Hydrogen and the energy transition
Human societies have changed their energy base before. Wood gave way to coal, coal to oil, and oil to natural gas. Each shift changed the carbon content of the fuel, and each created new industries, new infrastructure and new dependencies. The next shift needs to reduce carbon emissions while meeting rising demand for energy.
Hydrogen offers a route to store, move and use energy without carbon at the point of use. It can be produced from renewable electricity, from fossil sources with capture, or from nuclear heat and power. It can serve as a fuel, an energy carrier and a feedstock for chemicals and synthetic fuels.
The idea is old. In 1874, Jules Verne imagined water as a future fuel in The Mysterious Island. The engineering took much longer. The modern hydrogen community began to organise in the 1970s, when a group of researchers under Prof. Dr. Nejat Veziroglu formed the International Association for Hydrogen Energy.
A conference series with a practical purpose
The first conference devoted to hydrogen energy took place in Miami in March 1974. The first World Hydrogen Energy Conference followed in 1976, and the series has been held every two years since then. Each edition brings research, policy and industry into the same programme.
The 23rd edition was held in Istanbul from 26 to 30 June 2022. It was organised under the International Association for Hydrogen Energy, with the National Hydrogen Association of Turkey as the local host. Prof. Dr. Ibrahim Dincer chaired the conference.
The programme covered production, separation, storage, delivery, conversion and use, together with safety, standards, economics and policy. It included plenary and keynote talks, parallel sessions, posters, specialised sessions, an exhibition and a social programme.
Why Istanbul
Istanbul is the only metropolis that sits on two continents. It is a centre of culture, finance and transport, and it has a long history of connecting different communities. For a conference built on international exchange, that setting was part of the argument.
Turkey has been developing its hydrogen research and innovation base and has a national association that links universities, industry and public bodies. Hosting WHEC gave that community a chance to bring its work into the international conversation and to build partnerships that outlast the week.
The wider message
Hydrogen is not a single product or a single technology. It is a system that connects electricity, heat, transport, industry and agriculture. That is why the conference programme was broad, and why the exhibition sat next to the lecture rooms.
The transition will need better materials, cheaper electrolysers, safer storage, clearer standards and a policy framework that rewards clean production. It will also need people: researchers who can test ideas, engineers who can build them and institutions that can coordinate the work. WHEC exists to help those people find each other.
Media enquiries
Contact the conference secretariat at [email protected] for background information or interviews about the conference record.