The Hydrogen Scotland Student Poster Competition offers students a platform to showcase their innovative ideas, research, and knowledge to the wider Hydrogen Scotland community. We are excited to see your work featured at our annual Hydrogen Scotland conference for our members and guests.
- Win cash prizes (two cash prizes of £250 and one prize of £150)
- Network with Scottish and international hydrogen delegates
- Attend and have your posters on display at the main conference (on day 2)
- Authors of shortlisted posters will also be invited to attend the Awards Ceremony and Dinner on day 1 of the conference
Competition Guidelines
- This competition is open to all post-graduate and post-doctoral ‘students’ from any Hydrogen Scotland member. Please visit our website at https://www.hydrogenscotland.com/member-directory/ to confirm your eligibility or write to [email protected]
- Entries can address scaling up low-carbon hydrogen production, building local supply chains and demand, and opportunities for the sustainable export of hydrogen into wider markets.
- All posters must be sized to A0, with text size no smaller than 10 pt in a standard font (Ariel, Times New Roman, Calibri etc)
- Each participant/group can submit only 1 poster
- Each entry must be submitted in pdf format by 5 pm on Friday, 27th September 2024, to [email protected]. Late entries will not be considered
- Entrants must include their institution name, course and year of study with their submission
- The authors of shortlisted posters will be notified in the second week of October. If invited, the authors must be willing to attend the Civic Reception, Dinner, and Awards Ceremony on 29 October and present their posters at the Conference on Wednesday 30 October. For group entries, kindly nominate two students to represent your group at the conference.
- To participate in the competition, please email your poster to [email protected] by Friday, 27th September
Good luck to all the participants!
Our Judges for 2024
Rachel Tulloch
Sector Manager – Energy Transition and Transport at ESP
Rachel’s areas of responsibility include hydrogen, low carbon heat, low carbon transport and energy efficiency initiatives. With a background in curriculum design and development of innovative short courses, she has successfully implemented new curricula and learning materials in advanced manufacturing, hydrogen, wind energy, and industrial automation during her time at ESP.
Rachel represents the college sector in key discussions with the Scottish Government regarding zero emission transport, low carbon heat and hydrogen skills.
Professor James Njuguna
Prof. of Composite Materials & Integrated Energy at Robert Gordon University
Professor James Njuguna is the Director of Research and Innovation at the National Subsea Centre (NSC) and a faculty member at Robert Gordon University (RGU). He previously served as the Associate Dean for Research & Knowledge Exchange at RGU and led the Integrated Energy Programme at the NSC. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) and the Institute of Materials, Minerals, and Mining (FIMMM).
Professor Jon Clipsham
Prof. Sustainable Energy at the University of Edinburgh
Dr Katriona Edlmann is Professor of Sustainable Energy at The University of Edinburgh, with over 25 years researching the secure and sustainable utilisation of the subsurface for low-carbon energy applications including hydrogen energy and CO2 storage. Katriona is responsible for several UKRI, EU and industry funded projects investigating underground hydrogen storage technologies. Katriona currently serves on the UK Government Department for Energy Security and Net Zero Hydrogen Advisory Council Transportation and Storage Infrastructure Working Group and is sub-task lead on the International Energy Agency Technology Collaboration Programme underground hydrogen storage task
Professor Jon Clipsham
Director at Hydrogen Scotland
Jon is a proponent of hydrogen production from renewables, and was instrumental in the development of the global ‘first of a kind’ demonstration of an industrial scale prototype hydrogen economy in Orkney. Jon currently splits his time between academic / skills / training and industrial advisory / due diligence work through his own successful business – Hydrojon Limited – supporting start ups, project developers, investors, and government agencies internationally.
Read about our winners from 2023!
Students from across Scotland and the UK were encouraged to submit a poster for display at Hydrogen Scotland 2023. Students covered the need to ‘make it, move it and use it’, which broadly described the theme of Hydrogen Scotland 2023 i.e. the critical importance of joint activities as an enabler for scaling up clean hydrogen production and demand both in Scotland and across the North Sea region, how to enable growth; scaling up hydrogen production; and building the future.
Ashween Kaur Virdee, a PhD research engineer at the Research Centre of Carbon Solutions at Heriot-Watt University, won the first prize for her work entitled CO2 and H2 conversion to sustainable electro-synthesised chemicals. She was supervised by Professor Mercedes Maroto Valer and Dr John Andresen.
Power-to-X is a growing interest in the search for means of decarbonising the chemicals industry. Ethylene (C2H4) is a key building block in the chemical industry, and “holds immense economic and industrial significance”. Conventional production methods emit ~3 kg of CO2 per kg C2H4 produced. Electrolysis allows for the conversion of renewable energy + captured CO2 to chemicals and energy vectors. Ashween’s work described the development and optimisation of an efficient and low-cost electrolyser for captured CO2 & H2 conversion to ethylene.
Michael Walsh, a PhD mechanical engineer also at the Research Centre of Carbon Solutions at Heriot-Watt University, won second place for his work on ‘Harnessing Whisky Wastewater for the Generation of Hydrogen by Electrolysis using Nanoscale NiSE Catalysts’. Michael was supported by Mercedes Maroto-Valer, John Andresen, Sudhagar Pitchaimuthu Ph.D., FRSC and Jeannie Ziang Yie Tan. His work was also supported by the Scotch Whisky Research Institute (SWRI).
He looked at whether the wastewater produced by Scottish whisky distilleries could be used as a feedstock in electrolysis. Michael and colleagues showed that hydrogen can be produced from whisky waste water but at a lower rate than when fresh water is used.
Anna Peecock, a Phd student at the University of Aberdeen won third place for her work on ‘Repurposing the National Transmission System for high pressure hydrogen distribution’. Her work was supported by Stuart Haszeldine Professor of Carbon Capture & Storage at The University of Edinburgh, National Grid ESO, the Edinburgh Climate Change Institute as part of the HyNTS Future Grid Programme.
Pipelines are the best economic prospect for large-scale, long distance hydrogen transport; hence opportunities to repurpose the existing gas grid for pure or blended hydrogen delivery are widely considered. It is therefore crucial that key leakage mechanisms are understood and their respective contribution to overall emissions quantified, in order to ascertain the environmental consequences of blending hydrogen into the natural gas stream. Hydrogen is considered an indirect greenhouse gas, as increased atmospheric concentrations have been shown to promote chemical reactions that result in increased lifetimes and abundances of gases that have a harmful climate impact. As such, it is essential to assess whether the introduction of hydrogen into the natural gas network to reduce downstream emissions could instead have negative environmental consequences, such that necessary mitigation strategies can be implemented.
Anna’s work sought to identify the most likely candidates for leakage within UK pipeline networks under current natural gas operation, and thereon quantify the associated environmental impact of introducing hydrogen into the existing network. Understanding this will ensure that appropriate regulatory policies can be put in place to ensure the potential for hydrogen, as a “green” alternative to natural gas, can be realised. The poster presents just a snapshot of the findings, estimating anticipated fugitive emissions upon conversion of the high-pressure transmission network for hydrogen service and the resultant global warming impact.
