Accelerating Australian Hydrogen Industry through Research Collaboration

Hydrogen Links – Industry Focused Academic Research 

Webinar series by HSA

with the support of Academic and Industry Collaborators

Webinar Info…

Topic: Accelerating Australian Hydrogen Industry through Research Collaboration

This will be a hybrid event followed by a tour of laboratory facilities.

This event will also be the launch of the Australian Hydrogen Research Network, and feature presentations from Dr. Andrew Dicks, Dr. Patrick Hartley, and Dr. Anthony O’Mullane.

Agenda: 

• 11:00am – 11:30am AEST Arrival, networking over tea and coffee [In-person]
• 11:30am – 12:30pm AEST Presentation and QnA [Online and In-person]
• 12:30pm – 01:30pm AEST Networking over light lunch [In-person]
• 01:30pm – 02:00pm AEST Tour of laboratory facilities [In-person]

Andrew Dicks has had an extensive career in industry and academia working on a diverse portfolio of energy projects with a focus on innovation and driving solutions to emerging industry challenges. After graduating with BSc and PhD from Loughborough University in the UK he worked for over 25 years in the technology arm of the UK gas industry where he developed expertise in gas processing and fuel cell systems. In the 1990s his skills as a project leader led to the establishment of one of Europe’s foremost fuel cell research and technology teams. His work was recognized by the Institute of Gas Engineers with the award of the Henry Jones (London) Medal in 1994. With 12 international patents to his credit, some of his technology innovations are now incorporated in commercial fuel cell systems.

Andrew is the co-author of Fuel Cell Systems Explained, a widely-acclaimed textbook published by Wiley that has been translated into both Japanese and Chinese. Other publications include several book chapters and over 70 peer-reviewed research articles. Dr Dicks is on the editorial boards of three tier-one energy journals, and has given several keynote lectures in fuel cells and hydrogen energy at international events.

As a senior research fellow at the University of Queensland, Andrew was appointed by CSIRO in 2006 to lead the National Hydrogen Materials Alliance, a cluster of 12 Australian university research groups and public bodies. He became a Director of the Australian Institute of Energy in 2004, and in 2008 was Chair of the World Hydrogen Energy Conference that was held in Brisbane. The success of this event led to the formation of the Australian Association for Hydrogen Energy (AAHE) which under the leadership of Dr Dicks hosted the World Hydrogen Technologies Convention in Sydney in 2015. As President of the AAHE, Dr Dicks has continued to promote hydrogen as one of the options for decarbonising the energy business. More broadly he has interests in renewable energy, notably solar energy, off-grid and other hybrid systems and electrochemical energy storage. He has assisted start-up ventures as an independent consultant, and as an adjunct Principal Research Fellow at Griffith University continues to be involved in supervising post-graduate researchers and to act as an examiner for PhD and MSc theses.

Andrew has undertaken many reviews of energy research programs, institutes and ventures. This includes due diligence for funding agencies and government agencies as far afield as Australia, Japan, Canada, and Sweden. He has assessed Energy R&D projects for research councils in both the UK, Singapore and Australia. His cutting-edge knowledge of energy technology combined with experience in both industry and academia, places him in a unique position to be able to assess the viability of new paradigms in energy supply and distribution, and to lead the research and development of new hydrogen energy systems.

Dr. Patrick Hartley, Senior Leadership role in CSIRO; Adjunct Professor, RMIT

Dr. Patrick Hartley is the leader of CSIRO’s Hydrogen Industry Mission. In this role, he is responsible for developing the strategy and operating model for a major new national initiative which is focussed on delivering R&D partnerships which enable the scaleup of Australia’s domestic and export hydrogen industries.

In 2018, whilst leading CSIRO’s Hydrogen Energy Systems Future Science Platform, he worked with the Chief Scientist of Australia, Dr. Alan Finkel, leading the taskforce which delivered the briefing paper ‘Hydrogen for Australia’s Future’ which was presented to the Council of Australian Government’s (COAG) Energy council in August 2018, and which laid the foundations for the development of Australia’s National Hydrogen Strategy, which was subsequently delivered and adopted by federal state and territory governments in November 2019.

Also in 2018 he co-led the development of CSIRO’s National Hydrogen Roadmap to bring together industry and government groups to perform technoeconomic evaluation of Australia’s potential hydrogen value chains (including export). It has been highly cited nationally and internationally. In 2019, he conceived and co-authored the study ‘Hydrogen Research, Development & Demonstration: Priorities and opportunities for Australia’ which was delivered in November 2019 as an input into Australia’s National Hydrogen Strategy.

Dr. Anthony O’Mullane, Professor at QUT

Dr. Anthony O’Mullane received his BSc Chemistry degree (1997) and PhD degree (2001) from University College Cork (Ireland).  He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC), the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (FRACI) and Queensland Academy of Arts and Sciences (FQAS).  He has published over 240 journal articles in the area of electrochemical and materials science.  He is currently an Editorial Board Member of ChemElectroChem and ChemPhysChem. He is an electrochemist who predominantly works on developing materials with energy and environmental remediation applications,  electrochemical water splitting to produce green hydrogen, CO2 conversion into useful products and the electrochemical synthesis of ammonia.

Next Month’s Webinar info…

December 5: Hydrogen research and cluster initiatives. David Whittam, Program Manager Hydrogen, CO2CRC

Registration Available Soon

About this webinar series…

The Hydrogen Society of Australia (HSA) has grown considerably over the past year, with successful initiatives which have engaged junior researchers, such as our poster competition on the Australian Hydrogen Day (2022 10 08).  This year, we wish to further bridge the gap between industry and academia, launching the Academics webinar series, on a monthly basis from May onwards. The objective of this initiative is both to raise the level of industry awareness and expertise, and deepen the relationships between industry and academia within the HSA.

Prominent Australian academics will be invited to provide a short overview of their research areas (20-30 mins), across the hydrogen ecosystem (ie. hydrogen production, storage, and utilization), followed by an industry focussed Q&A (30 mins).

Find out more here: Hydrogen Links – Industry Focused Academic Research