Towards A Hydrogen Economy - 29 Feb 2012

The Birmingham Cleantech Cluster event on 29 February 2012 was hosted by Eversheds and focused on the potential for hydrogen and fuel cells.

This event provided a summary of the latest developments and identify business opportunities  as hydrogen fuel finally has a route map to market for vehicular and stationary  purposes.  The recent launch of the UK H2 Mobility initiative involving 16 interested parties to develop a definitive action plan for the roll-out of hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles to consumers by 2014/15, coupled with the ongoing activities of several networks such as those based around Birmingham and the London Hydrogen Partnership, are designed to establish the necessary infrastructure which the proven and continually improving technologies require to gain market acceptance.

Birmingham has been a focus for leading innovation and technology development in hydrogen research for many years.  A combination of  world class researchers at Birmingham and Coventry Universities and a range of initiatives to develop the hydrogen economy in the region have created a centre of excellence to support the market development of this exciting but also challenging energy source.  The hydrogen filling station at Birmingham University, the British Midland Hydrogen Forum with the Midlands Hydrogen Ring, International Hydrogen Research Showcase and the West Midlands’ CABLED are some of the key initiatives as the hydrogen economy develops in the region.

This event provided a status report on what has been achieved, set out what is going to happen next and identified what new contributions can be made to bring a sustainable hydrogen economy into reality.
 
Speakers and panelists

Graham Cooley - CEO, ITM Power - his presentation is here

Peter Speers - Programme Director, CENEX

Rupert Gammon - Senior Research Fellow, De Montfort University

Kevin Kendall - School of Chemical Engineering, Birmingham University

Keith Budden - Strategic Partnership Manager, E.ON Sustainable Energy

  Delegates included

* Entrepreneurs - building new cleantech businesses  

* Universities/research institutes - cultivating new clean technologies  

* Angel investors - seed funding local cleantech start-ups

* Venture capital Investors - financing cleantech innovations

* City/regional administrations - promoting the adoption of clean technologies

* Development agencies - fostering innovation and industry

Cleantech Cluster Events are organised by Cleantech Investor Ltd, the publisher of Cleantech magazine, and Rushlight Events. Cleantech Cluster events provide a forum for debate and interaction between the many stakeholders involved in a Cleantech Cluster.

Attendance at Cleantech Cluster events costs £25 (plus VAT) per person.

Speakers and panellists

 Dr Graham Cooley

Graham joined ITM on 29 June 2009 as CEO, before which he was CEO of Sensortec and Universal Sensors, founding CEO of Metalysis Ltd, a spin out of Cambridge University, and founding CEO of Antenova Ltd.

Graham spent 11 years in the power industry developing conductive polymers, fuel cells, batteries and energy storage technologies. He was Business Development Manager for National Power Plc and International Power Plc and developed the Regenesys energy storage technology which was acquired by RWE from Innogy. Graham specialises in turning intellectual property and technology into products; identifying the product strategy and business model required to enter a target market and generate growth.

Keith Budden

Following his studies at the University of London, Keith worked with international development agencies in East and West Africa, where he managed community development and environmental projects.

In 2001 Keith moved to Birmingham to become Director of an environmental charity and in 2005 he joined Be Birmingham, the City’s local strategic partnership, as Head of Sustainability working across the public, private, voluntary and community sectors. Keith helped Birmingham win a Green Flag from the Audit Commission for tackling climate change.

Keith established Birmingham Energy Savers as the UK's largest local authority-run renewable energy and housing retrofit programme. He managed and developed Birmingham City Council's commercial waste and domestic recycling programme and delivered a new business model, increasing recycling rates and income generation.

Prof Kevin Kendall

Kevin has been researching hydrogen and fuel cells over the past 30 years. He was responsible for the first hydrogen filling station in England, to fuel hydrogen vehicles running on the Birmingham campus since March 2008. There are now four stations in the Midlands and there should be eight by 2012, with the prospect of hundreds of hydrogen hybrid vehicles by 2015. Support from many companies and funding agencies has made this possible, especially Microcab, RDM, EPSRC, TSB and AWM. This has been a remarkably successful project for training engineering students in the Doctoral Training Centre funded by EPSRC to create 100 new PhDs.

Kevin is also known for fracture mechanics and research on adhesion. He is the author of Molecular Adhesion and its Applications, published by Kluwer in 2001, and recently co-authored Adhesion of Cells, Viruses and Nanoparticles (Springer 2010) dealing with complex biological adhesion processes.

Dr Rupert Gammon

Rupert is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Energy and Sustainable Development, De Montfort University.  He is working on the Complex Adaptive Systems, Cognitive Agents and Distributed Energy (CASCADE) Project, which is investigating the smart grid concept using complexity science.  Until recently, Rupert was Managing Director of Bryte Energy Ltd, providing consultancy on the design and implementation of hydrogen and renewable energy systems, low carbon transport, smart grids and sustainable energy strategy.  He conceived and implemented the HARI project, the UK's first integrated hydrogen and renewable energy system.

Rupert co-founded the UK Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Association, is the UK representative for the International Energy Agency's Wind Power and Hydrogen Integration Group and serves on the Advisory Group for the UK Sustainable Hydrogen Energy Consortium (UK-SHEC).

Dr Peter Speers

Peter has worked for CENEX, the UK’s centre of excellence for low carbon and fuel cell technologies, since 2006.  As well as responsibility for CENEX’s activities as part of the Transport Knowledge Transfer Network, he has been the lead author on a number of strategic technomarket studies, including the influential 2008 report Investigation of the Scope of the Transport Sector to Switch to Electric Vehicles and Plug-in Hybrid Vehicles published in conjunction with Arup.

In the area of hydrogen, Peter has authored regional technology strategies for Bristol and the East Midlands and has additionally overseen and reported a small fleet trial of hydrogen-powered vans on behalf of the Royal Mail.  He is currently leading CENEX’s work on the EU-funded HyTEC hydrogen vehicle demonstration project in London and Copenhagen.

Peter obtained a PhD in Chemistry from King’s College London, and did postdoctoral work at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Manchester.  He has an MBA from the Open University.