The hydrogen bicycle, a project ran by professors and students from Politehnica University Timisoara

The hydrogen bicycle, a project ran by professors and students from Politehnica University Timisoara

A group of professors and students from Politehnica University Timișoara set out to create a hydrogen-powered bicycle as part of a larger project, which aims to educate and raise awareness among the general public about renewable energy and energy efficiency.

The project is entitled Romanian Network for New Energy Solutions (RONNES), coordinated by Politehnica University Timișoara, in partnership with Timiș County School Inspectorate and Hunedoara County School Inspectorate and is worth 185,225 euros, financed by Norwegian Funds under the coordination of Innovation Norway. The project benefits from the coordination of a team with thorough expertise in the field, which recently completed another research project in the field of hydrogen-based energy (the Code-PEM project).

The project launch conference that took place on Tuesday, May 23, 2023 at the UPT Library was attended by teaching staff from Politehnica University Timisoara, 25 schools in Timis county and teachers from Hunedoara county joined the event via video call.

In the opening, the rector of Politehnica University Timisoara, assoc. prof. Florin Drăgan spoke about the projects and events organized by UPT, the general inspector of Timiș County School Inspectorate, prof. Aura Danielescu, highlighted the good collaboration with Politehnica University Timisoara and their openness to the challenges faced by pre-university education, and prof. dr. eng. Corneliu Crăciunescu gave an overview of the project.

The team was joined by Corratec, a company that donated an electric bicycle that the Politehnica University Timisoara, guided by the teachers involved in the project, will try to transform into a hydrogen-powered bike.

The project encourages high school and university students, but also the general public, to engage with the offered activities, whose purpose is increasing interest for green energy and promoting available solutions, thus contributing to society’s transition from fossil fuel-based energy to clean energy.

To carry out the project, 50 teachers were selected with the support of the county school inspectorates (25 from Timiș and 25 from Hunedoara) who will attend training courses on renewable energy, energy efficiency, hydrogen generation and storage, fuel cells, solar, wind and hydro-thermal energy. The know-how will, then, be disseminated among about 4000 students from the two counties. Teaching staff from the Faculty of Industrial Chemistry and Environmental Engineering from Politehnica University Timișoara will prepare educational materials on green energy and will give presentations to school teaching staff, under the coordination of the county school inspectorates in Timiș and Hunedoara.

Thermal-imaging cameras were also purchased for the project and high school students will be able to see how heat is lost in their schools and they will learn about methods for increasing energy efficiency through the courses.

Various competitions with prizes for students will also be organized as part of the project, the first one (Aero Star) being set out to take place on Children’s Day as part of the Poli Kids Fest event on Știința Stadium. A poster competitions with the topic “The bicycle – green alternative” was also organized.

A series of activities are planned for reaching the project objectives:

• creating a focus group tackling the challenges of the project;
• establishing target groups for training and awareness campaigns, devising specific training activities in the fields of green energy production and use, scalable at the national level, with help from the Norwegian partner;
• developing competencies for teaching and active education in the field of green energy and energy efficiency;
• designing and implementing solutions for using green energy in products;
• creating an environment where information and support are available for those interested in the opportunities and challenges of the field;
• creating a framework for the general public to interact with scientist and stakeholders in the field of New Energy solutions;
• generating positive changes and motivating people to save energy and look for alternatives to the solutions used today;
• promoting stakeholders in the field of new energy with best practice examples.