Hydrogenera's story began long before it ever needed a name or a brand. Hydrogenera's story began at a parking lot in Druzhba neighbourhood, in Sofia. In order to light up a hand-assembled electrolyser you need straight current. In a non-professional environment, the easiest way to obtain straight current is from a car dynamo. And the electrolyzer is tied down to the dynamo with a hose. How does one know whether hydrogen is coming out through the hose? Well, you light it up with a lighter!... “
The efficiency was below zero, the engine almost stopped, and the flame was hard to see with a naked eye. But that was more than enough! Once you see that you can produce fuel from water, the idea gets lodged in your brain and everything that makes sense gets locked into the equation water = energy." "There are laws written long before us. Hydrogen is not our discovery. All companies and researchers are using as stepping stones the same principles of the electrolysis process.
We dared to go outside the box, not to accept the rules, but to see if there was another way. Our way!" Two maverick engineers, Drago, a graduate from the University of Chemical Technology and Metallurgy and Bobi, a graduate from the Technical University, armed with ideas, dreams, and most of all - stubbornness, set out on a trial-and-error path with the tireless enthusiasm of rebels, convinced they could change the status quo.
Today's discovery of hydrogen is not a discovery, but a renaissance. What has drastically changed nowadays is the extraordinary technological improvements and the ability to electronically encode, program and harness a chemical process in a controlled environment.
Drago and Bobby are joined by Acho, a doyen in the field machine programming. He began coding the process from start to finish. When they started, 15 years ago, hydrogen was not at all a hype, on the contrary it was crossed out, declared unprofitable and inapplicable for industrial use. For 15 years, the three of them have been overturning the status quo and proving everybody wrong with every completed project. It's wonderful that along the way they found more enthusiasts, unafraid of foregone conclusions, ready to rewrite the rules.
They still keep the first car they managed to start and drive around entirely on hydrogen. "It takes us back in time to a field, to a Renault of indeterminate age, with the mileage scrolled hundreds of times, a long hose hooked up to a 200 bar bottle full of hydrogen.
At the first turn of the key, there were two scenarios - either it would start, or we would be remembered with a big bang. No one ever wrote about a big bang at an abandoned field, not much was written about a hydrogen internal combustion engine running on hydrogen either, but soon we will retell this story to a larger audience and with a more advanced car." Through gaining knowledge and experience they understand that many solutions exist and Hydrogenera is part of a global wave of change. They are now working to address the pressing need for sustainable energy, to harness the climate change and reduce pollution. They continue to look through the critical eyes of engineers, but they always bring along the childlike curiosity and belief that they can make the impossible possible. Madness and enthusiasm are their primary advisors and they are not shy to admit.
After all doesn't it take at least a little bit of madness to have the courage to make a difference?