5/16/2022
The Foundation for the Development of New Hydrogen Technologies in Aragon continues to take important steps to expand its network of international contacts related to the deployment, research and industrial use of this technology. The United States is one of the leading countries in the world in this regard, and there are many companies that have already made use of the multiple applications of hydrogen and fuel cells, and especially their contribution to the decarbonization of the economy, their main activity.
The vice president of the Government of Aragon and Minister of Industry, Arturo Aliaga, held on Monday at the headquarters of the Aragon Hydrogen Foundation, which also chairs, accompanied by the managing director of the entity, Fernando Palacín, a meeting with the Founder and CEO of H2 Clipper, Rinaldo Brutoco, and with the member of the company’s Advisory Board and professor of the International University of Florida Jerry B. Brown. The meeting has served to learn about the projects of the Californian company and to sign a document of collaboration on knowledge between H2 Clipper and the Foundation.
Aliaga explained that “this agreement will serve to analyze the costs of transporting hydrogen and study the capabilities of injecting this technology into pipeline networks, adding another pipeline to transport hydrogen.” “It has been shown that this energy vector is taking a position of preeminence. Once again, we projected the Foundation, which is already part of a privileged situation, as a reference in research. We take another leap and exchange applied research in forums at the highest level in the world. We produce and know how to use green hydrogen and now we have to evaluate and study how to transport it,” he added.
The head of the company H2 Clipper, Rinaldo Brutoco, explained that they discovered the HIggis project for hydrogen injection into gas networks that is being developed by the Hydrogen Foundation and saw that it could be a good method of transport for their projects. This has been described as the reference that has opened the way to the hydrogen revolution. Their priority objective is transport with which they share the common goal of changing the gas infrastructure from gas to hydrogen.
In this sense, Aliaga stressed that “in Aragon we are not limited.” “We are in a project for the future, we have the capacity to produce green hydrogen and here we have demonstrated it. We want to continue to be leaders in the transition to low-carbon energy,” he said.
This is the case of H2 Clipper, a Californian company founded in 2011 that has patented solutions for the efficient air transport of green hydrogen over long distances and at low cost through the use of airships. These aerostats, which also use green hydrogen to propel themselves using the energy of their fuel cells, will be able to move large volumes of hydrogen at distances of more than 9,000 kilometers, at a speed of about 280 kilometers per hour, with an estimated cost four times lower than that of a conventional air environment and without depending on airports or air infrastructure, because they can land and take off almost anywhere vertically.
All this makes them a virtual air pipeline of large proportions, also ideal for isolated areas, underdeveloped or that have suffered natural or other disasters that have diminished or eliminated their equipment.