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IAHE History President Speech

History of the IAHE and IJHE by Dr. Ayfer Veziroglu, President of IAHE

In 1973, Dr. T. Nejat Veziroglu founded the Clean Energy Research Institute (CERI) at the University of Miami. He chose “Clean Energy” as the institute's name because he understood the environmental and urban damage caused by fossil fuels. Their mission was to discover clean energy sources. They explored solar, wind, hydro, nuclear, and geothermal energy, but none proved as practical as natural gas or petroleum. They couldn’t be easily used in cars or planes. He realized that producing hydrogen from these energy sources could be the solution. Hydrogen is the cleanest, most efficient fuel and is ideal for transportation. He decided to call the project the “Hydrogen Economy.”

The First THEME Conference: His team and he decided to hold a conference focused on hydrogen energy. He met with Harold Harrenstein, the forward-thinking dean of engineering at the University of Miami. They brainstormed and came up with the name THEME (The Hydrogen Economy Miami Energy) Conference. It was catchy and meaningful. Dr.Veziroglu secured $70,000 in funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF). They designed and sent brochures to universities worldwide by airmail.

They launched the THEME Conference on March 18, 1974, with 750 participants from 80 countries. During the opening session, Dr.Veziroglu introduced the hydrogen economy concept. During a tea break, several attendees from various countries approached him, supporting the idea of establishing an association. They discussed and decided to establish an association if no better solution arose in the coming years. On 21 October 1974, IAHE was established. We celebrated our 50 anniversary in 21 October 2024.

One of IAHE's first activities was organizing the World Hydrogen Energy Conferences (WHEC) to provide a platform for hydrogen energy experts, environmentalists, and decision-makers. The plan was to meet every two years, with the first WHEC Conference held in Miami Beach in 1976. Meanwhile, the eleven founding members of IAHE, including Cesare Marchetti, John O'M Bockris, Tokio Ohta, William D. Van Vorst, Anibal R. Martinez, Walter Seifritz, Hussein K. Abdel-Aal, William J.D.D. Escher, Robert Zweig, Kurt H. Weil, and himself became known as the “Hydrogen Romantics.” (https://www.xlibris.com/en/bookstore/bookdetails/759083-hydrogen-romantic)

There were no scientific journals about hydrogen energy, so Dr.Veziroglu decided to establish a journal. He signed a contract with Robert Maxwell, the owner of Pergamon Press, who supported the idea with $10,000, and the first issue of the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy was printed in 1976. He started out by publishing four issues per year. As the demand grew, Dr.V decided to increase the number of issues per year to six. The journal gave scientists who were working on hydrogen a way to follow the hydrogen-related developments and publish their papers, thus assisting in information exchange. Since there was no internet, the journal gathered many scientists around the world under one roof. After Elsevier bought the Pergamon Press, IJHE signed a contract with Elsevier. Since then, IJHE has worked with Elsevier.

Purpose:

The "Young scientists division" would share the same mission of IAHE in striving to advance the HYDROGEN ENERGY as the principal means to achieve the goal of an abundant and clean energy for mankind. The major emphasis of the Young Scientists Division will be on promoting young researchers involvement and training in international activities. To stimulate the exchange of information in Hydrogen Energy field, the Young Scientists Division will organizing international conferences and workshops and short courses, researcher exchange programs and will work to promote activities to inform the general public of the important role of Hydrogen Energy in the planning of an inexhaustible and clean energy system.

Activities:

Mini Symposium of Young Scientists at WHEC 2012
H2Roma
HYSYDAYS-World Congress of Young Scientists on Hydrogen Energy Systems

News:

Young Division organized the Mini Symposium of Young Scientists at WHEC 2012, that took place in Toronto from 3^rd to the 7^th June.
During the Mini Symposium has been held the second meeting of Young Scientists Division (June 3^rd 2012). Participants, coming from different countries, discussed about the future and the re-organization of Young Scientists Division.
The first official meeting of the Young Scientist Division of IAHE was held on Thursday, 11 November 2010.

Young Division Background:

The division was born in 2009 in the framework of HYSYDAYS Congress. The YD has been created thanks to the efforts of Prof. Orecchini and his research group from the CIRPS - Interuniversity Research Centre for Sustainable Development, Sapienza - University of Rome. The group is involved in Renewable Energy Sources and sustainable mobility, having an active cluster in the field of hydrogen technologies and including many young researchers.

