A new laboratory for the design of cars and reengineering of hydrogen systems has started work at KuzSTU (a member of the REC "Kuzbass")

At the Institute of Information Technology, Mechanical Engineering and Motor Transport at the Department of Automobile Operation, a new laboratory for designing cars and reengineering hydrogen systems has begun work. Students will learn how to design cars and improve them taking into account global environmental trends. Repair and equipping of the laboratory was carried out jointly with the industrial partners of KuzSTU – LLC "Hydrogen Systems Siberia" and LLC "Alternative Technologies".

In December 2022, KuzSTU Rector Alexey Yakovlev and Director of Hydrogen Systems of Siberia LLC Pavel Romanov signed a cooperation agreement. The company specializes in the implementation of the "GGS" gas generation system in cars: it implies an electrolyzer that, under the influence of direct current, separates water molecules into components of hydrogen and oxygen. The partners immediately decided that, among other joint projects, they would create a laboratory.

Now science should become the basis of our technological independence, so we pay a lot of attention to it. It has already become a good tradition at KuzSTU to open places together with interested partners to create innovative solutions. The laboratory that we are opening today is aimed at creating new automobile and transport systems. The whole world is now moving towards a gradual transition to low–carbon footprint systems and hydrogen-fueled engines - one of such systems. The development of these technologies will improve the quality of ecology and improve the motor qualities of cars. For Kuzbass, where there is a lot of technology, this is a leap towards low carbon," said Kirill Kostikov, Vice–Rector for Research and International Cooperation.

First of all, students of the profile "Automotive equipment in transport technologies" will study in the laboratory – last year KuzSTU for the first time opened a set for this program within the framework of a specialty. In the new learning space, the students will study the operational properties of cars and their work processes, learn how to design axonometric models of cars. Also, future engineers will look for applications of hydrogen fuel technologies, for this purpose a special stand is placed in the laboratory – it reproduces in detail the design of a hydrogen power system and a hydrogen generation generator. In addition, the software of the hydrogen power supply system is installed on the laboratory computers.

Of course, this laboratory will contribute to the fact that the specialists we will now graduate under the new program will be head and shoulders above the specialists of other universities, because not every university can give such skills. I am sure that this laboratory will be useful to our students, teachers and industrial partners," Dmitry Stenin, Director of the Institute of Information Technology, Mechanical Engineering and Motor Transport, addressed the guests.

According to the head of the Department of car Operation Andrey Kudrevatykh, the demand for specialists in this profile is great. Thanks to the specialization, students will gain in-depth knowledge and become highly qualified engineers of transport and technological means.

Cars and transport technologies are among the top 50 priority areas of development of the Russian Federation. According to our new training program, we have already received budget places for the next year: 50 full-time and 25 part-time. The students who joined us this fall will graduate as high-class engineers in five years. Perhaps soon they will get behind the wheel of cars running on innovative fuel, which we will study in this laboratory, – said Andrey Kudrevatykh.

Numerous industrial partners of the university in the field of mechanical engineering came to congratulate KuzSTU on the opening of the laboratory. Pavel Romanov, Director of Hydrogen Systems Siberia LLC, announced that the new laboratory is also open to specialists of enterprises who are ready to learn how to integrate hydrogen systems.

In the near future, we will begin training a special group on the integration of hydrogen systems on internal combustion engines. Not only Kuzbass residents have a desire to study, we have received applications from five regions. We plan to conduct an educational course in a few months. The integration of hydrogen systems will be considered primarily in relation to diesel engines," Pavel Romanov said.

Recall that KuzSTU and Hydrogen Systems of Siberia are also conducting research on the hydrogen topic – this is an experiment on the operation of a hydrogen-powered car, in which researchers are currently testing a Daewoo Nexia car with a hydrogen generator installed in it.