Energy transition and Hydrogen @Groningen symposium retrospective

The hydrogen energy transition is at our doorstep... But are we prepared? On February 3 the Engineering and Technology institute Groningen organized a symposium to discuss the latest technological developments and challenges for the Dutch R&D ecosystem.

Speakers from the University of Groningen (dr. Vasilis Kyriakou (ENTEG), dr. Francesco Maresca (ENTEG), prof. Paolo Pescarmona (ENTEG) and prof. Bart Kooi (RUG)) and from industrial parties (Martin van Agteren (GasUnie), dr. Nitte van Landschoot (Tata Steel), prof. dr. Arian Nijmeijer (Shell), dr. Erik Vegter (M2i) and dr. Carol Xiao (ISPT)) provided a diverse program and interesting discussions to the mostly online audience.

The symposium was organized in two sessions; the first was dedicated to prospects on hydrogen production and storage systems, while the second was dedicated to challenges for materials in hydrogen technologies such as transport. The event had also a highly interactive round table in which we discussed the point of view of industrial key players in hydrogen economy, as well as NWO's regarding funding schemes optimization in research.

We were very happy to see that the topic attracted great interest. Over 300 people coming from a diverse setting (academia, industry and governmental organizations from the Netherlands and abroad) registered for the meeting with participants at the same time peaking at approximately 200.

As follow-up we organize a seminar on “green steel made with hydrogen as reductant”by Prof. Dierk Raabe from the Max-Planck Institut für Eisenforschung, Düsseldorf, Germany. Link with more information