Registration:

For joining the IAHE Young Scientists Division please contact Valeria Valitutti.

For registration form please click here.

To see a list of current IAHE Chapter Schools please click here.

Organization:

Honorary Chair:	Prof. Fabio Orecchini
Chair:	Chiara Fiori
Vice-Chair:	Bernard Jan Bladergroen
Treasurer and Secretary:	Valeria Valitutti

Nuclear energy will have a major role in large-scale low-cost production of hydrogen in the future. The mission of the IAHE Nuclear Hydrogen Division is to organize and promote activities that foster development of nuclear systems for hydrogen production, including thermochemical cycles, electrolysis, and related elements such as safety and materials science.

Members of the IAHE Nuclear Hydrogen Division

How is hydrogen currently produced? The predominant existing processes use fossil fuels to produce hydrogen, such as steam methane reforming (SMR) or coal gasification. These are carbon-based technologies that lead to greenhouse gas emissions, and future costs of carbon capture and storage. A key challenge facing the future hydrogen economy is a sustainable, lower-cost method of producing hydrogen in large capacities. Nuclear based hydrogen generation by splitting of water provides a cleaner and compelling alternative to hydrogen production from fossil fuels.

Why nuclear energy to produce hydrogen? Nuclear energy provides a large-scale and low-carbon source of energy to produce hydrogen. The use of hydrogen in the production of transport fuels from crude oil and other hydrocarbons (such as oil sands) is increasing rapidly. Hydrogen is likely to become an important future fuel for CO2 emissions reduction by vehicles. Nuclear hydrogen production provides a flexible alternative to batteries for plug-in hybrid vehicles. Nuclear energy can be used to produce hydrogen by electrolysis and thermochemical cycles without generating greenhouse gases. In the coming decades, energy demand for hydrogen production could exceed that for electricity production today.

How is nuclear energy used to produce hydrogen? The growth of nuclear energy’s role in hydrogen production in future decades is anticipated to include the following technologies: 1) electrolysis of water, particularly using off-peak capacity; 2) high-temperature electrolysis of steam, using heat and electricity from nuclear reactors; and 3) high-temperature direct production of hydrogen with thermochemical cycles, such as sulfur-based and copper-chlorine cycles.

Worldwide nuclear hydrogen programs (source: CEA, France)

Electrolysis. Electrolysis of water is an existing commercial technology that decomposes water into oxygen and hydrogen gas due to an electric current being passed through the water. It provides a stable and predictable cost of hydrogen not linked to commodity prices such as natural gas. It also enables a robust and reliable hydrogen supply due to modular electrolysis platforms and grid electricity backup. High-temperature electrolysis (HTE), or steam electrolysis, uses electricity to produce hydrogen from steam, instead of liquid water. This method can potentially achieve higher efficiencies than standard electrolysis of water. Technical challenges to commercialization include the development of high-temperature materials and membranes.

Thermochemical water-splitting cycles. Cycles of thermochemical water splitting consist of chemical and physical processes that are connected together to form a closed internal loop that re-cycles all compounds on a continuous basis, without emitting any greenhouse gases. Leading examples include the sulfur-iodine cycle (maximum operating temperature of about 850oC) and copper-chlorine cycle (530oC). These cycles have the potential of higher efficiency and large-scale production rates. Technological challenges include high temperature and corrosive operating conditions, materials of construction and scale-up to large industrial plants. The interface between a nuclear reactor and the hydrogen plant involves heat exchangers that transfer heat at elevated temperatures between the plants, new safety and regulatory issues that will need to be developed, and supporting systems for chemical processes including hydrogen and oxygen storage.

Visualization of future nuclear and thermochemical hydrogen plants

Schematic of copper-chlorine (Cu-Cl) cycle

Nuclear hydrogen future. Nuclear hydrogen production is a potentially major solution to the problems of climate change and depleting conventional fuels. Hydrogen is a clean fuel that does not release carbon dioxide when burned. It can be used to heat our homes, power our equipment, supply fuel for vehicles, and many other everyday applications that currently use oil, coal or natural gas. It also has many other industrial needs. Hydrogen is needed by petrochemical, agricultural (ammonia for fertilizers), manufacturing, food processing, electronics, plastics, metallurgical, aerospace and other industries. Production of biofuels and other synfuels requires hydrogen.

Visualization of future nuclear hydrogen infrastructure

Meeting Reports

Contact

President: Ioan IORDACHE