Portugal develops hydrogen fuel battery systemsJune 26, 2002A private capital company and two national research units took the first step towards the Hydrogen Society in Portugal in their launch of the construction of the first Portuguese prototypes of fuel battery systems, which will be presented within a year. On the front line of the process are the Instituto Nacional de Engenharia e Tecnologia Industrial - INETI (National Institute of Industrial Engineering and Technology) and the Instituto de Engenharia Mec'¢nica e Gest'£o Industrial -INEGI (Institute of Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Management) - which are involved in different phases of development -, as well as the private capital company SRE - Solu'§'µes Racionais de Energia (Rational Energy Solutions). As such, while INETI's mission is to develop the area of research related to the construction of plates that constitute the fuel batteries, INEGI is responsible for its adaptation to the devices to be fed.
Even though, from the beginning, the projected prototypes are for small power units - one to feed video cameras (40 watts) and the other the motor of a car for golf clubs -, in a later phase the research will allow the development of more powerful units (from 1 to 2 kilowatts). Finally, the third stage of the project consists of developing a 200 kilowatt electrical energy production unit, which should be operational in 2004, in the Electricity Museum. Unlike what happens with the classic battery - "consumer" of electrochemical reagents that generate current -, the fuel battery consists of an electricity generator that uses the reaction between the permanent renewed hydrogen (while fuel) and the oxygen of the air (while comburent) to produce water, through the release of electrons. Using this mode of sustainable energy production, that according to observers should reach the market within one or two decades, seems to be the solution to one of the biggest environmental problems - the progressive exhaustion of fossil fuels - without the production of polluting emissions or radioactive residues. At the same time as this initiative was made official, which occurred in mid-June, on the INETI premises, in Lisbon, there was the launch of the first publication in Portugal regarding the technology of renewable energy use, entitled "Hydrogen Fuel Batteries". Observatório da CiÙncia e do Ensino Superior | |||||||||||||||||||||
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