The low-emission systems will provide reliable backup power for critical medical equipment.
If I handed you a glass of water and told you that this is the stuff that’s going to fuel our cars in ten years, you’d call me a fool – and you’d be right, because I have neither the proper equipment nor the cognitive capacity to rearrange the atoms in water into a source of electricity. Israeli startups do, though.
The science behind the tech
One such company, GenCell, is feeling so good about their pseudo-alchemical fuel that they are soon to install a hydrogen-driven power supply in the Hillel Yaffe Medical Center. This Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) will act as a backup generator for the hospital in the stead of its previous solution: inconsistent and polluting diesel generators, which have become something of a faux pas in light of the planet’s likely heatstroke.
“While we are proud of the significant environmental and power resilience achievements that Hillel Yaffe Medical Center has already reached using fuel cell backup technology, we look forward to seeing the hospital realize the enormous potential value we expect them to gain during the next phase of the project,” said Gil Shavit, GenCell’s co-founder and chief business development officer.
The present scope of the installation is limited to three units, which will be used to back up the cardiac catheterization systems. If the UPS system works well, Hillel Yaffe is planning on installing additional units to back up more of their critical medical equipment.
“As grid-related power failures continue to expose hospitals to financial risk and reputational damage, it has never been more important to build resilience,” said Cas Rosenberg, from project collaborator ABB’s power protection business development.
“Moving to a GenCell hydrogen-powered backup solution, the Hillel Yaffe Medical Center now has a reliable power supply 24/7 which will keep patients safe, decarbonize its operations and reduce costs to operate,” he said.
This landmark project signifies a crucial step forward, as medical facilities and other public sectors contemplate hydrogen as a future fuel source.
Cas Rosenberg
“As grid-related power failures continue to expose hospitals to financial risk and reputational damage, it has never been more important to build resilience,” said Cas Rosenberg, from project collaborator ABB’s power protection business development.
“Moving to a GenCell hydrogen-powered backup solution, the Hillel Yaffe Medical Center now has a reliable power supply 24/7 which will keep patients safe, decarbonize its operations and reduce costs to operate,” he said.
Israel is among the first countries in the world to stage the movement of hydrogen fuel cells on the country’s roads and the cooperation between these companies positions Israel as one of the most advanced countries in the world.
Yaniv Shirazi, CEO of Colmobil
Israel’s hydrogen power potential is so high that it’s attracting looks from other countries. During an interview in April, Romanian energy minister Virgil Popescu told The Jerusalem Post that there were discussions going on regarding Romania’s use of Israeli hydrogen technology.
“I think that’s a huge opportunity for cooperation between [Israeli and Romanian] companies,” he said. “Both countries working together can make a lot of progress in the field of hydrogen, which we see as the fuel of the future.”
It’s worth mentioning that hydrogen fuel is only a zero-carbon fuel source if the source material that it’s extracted from is zero-carbon. If the fuel used to produce the hydrogen is a pollutant, then the carbon footprint of the original source is passed down to the hydrogen.
While GenCell is a big proponent of so-called “green hydrogen,” which is produced from water and creates no carbon emissions, ultimately the choice of the fuel that goes into their system belongs to the owners. Shelli Zargary, marketing strategy and content manager at GenCell, explained that the hospital is planning to keep things as green as possible. “In the first phase, we’re using medical grade hydrogen in relatively small amounts – they don’t need more because it’s a backup,” she said.
In the second phase, the plan is to produce solar energy via panels installed in their parking lots, which can be used to produce hydrogen fuel from water via electrolysis – a process that extracts hydrogen from water with none of the environment-strangling byproducts that many have surely grown to love at this point.
If this project and others like it go well, it could mean big progress for hydrogen as a primary renewable energy – perhaps even allowing fossil fuels to take some well-deserved and much-needed time off.