The Higgs project developed by the Aragón Hydrogen Foundation leads the development of research for the transport of this technology

Vice President Aliaga has met with those responsible for the Californian company H2 Clipper, which has developed a solution to transport green hydrogen over long distances through the use of airships.

The Foundation for the Development of New Hydrogen Technologies in Aragon continues to take important steps to expand its network of international contacts related to the deployment, research and industrial use of this technology. The United States is one of the leading countries in the world in this regard, and there are many companies that have already made use of the multiple applications of hydrogen and fuel cells, and especially of their contribution to the decarbonization of the economy, its main activity.

The Vice President and Minister of Industry, Competitiveness and Business Development of the Government of Aragon, Arturo Aliaga, held a meeting with the Founder at the headquarters of the Aragón Hydrogen Foundation, which he also chairs, accompanied by the entity’s managing director, Fernando Palacín. and CEO of H2 Clipper, Rinaldo Brutoco, and with the member of the Advisory Council of the company and professor at Florida International University Jerry B. Brown. The meeting has served to learn about the projects of the Californian company and to sign a collaboration document in terms of knowledge between H2 Clipper and the Foundation.

Aliaga explained that “this agreement will serve to analyze the costs of transporting hydrogen and study the capabilities of injecting this technology into gas pipeline networks, adding another pipeline to transport hydrogen. It has been shown that this energy vector is taking a position of prominence. Once again, we project the Foundation, which already starts from a privileged situation, as a benchmark in research. We take a further leap and exchange applied research in forums at the highest global level. We produce and know how to use green hydrogen and now we have to assess and study how to transport it”.

The head of the H2 Clipper company, Rinaldo Brutoco, explained that they discovered the HIggis project for the injection of hydrogen into the gas networks that the Hydrogen Foundation is developing and saw that it could be a good method of transport for their projects. They have described this project as the benchmark that has paved the way for the hydrogen revolution. Their priority objective is transport with which they share the common objective of changing the gas infrastructure from gas to hydrogen.

In this sense, Aliaga has underlined that “in Aragón we do not limit ourselves. We are in a future project, we have the capacity to produce green hydrogen and we have demonstrated it here. We want to continue being leaders in the transition towards low carbon energy”.

This is the case of H2 Clipper, a Californian company founded in 2011 that has patented solutions for the efficient air transport of green hydrogen over long distances and at low cost through the use of airships. These aerostats, which also use green hydrogen to propel themselves using the energy from their fuel cells, will be capable of transporting large volumes of hydrogen over distances of more than 9,000 kilometers, at a speed of about 280 kilometers per hour, at an estimated cost of four times lower than that of a conventional air vehicle and without depending on airports or air infrastructure, because they can land and take off almost anywhere vertically. All this makes them a virtual aerial gas pipeline of great proportions, also ideal for isolated areas,

The company, which is also working on systems to transport hydrogen using existing gas networks, is seeking support to introduce its technology on the market and integrate it into the entire hydrogen value chain, for which it contacted the Aragón Hydrogen Foundation, which treasures two decades of knowledge and leadership both nationally and internationally in this field, it is decisive.