"Hy-Chess" – a joint project of the Silesian University of Technology, PGNiG and the Institute for Chemical Processing of Coal (ICHPW)
The Silesian University of Technology, together with PGNiG and the Institute for Chemical Processing of Coal in Zabrze, conduct activities aimed at the commercialisation of the "Hy-Chess" system. It is a technology allowing to produce green hydrogen, synthetic natural gas, to produce electricity in an emission-free manner and store it in the form of compressed carbon dioxide.
The project "Hydrogen and synthetic natural gas production system with electricity generation and storage functionality" (Hy-Chess), submitted by a consortium led by PGNiG, received the highest rating from the experts at the National Centre for Research and Development (NCBiR), out of 47 applications submitted in competition No 1 of the Strategic Research and Development Programme: "New technologies in the field of energy". "New technologies in the field of energy". In the programme, the "Hy-Chess" project received funding in the amount of PLN 34.3 million.
- The growing demand for so-called clean energy accelerates research and development programmes that bring us closer to climate neutrality. When scientists' ideas meet the needs of enterprises and even the whole economy, the effects of cooperation between science and business may turn out to be groundbreaking. This is what we are expecting when investing in the "Hy-Chess" system. The invention and potential of the technology proposed by the team of scientists from the Silesian University of Technology under the guidance of Professor Łukasz Bartela and Professor Anna Skorek-Osikowska are also confirmed by the NCBiR's decision to grant funding - said in a press release, Mr Arkadiusz Sekściński, Vice-President for Development of PGNiG SA.
The joint undertaking assumes first designing and constructing a prototype to confirm technological functionality, and then a full-scale demonstrator for an innovative hybrid system integrating subsystems for hydrogen production, hydrogen conversion to synthetic natural gas, electricity generation in the process of oxygen combustion of natural gas and energy storage in compressed carbon dioxide.
The decision to start the investment stage will depend on the results of technical and economic analysis, which will be obtained on the basis of a feasibility study, planned in the first stage of the project and scheduled for implementation by the team from the Silesian University of Technology. In the second stage of the project, the team from our University will be responsible for the construction and testing of prototypes of two subsystems, i.e. generation subsystem and the electricity storage subsystem. The budget for this research task amounts to PLN 9 313 664.40, with the total budget for the Silesian University of Technology amounting to PLN 10 164 143.85. Prototypes of the other two subsystems will be developed and tested by the Institute for Chemical Processing of Coal in Zabrze.
The proposed "Hy-Chess" technology is polygenerational in nature, i.e. it enables the generation of several utility products, what’s important, in such quantities that can be adjusted to current demand, e.g. seasonal or daily.
- It is assumed that the basic product of the system will be green hydrogen, which is soon to become one of the basic energy carriers according to the adopted European Hydrogen Strategy and the Polish Hydrogen Strategy. In the future, production and especially the distribution of hydrogen will constitute an important business element in the activity of PGNiG – informs Vice-President Sekściński.
- The "Hy-Chess" system will use electric energy obtained in systems based on unstable renewable sources and, what is important, will be characterised by high flexibility in obtaining particular products. This feature may be particularly important in the initial stage of creating markets for new "green" fuels, which are important for energy security and will be characterised by high uncertainty, e.g. as to the scale of demand for hydrogen or electricity storage services - emphasises Professor Łukasz Bartela from the Silesian University of Technology.
In accordance with the assumptions, the project will be conducted in three stages. The first two stages i.e. feasibility study and pilot installation will be conducted in Silesia, and the third one, i.e. "Hy-Chess" technology demonstrator will be constructed in PGNiG SA Branch in Odolanów (Wielkopolskie Voivodship), where at present the installation for high-methane natural gas production based on nitrogen-rich natural gas supplied from domestic mines is in operation.
Hy-Chess" technology is the result of the work of a team from the Silesian University of Technology, which for many years has been dealing with issues of energy storage, particularly in the area of large-scale solutions. The invention by Professor Łukasz Bartela and Professor Anna Skorek-Osikowska, employees of the Department of Power Engineering and Turbomachinery at the Faculty of Energy and Environmental Engineering, is currently being examined by the Polish Patent Office.
- The invention, which drew the attention of the national energy tycoon, i.e. PGNiG, is one of many solutions developed by our team. Within just a few years we have managed to develop a number of solutions, most of which have been granted patents. Many applications are awaiting final decisions at the domestic and European patent offices. This situation is comfortable for the development of project applications. A good idea, supported by the evidence from research carried out on the test benches we develop, is the most important thing here.
This is confirmed by our efficiency in obtaining financial resources. In the last three years, we have acquired 7 research projects with a total budget of more than 65 million PLN - says Professor Anna Skorek-Osikowska, who will be the R&D manager in the "Hy-Chess" project.
- It is valuable for us that the research activities planned in the acquired project perfectly fit into the thematic profile of the Cluster for the Transformation of Commercial Power Engineering, whose pilot we are obliged to carry out at the Silesian University of Technology within the recently launched DEsire project. For this project, we obtained funding in the Gospostrateg VI competition. The cluster operations, in the period appropriate for the project implementation, will focus mainly on the organisation of the environment of stakeholders of investment processes to take place in the area of nuclear power. However, from the very beginning, we planned the Cluster as a platform of cooperation of entities open to all technologies supporting decarbonisation processes. We want to give due place here to activities aimed at the implementation of large-scale energy storage systems, including those in which we take a strong interest as part of our team's activities. They are to make use of post-mining infrastructure - adds Professor Łukasz Bartela, head of the DEsire project and also the coordinator of the sub-area 6.9 "Energy storage and hydrogen energy".
