Photo: Image by macrovector on FreepikEuropean Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that hydrogen will change history on the road to climate neutrality. Dr. Miloš Banjac, professor at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Belgrade, spoke to RTS about the potential of this energy source and Serbia's chances to catch up with the world.
He said that hydrogen is certainly special because its combustion does not produce carbon dioxide but water vapor, which is a key parameter on the way to decarbonizing the world.
"The use of hydrogen is just at the beginning, and one should not be too optimistic and expect that in a few years hydrogen will come into use and replace all fossil fuels. The advantages of hydrogen are that it is an extremely energetic fuel. Superfuel is three times stronger than any other we have used so far. Its important feature is that we can produce it, unlike all fossil fuels, by transforming electric energy into hydrogen," said professor Banjac.
There are currently about 30,000 cars that use hydrogen and about thirty trains in the world, and intensive work is being done on air traffic and maritime transport because hydrogen, unlike electricity stored in batteries, enables greater mobility.
However, precisely because it is a superfuel, hydrogen also has many disadvantages. The biggest disadvantage is that it has a high combustion temperature and is very explosive, so storage and transportation are problems.
Today, the majority of hydrogen is used in China, Japan, Europe, the United States, and Brazil. That is, wherever there are surpluses of energy obtained from renewable sources, they can be deposited in hydrogen, says Prof. Dr. Miloš Banjac.
"Only hydrogen obtained from renewable energy sources represents a new source of energy, and only such hydrogen can help on the path of decarbonization. Hydrogen obtained by converting coal or gas is not a solution for decarbonization," the professor emphasized.
In April, at the invitation of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce, the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, in cooperation with the Faculty of Technology, the Institute in Vinča, the Faculty of Chemistry, and the Mihajlo Pupin Institute, prepared the Draft Hydrogen Strategy of the Republic of Serbia, which should be part of the future Energy Development Strategy of our country, he added.
It was suggested, among other things, to avoid the situation that happened with nuclear energy—that we do not know how to use it but to introduce hydrogen into the school system, especially higher education, and that scientific institutions devote themselves to the study of its application.
Source: rts.rs
