The webinar on “Integration of energy storage and hydrogen infrastructures in future energy systems” was a first webinar event co-organised by EPSRC Hydrogen Integration for Accelerated Energy Transition (HI-ACT) Hub and Supergen Energy Storage Network+ (SESN+) ECR Committees members, led by Dr Tong Zhang and Dr Chun Sing Lai from Hi-ACT and SESN+, respectively.
The two speakers are:

 

Prof Seamus Garvey, Professor of Dynamics, University of Nottingham, talk title: Hydrogen Storage: looking after all of the exergies.

 

Dr Hossein Ameli, Research Fellow, Imperial College London, talk title: Role of hydrogen in providing flexibility in future energy systems.

 

The webinar was opened by Dr Zhang and Dr Lai where they both respectively introduced the two networks. The webinar then proceeds with Prof Garvey delivering a 20-min talk, followed by Dr Ameli delivered a 20-min talk. At the end of the webinar, there were few questions asked and the speakers managed to respond on time. The webinar ended at 2.00 pm. More than 70 people have registered for the webinar and the peak attendance reached 40 people. Thanks are given to the speakers and organisers including Sian Allister, Norihan Mohd-Taib, and Amruta Pravin Joshi.

 

To view the webinar, please follow this link

HI-ACT webinar: Spatial considerations of Hydrogen and CCUS in modelling

We would like to thank everyone for attending the shared webinar between ourselves and the UKCCSRC research community. The event was chaired by Prof Sara Walker of University of Birmingham and Richard Marsh of Cardiff University. It featured presentations from Daniel Pugh and Tong Zhang of Cardiff University, and Ben Wetenhall of Newcastle University.

 

The webinar is available to view on the UKCCSRC website here, along with the other webinars that UKCCSRC have hosted.

 

 

 

 

Joint EPSRC Hydrogen Hubs Launch

HI-ACT and our sister hub UK Hy-Res recently came together for a joint launch event hosted in Birmingham. It was a great opportunity to outline both hubs planned activities and also explore the collaboration opportunities over the next 5 years.

Please see our news article about it here for more information.

 

 

 

Prof Sara Walker to give keynote speech at the World Fuel Cell Conference 2023, entitled “Hydrogen integration into energy systems: the glue for net zero.”

The 2023 World Fuel Cell Conference (WFCC) is a multi-disciplinary conference that covers the latest developments and advancements in fuel cells, from fundamentals, to advanced materials, design, engineering, products, and applications. It will be of particular value and interest to those in the relevant fields.

 

Venue

The conference will be held in Imperial College London, UK on 11-13 December 2023.

 

Conference format

The conference will be composed of the following events and activities:

General contributed abstracts/papers presented orally in technical sessions and/or by posters.

Keynote abstracts/papers presented by invited speakers.

Tutorials about fuel cell and hydrogen-related technology by inviting leading researchers.

 

More info and registration

For more information about the conference and for registration, please find the link to the conference website here.

HI-ACT Webinar: Low carbon cost effective hydrogen solutions

 

Last month, HI-ACT hosted the Low Carbon cost effective hydrogen solutions webinar. The webinar featured two presentations. The first was from Dr Yongliang Yan on ‘Chemical looping technologies for low-carbon production.’ The second was from Dr Hossein Ameli, entitled ‘The Role and Value of Hydrogen in Supporting Cost-Effective Net-Zero Futures’. Q&A’s were held after each talk. The webinar is available to view below, and can be found along with our other webinar’s & podcasts on the HI-ACT YouTube Channel.

 

Speaker Bio’s:

Dr Yongliang Yan:

Dr Yan is a research associate at Newcastle University working on the high-temperature solid-looping systems for carbon capture, thermochemical energy storage and low-carbon hydrogen production supervised by Prof. Ian Metcalfe. His research is also focused on techno-economic analysis and harnessing the power of machine learning/AI in energy engineering and material developments.

 

 

HI-ACT Online Workshop: The hydrogen – water – environment – energy nexus

In the transition to a hydrogen economy, there are many whole system challenges that must be overcome that requires a multi-vector and disciplined approach. For example, hydrogen production through electrolysis (‘green hydrogen’), or through steam methane reformation with carbon capture (‘blue hydrogen’), requires the availability and waste management of water. However, water utilities and environmental agencies are traditionally not engaged with energy operators or regulators. This green and blue hydrogen production also impacts the electricity and gas networks, given the demand for electricity to run the electrolyser or carbon capture technology, and to manage injection of the hydrogen gas into the gas network.

 

HI-ACT would like to invite you to an online ½ a day facilitated workshop titled ‘The hydrogen – water – environment – energy nexus’ which will bring together key stakeholders spanning across hydrogen producers, water utilities, regulators, gas and electricity network operators and environmental agencies. In this workshop we will discuss key research questions for the water and hydrogen sectors to tackle sustainable, whole system challenges across hydrogen integration e.g., common business models, better investment/planning strategies, supply chain risk, water use, water demand, water availability, and wastewater management.

Please note that this workshop will aim to have a focus on English stakeholders, with the intention that we will run similar workshops with Scottish, Welsh, and Northern Irish stakeholders soon after.

