site.btaFifth Closing Meeting under Low Carbon Energy for Transport and Domestic Use Programme Takes Place

The fifth closing meeting of the Low Carbon Energy for Transport and Domestic Use programme took place at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS) on Tuesday. The event was attended by members of the scientific programme team, members and scientists from BAS, as well as Deputy Education Minister, Marieta Georgieva.

"This is a national scientific programme that was approved by a decision of the Council of Ministers on the proposal of the Education Ministry in 2018 and as a result a consortium of 16 partners was established, with the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences as the lead organization'', explained Academician Konstantin Hadzhievanov, Chairman of the Executive Board of the National Scientific Programme (EPLUS).

He presented a brief summary of the indicators in the implementation of the programme, after which the heads of the three components of the program - Evelina Slavcheva, Daria Vladikova and Dimitar Panayotov, presented some more specific achievements of the individual parts of the programme. 

"The time has come to finalize our work on this program, which has played a very important role. It was a pleasure to participate in it and to get to know better our colleagues from other organizations and universities outside Sofia," said Evelina Slavcheva, Director of the Institute of Electrochemistry and Energy Systems.

"Component 1, which coordinated, was one of the largest components, with the most tasks and the most participants. So coordinating was a challenge. The selection of the different work packages and tasks was also a result of our joint efforts,'' she said.

Prof. Slavcheva said that eleven out of the sixteen organizations that are members of the programme are involved in component 1. "The main objectives are in line with the objectives of the whole programme. Apart from consolidating scientists and infrastructure, we did a fairly robust scientific programme that also had a focus on applied research and product development in several areas,'' she explained.

In her words, the largest task, composed of three subtasks, with participants from all organizations included in this work package, is related to the development of several hybrid capacitor systems. The first one is of the Faculty of Physics of Sofia University' . She explained that the emphasis was on the method of obtaining a very fine coating on electrodes - a coating of carbon materials, which improves the capacity of the supercapacitor enormously.

"In Bulgaria, for the first time, we have a demonstration system that can be powered by hydrogen. This system is currently powering a small office at the institute, with all the electricity coming from there." She explained that the demonstration of the 'Green House' system opens up many opportunities for the institute to visit, discuss, contract, develop and elaborate on its elements , as well as promote the overall idea of the importance of this type of system.

"In terms of supporting legislative initiatives for the introduction of hydrogen-based technologies, we have made great efforts to help the Bulgarian administration and the people who have to build the new legislation, but I would say the biggest success is the introduction of the hydrogen roadmap in Bulgaria, which happened in March 2023,'' said Daria Vladikova,  member of the European Clean Hydrogen Alliance's Green Hydrogen Roundtable.

She also spoke on the development and introduction of hydrogen electro-mobility, telling about the construction and launch of a trolleybus with a hybrid battery-fuel cell range extender, with partners from the Institute of Electrochemistry and Energy Systems, the Technical University - Sofia, and Rousse University. Vladikova explained that the basis for its implementation was a hydrogen storage system, which would take about 15 kg of hydrogen to ensure a range of 100 km on the trolley, as well as a new 200-kilowatt electric motor.

"In my lifetime alone - 70 years - the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased by 25 percent, which has led to a 1 degree rise in surface temperature,'' said Dimitar Panayotov, head of Component 3, of the critical global climate change.

He noted that the main objectives of Component 3 set at the beginning of the scientific programme have been successfully met. A thorough understanding and assessment of approaches for carbon capture, storage and utilization to mitigate critical climate change has been established; the necessary scientific basis, consolidated scientific field and integrated infrastructure for the development of new effective materials, and the development of innovative approaches have been created; and concrete science-based solutions for new materials and processes for carbon capture and utilization have been proposed.

"The scientific team involved in the development of Component 3 was composed of scientists from three Bulgarian universities - the Sofia University, Prof. Dr. Asen Zlatarov University in Burgas and the Southwestern University in Blagoevgrad, together with seven institutes of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences'', explained Panayotov.