Both inside and outside, the BTEK building of the Zamudio Science and Technology Park has a futuristic look. It is mainly designed for the 3rd and 4th ESO and Baccalaureate students to visit, and the design aims to be attractive to them, but not only to them. “We want to socialize technology, that society feels that technology is part of it; even if we are not experts, it is good to know how things work, so we can be more aware of the consequences of our use,” says Xabier Díaz, director of the center. He has caught us, in a double pyramid that today will have no more visitors than Argia.

The BTEK website asserts the desire to disseminate the culture of science and technology among society and, at the same time, promote the vocation in students. The Bizkaia Science and Technology Park began in 2005 the first steps towards the creation of BTEK – Life Technology – and in 2009 created the BTEK Foundation, the park itself, the Confederation of Ikastolas, Elhuyar, Tecnalia and SPRI. The building, which was inaugurated in 2010, has remained in Bilbao.

On guided tours, teenage students talk about the closest side of technology. Of the things they touch every day, or at least they won't be completely weird. This cannot be summarized here, as we want to focus our attention on the final workshop of the visit. Hydrogen and Renewable Energy Workshop.

Zero Hytechpark Axis: hydrogen

Bizkaia Technology Park collaborates with other Spanish state parks in the EU’s Zero Hytechpark project. It is a pilot project whose ultimate objective is the achievement of sustainable technology parks. “There are many fields to work, and one of them is hydrogen,” Díaz explains. In the technical aspect, that is, in the research, it is the Fundación Hydrogen Aragón that is fully responsible for this. The Bizkaia Park has been responsible for the dissemination of the project.

Many paths can be opened in search of sustainability, according to Díaz. But in this case, as has been said, hydrogen is the main axis. “One of the problems with renewables is that in most cases they depend on external conditions: wind, sun, waves... There are times when too much is produced and cannot be accumulated. At other times, however, it is missing.” The aim is to keep the surplus for when there is a shortage, but doing so is not as simple as saying it. And one of the solutions could be hydrogen.

Hydrogen, energy vector

In the last part of the visit to BTEK, a video shows students the possibilities of hydrogen. Thanks to it you will know that hydrogen can be produced by electrolysis with unconsumed electricity. In order not to waste the details of the process, let us say that we have water at the beginning, and that with the incorporation of electric current we will get hydrogen and oxygen. Another more effective route is the extraction of hydrocarbons. But this system releases CO2, so it doesn't seem that it can easily marry the sustainability goal we're looking for.

In one way or another, we will be able to use this hydrogen in the future to obtain energy, but the problem is that it must be stored immediately, if it does not go. You have to keep in mind that it's the lightest chemical element in the universe, so you can't find it in the form of gas on Earth, because it's much lighter than air and it runs away.

Hydrogen is the fluid with the most energy per unit of mass and when used to obtain energy, combining it with oxygen, it does not generate waste. It is not surprising, therefore, the announcement by several researchers that the economy of the future will be that of hydrogen. Why is that not the case at the moment? Above all because of the difficulties of accumulation.

The methods used for the storage of hydrogen are mainly two, as indicated in the abovementioned video: gas or hydride, i.e. combined with a metal and therefore in a solid form. “If it is stored as a gas, it must be kept under great pressure,” explains Xabier Díaz, “due to the low density of hydrogen at the usual pressure and temperature.” Of course that is a hindrance. On the one hand, because to get these high pressures you have to spend energy; on the other hand, because it takes time to pressurize. Filling the tank with a hydrogen car takes longer to fill the gas tank. That's shorter than charging the battery from an electric car.

“Still on the experimental level”

The storage of hydrogen in the form of a hydride avoids the need to pressurize and is therefore not so dangerous - hydrogen is a very flammable gas - but it can hardly serve, for example, for a car: to obtain the hydride it is necessary to combine the gas with very heavy metals, so the deposits are too heavy. They can be a good alternative for the home as hydrogen technology develops. “We have to keep in mind that all this is still on a very experimental level,” Diaz Silvestre says. One of the main research lines of Fundación Hydrogen Aragón, which cooperates with the Bizkaia Technological Park in the Zero Hytech project, is to find the most suitable metal to form hydruros.

These difficulties are not hidden from young visitors to BTEK. The goal is for them to know that hydrogen is an option with advantages and disadvantages. In any case, drivers avoid disturbing students with theoretical background explanations. After watching the video and receiving a series of explanations about renewable energies, the practical part of the factory begins immediately. First of all, they must cause an electrolysis reaction. Second, after breaking the water molecule and separating the oxygen from the hydrogen, they'll take advantage of the second one to get energy in a fuel cell. The process is inverse to the previous one: the union of oxygen – this time taken directly from the air – with hydrogen in the reaction that provides water, electricity and heat. With this electricity, finally, a small car will be mobilized. Can you drive a real hydrogen car when you're an adult?