 

Date: 4th May
Time: 1:00 – 4:00pm
Location: Online, joining details and agenda will be sent prior to the workshop
Please register here.

 

Lower Saxony event on November 21st 2022.

Prof. David Flynn was an invited speaker to the Lower Saxony - Scotland Joint Forum. 

 

The Joint Forum is a two-day event organised by Leuphana University Lüneburg together with the European Centre for Advanced Studies (ECAS) and the University of Glasgow. The forum was exploring how national and regional challenges in energy sustainability and security, including factors such as workforce resilience, supply chain growth and investment,  can benefit from international collaboration. During the discussion the role of research and knowledge transfer through joint research partners were centre stage. 

 

Prof Flynn stated that “whilst it’s clear that Germany represents a significant export market and Scotland has a world leading position on up-scaling green hydrogen, significant advances in energy infrastructure, regulation and business models for hydrogen need to be advanced. At this time, Scotland and Germany need the right financial mechanisms, both private and public investment, to support Joint Venture Partnerships in both research and energy supply chain development. This requires solutions that have to overcome existing barriers which are direct result of the UKs ongoing negotiations with the EU.”

 

HI-ACT Engagement Workshops

Thank you to everyone who attended our in person workshops held in Glasgow in July 2022.

 

 

63 stakeholders attended the two workshops where we discussed the integration challenges across the economic, technical, social, environmental, regulatory and political factors. All of these will influence how the UK can grow its Hydrogen economy, domestically and internationally.

 

Resources used at the workshop: 

HI-ACT Workshop Hydrogen pathway Poster 

HI-ACT Hydrogen Circular Economy Poster 

 

HI-ACT Workshop Briefing Podcast

 

The challenges raised were important for helping the HI-ACT team to set the research questions to address across the duration of the 5 year HI-ACT Hub.

 

To find out more about our engagements read our Consultation Learnings page.

 

 

HI-ACT Presentation: Dynamics of the Transition to Renewable Hydrogen by Dr Reza Fazeli

Dynamics of the Transition to Renewable Hydrogen by Dr Reza Fazeli

 

This pre-recorded presentation delivered by Dr Reza Fazeli from Australian National University talks about the dynamics of transitioning to a renewable hydrogen economy. He discusses policy challenges, hydrogen markets and key research questions that still need to be addressed.

 

Speaker Biography: Dr Reza Fazeli is a Research Fellow at Zero-Carbon Energy for the Asia-Pacific Grand Challenge. He joined the ANU College of Engineering and Computer Science in January 2020. He spent the previous 6 years as a Research Analyst and Adjunct lecturer at the University of Iceland, focusing on trajectories towards a sustainable energy systems. His main research interests are energy systems modelling, analysis of energy policies towards decarbonization and Multi-criteria decision analysis for energy planning. He received his PhD in Sustainable Energy systems from University of Porto, MIT-Portugal program. He has an MSc in Energy Systems Engineering from Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, Iran and a BSc in Mechanical Engineering from University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

 

HI-ACT Webinar: Future Hydrogen Systems – A North East and North West Perspective

Future Hydrogen Systems – A North East and North West Perspectives

Developing a hydrogen economy is a whole-UK story. Listen to our two experts, Professor Joeseph Howe from Chester University and Keith Owen from Northern Gas Networks, discuss recent and upcoming hydrogen system initiatives. Both speakers gave insights in to the North West Hydrogen Alliance , HyNet the backbone for hydrogen distribution and Whitby and Redcar Hydrogen Trials. The webinar ended with a great discussion around public perceptions on hydrogen, future plans and what barriers need to be overcome to a fully integrated hydrogen economy.

 

click here or on webinar title to access.

 

Speaker Biographies:
Professor Joseph Howe has extensive experience in working interchangeably with industry on major environmental projects and initiatives across the UK, including the opportunities afforded to UK industry in delivering of the £600bn of infrastructure projects by 2030. Joe is pro-actively engaged with the UK’s emerging clean growth agenda including his roles on the UK Decarbonised of Gas Alliance, chairing of the NW Hydrogen Alliance and being the North West academic lead for the UK Industrial Decarbonisation Research and Innovation Centre. Joe is particularly passionate about the STEM skills and sits on the Board of the Department of Education: Engineering Construction Industries Training Board.

 

Keith Owen is Head of Systems Development and Energy Strategy at Northern Gas Networks. His areas of interest and skill sets align to the identification of new and existing technologies to progress the transition to low carbon gas infrastructure, to support the government climate changes targets (NetZero) through to 2050. He is responsible to research across a range of themes such as digital, heat, transport, customer vulnerability and whole systems looking across gas, electricity water and communication networks, considering the energy transition to net zero through a whole energy systems approach. Keith is actively involved with a range of universities, notably Newcastle, Durham and Northumbria, a board member of the North East Energy Catalyst, a member of the Industrial Advisory Board for the Supergen Network and, the recently finished project National Centre for Energy Systems Integration (CESI). He also chairs the IGEM Hydrogen committee tasked with management and development of new hydrogen standards for the gas industry.