Science Council Climate Conference

Science Council Climate Conference

On 29th September the Science Council held its first ever policy conference entitled The Science Council Climate Conference – The UK Pathway to Net-Zero. The event brought together Science Council members and other organisations from across the science and engineering community to discuss how the UK can meet its targets for reducing emissions and reaching net-zero in the coming years.

The conference drew on the diverse expertise of member organisations, exploring in depth topics such as the challenges and opportunities in the food system, achieving net-zero in the steel industry and the role of hydrogen in balancing future supply and demand.

Speaking at the conference, Sir Patrick Vallance, Government Chief Scientific Adviser and National Technology Adviser, said: “Every year, we’re losing Arctic Sea ice and CO2 levels have dramatically increased since the industrial revolution. There are clearly unarguable changes that are occurring. Science and technology are undoubtedly central to what we need to do. We need to be focused on technologies that we can already see, technologies that we have already invented, and ask how do we work out which of those we can implement and scale.”

Videos of the livestreamed sessions can be found at:

Plenary Panel 1 – The UK’s Net-Zero Challenge, https://youtu.be/cCLGOmlQS-I

Keynote Address by Sir Patrick Vallance, https://youtu.be/CZx9jnQcmQ8

Plenary Panel 2 – The role of the UK science and engineering community,

and the full conference programme of the conference is available at,
https://sciencecouncil.org/web/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Climate-Conference-September-2022.pdf

To find out more about future events held by the Science Council and its professional body Members see their website: https://sciencecouncil.org/category/event/

Algeria-Germany: Signing of A Joint Declaration 
of Intent on Cooperation in the Field of Hydrogen

Algeria-Germany: Signing of A Joint Declaration 
of Intent on Cooperation in the Field of Hydrogen

Algeria and Germany have recently signed, a joint declaration of intent establishing a bilateral task force on hydrogen recently, with a view to strengthening and supporting investments in all the economic sectors (private and public), concerned by the development of hydrogen in the two countries.

The declaration signed by the two ministries plans to strengthen joint cooperation in the field of feasibility studies, production, processing, employment, transportation, storage and marketing of hydrogen, as well as its derivatives produced from renewable energies, beneficial to both countries, especially since the two parties plan to create an Algerian-German Task Force on hydrogen within the framework of the energy partnership, with a view to contributing to the creation of economic opportunities, while promoting the achievement of the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement (year 2015).

Energy sustainability and climate change are major issues in present era, and hydrogen, a clean and adaptable energy source, has drawn a lot of interest as a potential solution for specific situations, e.g. Transportation. The effectiveness of hydrogen production systems depends critically on materials, which also affect system durability, catalyst performance, and reaction kinetics. It will take sustained progress in materials science and engineering to realise large-scale, sustainable hydrogen production systems.

Hydrogen has potential as a medium for storing energy. The effective and secure storage and release of hydrogen for a range of applications is made possible by advancements in materials for hydrogen storage, such as metal hydrides, chemical hydrides, and porous materials. Ensuring the materials’ long-term stability and endurance under harsh operating conditions is one of the major issues in the field of hydrogen production. High temperatures, corrosive surroundings, and cycling between reducing and oxidising atmospheres are all part of many hydrogen production processes, which over time can deteriorate materials. Investigating novel materials and coatings with enhanced mechanical strength, thermal stability, and corrosion resistance have been the main focus of research to date. Furthermore, enhanced characterization approaches and expedited testing protocols have been utilised to assess and forecast material deterioration mechanisms, permitting the development of stronger materials for hydrogen generation.

Source: https://embmoscow.mfa.gov.dz/

Hydrogen Renewable Energy Production – Hydrogen Gas for Clean Electricity Solar and Wind Turbine Facility.

Carbon Capture and Storage: The Part That Corrosion Management Plays

Carbon Capture and Storage – The Impurities Conundrum

Is Collaboration on Impurity Standards for CO2 Pipeline Transport Feasible? Carbon capture and storage on a large scale is crucial in the mitigation of climate change. The more effectively we can introduce suitable carbon capture technology to achieve this, the more...