Rushlight Energy Briefing – Hydrogen Economy: its real potential.

To register for this event, go to http://www.rushlightevents.com/briefings/energy-briefings/agenda/.

If hydrogen is going to gain traction in society, then now is the time for hydrogen vehicles, fuel cell CHP systems, hydrogen injection into the gas grid and hydrogen storage systems to take off.

With Japan seemingly leading the way in hydrogen vehicles, the development of fuel cell car models and the infrastructure to fuel them conveniently are evolving in tandem.  But for cars, does the better range of hydrogen fuel cells over batteries and the much more rapid refuelling process overcome the higher cost, and more debatably, lower efficiency  and safety concerns?

Stationary fuel cell systems, especially at the micro-CHP level, have been rolled out in numbers in Japan, South Korea and Germany.  The technologies continue to improve, with particular focus being given to fuel cell degradation and cost.  However, the significant improvements in gas boiler efficiency over the last decade and the drive to insulate buildings has made it more difficult for micro-CHP systems to break the stranglehold of the fossil-fuelled market incumbents.

Energy storage is undoubtedly the big topic in the energy sector currently.  Small amounts of hydrogen can be stored in pressurized vessels. Alternatively, solid metal hydrides or nanotubes can store hydrogen with a very high density. Very large amounts of hydrogen can be stored in man-made underground salt caverns.  So will hydrogen be seen as a key form of energy storage?

Direct uses of green hydrogen are also under development, e.g. as feedstock for the chemical and the petrochemical industry or blending with natural gas of up to 5 to 15% in natural gas pipelines. Electrolytic hydrogen can also be used for the production of synthetic liquid fuels from biomass, thereby increasing significantly the efficiency of the biomass utilization.

So, will the hydrogen economy now take off in the UK and where will the strongest market opportunities lie?  This Briefing will highlight the real opportunities for hydrogen now and seek to assess the remaining hurdles to the development of a fully-fledged hydrogen economy.

Agenda

5.30pm Registration

6.00pm Welcome – Andrew Bond, Smith & Williamson

6.10pm Introduction – Clive Hall, Rushlight Events

6.15pm Current status of the hydrogen economy – Ben Madden, Director, Element Energy

6.45pm The UK Roadmap for Hydrogen and support for achieving it – Harsh Pershad, Lead Technologist, Innovate UK

7.15pm Panel, augmented by

Bill Ireland, CEO Logan Energy
Mark Selby, CTO Ceres Power
Amanda Lyne, Managing Director UlemCo Ltd

8.00pm Networking

9.00pm Close