Hydrogen is one of the ideal solutions to accompany Italy in its energy transition. This element, the Italian supply chain and the state of current technological development were discussed at a conference at the Senate, organised by Senator Antonio Trevisi, member of the Environment Commission, in which MIEEG participated with its founder and CEO Angelo Minotti.
“MIEEG is developing a micro-generator of electrical energy using hydrogen and a micro-turbine of about 10 litres, the size of a pair of mobile phones, capable of producing about 100 KWe, in 10 kg of weight, a power that would allow to supply about thirty apartments: if we were to do the same thing with fuel cells, we would need bigger and heavier systems to obtain a comparable efficiency”, explained Angelo Minotti during the conference.
“In addition, this project can be integrated with green energy systems to increase the ACF, the Annual Capacity Factor: the systems are discontinuous, and at peak production times, excess energy could be used to electrolyse wastewater as well, via photovoltaics and wind power: the water is split into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen can be stored in a tank to be used by the micro-generator when there is a higher energy demand: a circular, green and concrete process.
The MIEEG patent has been granted in several countries, covering over 5 billion people and around 70% of the world’s GDP, and the prototype is expected to be ready in the next 18-24 months. This could be used in a variety of areas, static and for land, air and sea mobility, e.g. drones, but also for electric vehicles, as an alternative to the fuel cell, to increase autonomy.
Why hydrogen instead of batteries? There is no single technological solution for every scenario, we need intelligent integration between the different options. For example, batteries are perfect in some conditions but have enormous limitations, including their very low energy density. Hydrogen, on the other hand, is good for other applications, so these solutions should be optimised together,” concludes Minotti.