A 3-page proposal that was submitted to Dr. Tatiana Mitrova Director of the SKOLKOVO Energy Centre at (https://energy.skolkovo.ru/en/senec/team/) by e-mail over a year ago to encourage the Russian establishment to convert the Russian economy toward hydrogen. A similar request was also sent through the official website of Russian PM in Sept. 2019

1. Haim R. Branisteanu
Haim R. Branisteanu 12 Gotlieb Street, Tel Aviv Israel 64-392 Tel +972-3-523-2744 Page 1
Improvement in Electrical Network Stability meshed with renewable
energy facilities and the increase of useful efficiency from the
variations of the electrical output from renewable energy facilities
Summary
June 14, 2019
Renewable energy facilities generating electrical power like windmills or solar panels farms are
known for their variable electrical output which is highly weather dependent (wind speed,
cloudiness etc.,). The proposed projects intend is to smooth out the electrical power weather
dependent swings and in case of solar power overcome heavy cloudiness and nighttime lack of
sunshine or lack of adequate wind power, due weather changing patterns. Solutions below.
The proposed solution – long term energy storage
1. Until recently the most common solution to overcome those shortcoming where the
installation of substantial Li-Ion battery packs similar to the setup in California replacing
“peaker” NG turbines in electrical power stations.
(https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-11-08/california-moves-to-replace-gas-
plants-with-batteries-from-tesla )
2. The solution even if successful and price effective was still expensive and of limited “useful
life” leaving within 7 to 10 years an ecological problem to recycle the used-up batteries and
the installation of a new system of battery packs.
3. The search of an alternative high energy storage facility with the ability of long term
electrical power storage without degradation (as in batteries) concluded to the return to the
old source of stored energy in hydrogen gas which oxidation results in pure water.
4. More recently due to the installation of substantial windmills and solar panel farms in an
effort of “de-carbonization” of the energy supply, gave way to repeated incidences where the
renewable energy supply overcame the actual need of energy for certain economies. The
most common examples where in Texas and the “Tornado Corridor”, Germany, or UK,
where electricity price where often negative for reasonable periods of time.
5. The solution employed was to shut down the sources of renewable energy and by this
affecting the investors ROI and their incentive to continue to invest in projects, intended to
the “de-carbonization” efforts of electrical power generation.
6. One of the solutions would be in establishing VHVDC networks; from areas with sources
rich in renewable energy to location the energy is needed. ABB, Siemens and the like do it
already. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8Hrvq6ipJY&list=PLw7lLwXw4H52V-
LN5CLW9PsiFDhXWst9Q ) and see also “Wanted: long-distance high-voltage grids that can
link continents” ( https://www.ft.com/content/266a2d1c-248f-11e9-b20d-5376ca5216eb)
7. This solution of using a storage medium to store the excess renewable energy and avoid the
expenses of “peaker” NG turbine was naturally hydrogen instead of batteries as an storage
medium but possessed several technological problems which were resolved over recent
years and recently where applied in pilot projects in Lincoln Australia.
(https://fuelcellsworks.com/news/h2u-and-baker-hughes-announce-collaboration-to-
deploy-100-hydrogen-fired-gas-turbines-at-port-lincoln-south-australia/ )

