KRASNOYARSK, November 23. /TASS/. Experts of the Siberian Federal University's Institute of Oil and Gas (in Krasnoyarsk) developed a hydrogen engine for Arctic conditions, Director General of the Russian Hydrogen Company, the Institute's strategic partner, Vladimir Sedov told TASS.
In the very beginning, Vladimir's idea was to install a hydrogen engine, developed by the company, on a Tesla electric car. A hydrogen tank with a 3-kg capacity supplied hydrogen to the fuel cell, where electricity is generated in the interaction with atmospheric oxygen. Thus, the electric car's range grew from 400 km to 1,000 km. The experiment was successful.
"Then, the plan was to upgrade it to the Arctic conditions. For the Far North, we've changed the engine design, the composition of the catalysts and the fuel cell's cooling and heating, because those were necessary changes to these technologies for work in the Arctic," he said, adding the hydrogen engine (fuel cell) metal is processed with a certain composition to work in the Far North.
The work was carried out at the Sidera innovative technologies center, which the institute and the company had organized to develop hydrogen technologies. The developers say the hydrogen engine's advantage is that it does not require diesel fuel shipments, and, besides, hydrogen can be released from associated gas in oil production. This fuel is more environmentally friendly and may be used for own generation.
Scientists have been working on fuel cells for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) used in geological exploration in the Arctic, as in severe frosts the regular batteries used in UAVs simply cannot withstand long operation.
Special equipment for oil production
The Sidera project has unique developments for the oil industry, the Institute of Oil and Gas' Director Roman Ayupov told TASS. Specialists have created the Baikal electromechanical system. "This device may be used in the Arctic, where a zero load on the environment is required. The Baikal equipment consists entirely of domestic components, it is our own product. It does not have analogues either in Russia or in the world. This equipment is used to influence wells and oil reservoirs," he said.
The equipment is a pipe of several meters that has three elements - an engine, a multiplier and various nozzles. The nozzles may be used for different tasks in wells, he continued. For example, a nozzle shaped like a thermal carrier, removes deposits on well walls to avoid accidents and disruptions. An ultrasonic device, which may be a nozzle, produces impacts on oil layers to build up the well production. "We also may connect a microwave emitter, which is very important for fields with high-viscosity oil, like those in Tatarstan," the institute's director said.
Right now all these operations involve bulky equipment that may destroy the wells' walls, and which requires many operations, where every operation may cost a few dozen millions of rubles. The newly developed equipment has passed tests in wells and the institute weighs up its production at own facilities.
The institute's laboratories have been working on drilling fluids that use plant materials to make them environmentally friendly. Such developments are very few in this country, the director stressed. Practically every field has a unique composition, comparable to human DNA, thus the institute's experts are using mathematical modeling and computer technologies to create individual drilling fluids, he added.