiorentino (Florence) (hereinafter referred to as ISC CNR) storage methods are studied hydrogen on two fronts: a study concerns adsorption on inorganic hydrides and borohydrides, materials high porosity organometallics and aminoboranes; a second study addresses clathrates. While the first study is concerned with evaluating the quantities of adsorbed hydrogen and therefore mostly affects the laboratory because it uses a machinery suitable for the purpose, the second study involves a more detailed work on the part of the staff. It involves obtaining clathrates by bringing the system to low temperatures (around the point of liquefaction of nitrogen) and at high pressures (hundreds of bars or tens of MPa).
The Department of Agricultural Biotechnology of the University of Florence (hereinafter referred to as DIBA UNIFI) studies the production of hydrogen due to the metabolism of red non-sulphurous photosynthetic bacteria. In the laboratories select different strains and study the conditions under which the production of is maximum hydrogen (light, pH, temperature, etc).
The Department of Chemistry and Industrial Chemistry of the University of Pisa (hereinafter referred to as CHIM IND UNIPI) deals with synthesizing polymeric membranes capable of functioning as a separator and as a electrolyte. In the laboratories, therefore, the polymerization and synthesis processes necessary for the membrane formation.
Acta SpA (hereinafter referred to as ACTA) carries out tests on exchange polymeric membranes ionic in order to evaluate the best yield according to the substrate and catalyst chosen. In the laboratories, therefore, an electrolytic cell has been set up which allows the necessary measurements to be carried out.
The Department of Mechanical, Nuclear and Production Engineering of the University of Pisa (hereinafter indicated as DIMNP UNIPI) deals with the study of the safety of innovative production methods and hydrogen storage under study.
As part of the EBH2 project, we have therefore gained experience of some laboratories that have a different nature: chemical laboratories, biochemical laboratories and physics of matter laboratories. The common element that associates the various researches is hydrogen, an element that enters the laboratories in a way that we can define precisely and in a way that we can define as improper....