KAMAZ to be bolstered with pure hydrogen: Rustan Minnikhanov approves hybrid battery projects

How shipbuilders switch to KAMAZ e-cars

Engineers of the United Shipbuilding Corporation successfully united two green technologies in a hybrid battery, which looks like an excellent substitution of the foreign intellectual filling in KAMAZ e-cars. One of the authors of this know-how with unlimited possibilities according to the laws of physics created by Russian shipbuilders, Deputy Director General of the Special Design and Technological Bureau for Electrochemistry with Test Plant JSC Yury Yanenko presented them at the board meeting of Tatneftekhiminvest-holding PJSC.

The main feature is a very high capacity — up to 100 MW — that is unusual for a traditional accumulator and is achieved only by connecting a big energy unit to it — a hydrogen accumulator. It contains a huge additional reserve of energy that can be spent autonomously in the operation of any facility.

“Actually, it is a unique kind of fuel, only nuclear fuel exceeds it in energy capacity,” he described the power of hydrogen as energy fuel in a silver-tongued way.

Moreover, he noted that hydrogen is an ecological energy source, as not harmful emissions like in case of hydrocarbons but just pure water is created during combustion.

Is a hydrogen-powered train a surprise to anybody today?

Why are the shipbuilders testing hydrogen technologies all of a sudden? Yury Yanenko explained that the defence enterprise had been one of the biggest hydrogen producers in the country since the USSR, this is why it has been dealing with technical developments with reactive features of hydrogen for many decades.

“We’ve used them for special tasks, to explore the bottom of the sea and the outer space,” he said. “But today they have become available for wide use. Neither an e-bus nor a hydrogen-powered train is a surprise to anybody today,” he added and noted that hydrogen power is primarily used in remote energy facilities where it is important to have reserves. Moreover, they are cheap, as accumulators are purchased in the open market and hydrogen is generated.”

Anatomically, the accumulator with a big capacity looks the following way.

“This accumulator not only has a big capacity but also big room for energy. The biggest module is 100 MWh,” Yury Yanenko stressed. “Power electronics include a number of devices that provide high switching speed, at least 30 kHz, they have their own power converters. But it is hard to task to introduce an automatic control system. A big amount of information needs to be processed to collect compartments into a big bundle.”

How to sell hydrogen?

The Tatarstan Fuel and Energy Complex is obviously interested in these projects of hybrid technologies. The case is that hydrogen as a by-product of oil refining is manufactured by all biggest vertically integrated holdings: TANECO, which is part of Tatneft, TAIF-NK, Nizhnekamskneftekhim, which come under TAIF GC, but at the moment there is no wide range of applications to it.

“We are offering to sell hydrogen as the end product, then you can supply energy to any point much cheaper than through wires,” Yury Yanenko addressed the moguls of Tatarstan petrochemistry.

“Yes, it (Editor’s Note: hydrogen as ecological fuel) is present. But if only we found a practical application to it. This is the matter. But it is an interesting and promising idea,” Rustam Minnikhanov replied.

However, global trends in the development of ecological transport haven’t turned their face towards hydrogen energy.

“The world has reached a crossroads: if e-cars will run on batteries or fuel elements,” the president opened a discussion. “If millions of batteries have to be recycled, the ecological situation will be worse than the problem of harmful emissions. But if we learn how to work with hydrogen, we will get effective fuel elements.”

The president asked how much hydrogen fuel cost. It turned out that a bomb weighing a tonne generates 2 MW for movement, but it is twice more expensive in comparison with Tatarstan hydrogen.

“So their consumption is 5 GW, ours is 1,5 GW in terms of capacity,” head of Tatneftekhiminvest-holding Rafinat Yarullin gave a tip. It is no surprise, head of the Special Design and Technological Bureau for Electrochemistry with Test Plant JSC Aleksandr Yatsuk explains, as hydrogen in Tatarstan is produced on an industrial scale, but the shipbuilders do from water and electricity.

In the end, the president charged with creating a working group to develop not only fuel elements but also to create a reliable energy security system: “We have factories where we must provide uninterrupted operation.”

President to Novotent: 160 million is a bit expensive

After a remote problem of hydrogen energy, they switched to a practical issue — how to create temporary facilities to do sport quickly and cheap. The Ministry of Construction of the republic intends to create four football pitches. Novotent company, which had already supplied temporary facilities at the 2013 Universiade, 2018 FIFA World Cup and the recent WorldSkills, presented its proposals.

Director General of the company Andrey Legoshin explained the possibilities in a clear-cut way: facilities will appear where it is needed within 10 days as maximum. But the price confused president: 160 million rubles is a bit expensive for a temporary facility, he thought.

“On the other hand, the guarantee is 25 years,” Legoshin persuaded. In the end, they agreed to go back to the topic later.

The Guarantee Fund’s cap grows to 6 billion

Director of the Tatarstan Guarantee Fund Timur Temirgaliyev reported on the performance of the united small and medium-sized business loan centre. According to him, previously, there were three barriers to grant loans: an individual application was created for every address of a businessperson, it took much time to review the application itself, entrepreneurs knew little about the opportunity. With the appearance of the united centre, the application procedures became standardised: an application format appeared, time reduced. At the same time, the fund launched a big information campaign.

As an example, Temirgaliyev talked about a loan to Akireyevo agricultural enterprise from Alkeyevo District, which got 10 million rubles at 5% a year. It took 19 days to submit an application and get the loan. Ak Bars Bank, VTB, MSP Bank and Otkritie bank are the fund’s partners. Last year, 1,200 entrepreneurs who borrowed 19 billion rubles got 5 billion rubles as guarantee support of the fund. Small and medium-sized enterprises got 2,5 billion rubles of loans with a surety of the Guarantee Fund of the Republic of Tatarstan.

Timur Temirgaliyev also pleased — the Guarantee Fund raised the cap of loans for SMEs with a surety of the fund up to 6 billion rubles. According to him, it became possible to raise the cap of the fund after increasing authorised capital to 1,25 billion rubles. The fund’s capitalisation enabled to participate in syndicated loans for SMEs with MSP Bank and cover 70% of the borrower’s loan with guarantees.

“50 million rubles is the biggest sum of loan granted to a borrower with a surety of the fund,” Timur Temirgaliyev said. “But the borrower can augment the sum of the loan to 1 billion rubles with MSP Bank.”

According to Rustam Minnikhanov, the Guarantee Fund is a good tool and great support for businesses. And this support must be available. “We should work with banks so that application review time will reduce,” the president noted.