2. Haim R. Branisteanu
Haim R. Branisteanu 12 Gotlieb Street, Tel Aviv Israel 64-392 Tel +972-3-523-2744 Page 2
8. It is important to take notice of the fact that the volumetric liquid energy content of
hydrogen @ 120 - 140 MJ/kg, is well over twice the energy content of CH4 @ 55MJ/kg and
many times the weight to energy ratio of storage in Li-Ion batteries averaging 0.8 - 1 MJ/kg
as an example.
9. From an ecological point of view burning H2 instead of CH4 results in plain water and no
CO2. There are still the effects of generating NOx during the high temperatures chemical
reaction of the oxidation process, and substantial efforts are invested to minimize the NOx
generation in H2 driven turbines.
10. The high temperature of the H2 – O reaction of over 1,200 to 1,400 oC poses its own
problems which are being resolved in several ways including very high temperature Nickel
super alloys like “INCONEL” alloys or the new “Inconel alloy 617” designed by INL
(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0921509318315156 ) - Ni 45%,
Cr 22%, Co 15%, Mo 10%, Al 1.5%, Fe 3%, Mn 1%, Si 1%, Ti 0.5%, Cu 0.5% and the like
(https://www.magellanmetals.com/nickel-alloys) which were also used in pilot power
station in Germany (https://kraftwerkforschung.info/en/hydrogen-gas-turbines/). The
resulting exhaust is super-heated water vapor and the water cooling of the H2-O turbine
generated more steam that is used in specially designed steam turbines for very high
temperatures of 700oC (https://kraftwerkforschung.info/en/increase/materials-of-
construction-for-steam-temperatures-of-over-700-c/) which setup operated successfully for
several years with an efficiency rate of 50% in addition to the 36% to 39% efficiency of the
H2-O turbine. Similar turbines are already in use in oil refineries and steel foundries where
they process excess mixture of CO and H2 resulting from the various processes.
11. To re-emphasis the substantial benefits of H2 as a storage medium and also as a fuel
medium I would like to mention that today’s combined cycle electrical power generators
powered with CH4 achieve an efficiency rate of around 60% only, mostly due to the lower
oxidation (burning) temperature of CH4, with its own NOx and Dioxin emissions.
12. After outlining the benefits and the efforts to resolve the above mentioned problems R&D
initiatives were developed to resolve the technical hurdles that impede the wide use of H2 in
conventional electrical power production.
The 200 page, IEA report, for the June 2019, G-20 resolution.
13. In a June 14, 2019 an extensive report by IEA was published – “The Future of Hydrogen”
(https://webstore.iea.org/the-future-of-hydrogen ), the report outlines the benefits of using
H2 as fuel and storage medium. Further as a result of this report a “Joint Statement of
Future Cooperation on Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Issued by U.S, Europe and
Japan” was issued (https://fuelcellsworks.com/news/joint-statement-of-future-
cooperation-on-hydrogen-and-fuel-cell-technologies-issued-by-u-s-europe-and-japan/)
14. Some projects on the drawing board or in inception to generate H2 from water are;
Kick‐off for designing a gigawatt electrolysis plant (http://www.frames-
group.com/Kick%E2%80%90off-for-designing-a-gigawatt-electrolysis-plant ) or in
Germany “Construction starts on the world’s largest PEM electrolyser at Shell’s Rheinland
Refinery (https://refhyne.eu/construction-starts-on-the-worlds-largest-pem-electrolyser-
at-shells-rheinland-refinery ). In Utah, the USA the joint venture of MHPS announced
“World’s Largest Renewable Energy Storage Project Announced in Utah” the initiative will

3. Haim R. Branisteanu
Haim R. Branisteanu 12 Gotlieb Street, Tel Aviv Israel 64-392 Tel +972-3-523-2744 Page 3
develop 1,000 megawatts of 100 percent clean energy storage, thereby deploying
technologies and strategies essential to a decarbonized future for the power grid of the
Western United States. ( https://amer.mhps.com/world%E2%80%99s-largest-renewable-
energy-storage-project-announced-in-utah.html)
15. In China “China's Hydrogen Vehicle Dream Chased With $17 Billion of Funding “
(https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-27/china-s-hydrogen-vehicle-
dream-chased-by-17-billion-of-funding?srnd=premium-middle-east )
The practical Proposal as I envisioned by me
16. The Russian Federation is blessed not only with hydrocarbon deposits but also with ample
of wind to power wind turbines and at sunshine at high altitudes (Altai) with higher UV
spectrum photons that can be split to 2 or 3 photons at the maximum efficiency of present
solar panels with “quantum dots” or “singlet fission” which would make it economical viable
in certain region to establish bifacial solar panels farms.
17. My proposal is to try and join the world wide effort as recommended by the IEA report of
June 14, 2019, in the production of H2 for energy and find the appropriate medium for
storage of H2 after electrolysis with the surplus electrical renewable power if generated by
wind or solar panels and also extraction of H2 from mostly depleted oil fields (1).
18. The future in energy distribution could be “Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carriers” (LOHC)
which organic fluids will store energy from such sources as renewables or generation from
nuclear power in the form of hydrogen as mentioned above via a process of hydrogenation
and later the release of H2 by dehydrogenation.
19. Present researchers working on LOHCs believe that when the liquids can carry a bit more
than 10 percent of added hydrogen by weight, they could be competitive in powering
modified petrol or diesel vehicle engines, which will result in great saving of retooling.
20.The venues of new R&D are wide open, and will include not only chemistry but also
nanotechnology (to be used in the cathode and anode of the electrolyze device) in which
graphene and fullerene nanoparticles would have a major impact.
21. Presently electrolyzers are already commercially available from several companies for
example, some of which efficiency and cost improvements is achieving 90+% efficiency.
It is my belief, that funding for R&D would be available from the countries mentioned above for
the appropriate grant requests which will fit within their program goals, and in addition the
resulting R&D could highly benefit the Russian Federation, by enabling the country to export
also the wind energy which is so ample in many regions of the country. More so there should be
an evaluation made to the possibility of the export of electricity derived from H2 power station
and/or NG to Europe over VHVDC lines similar to the projects executed by ABB & Siemens in
China for distances of over 3,000 km of power lines as mentioned before.
Sincerely yours, June 14, 2019
Haim R. Branisteanu
Prepared by Haim R. Branisteanu in accordance with; 18 USC Chapter 90 §1831- §1839