First European Hydrogen Association Conference 2003
By Tapan K. Bose, President, Canadian Hydrogen Association

Introduction:
This year in Grenoble (France), the French Hydrogen Association, under the auspices of the European Hydrogen Association, is holding its first hydrogen conference in September 2-5, 2003. Under the patronage of the European Commission and the French Government, the conference will aim at providing a comprehensive picture of the research work and demonstrations on hydrogen and fuel cells that are currently being carried out all over the globe. Since the PATH board will be well represented at this conference, I thought it may be worthwhile for the associate members of PATH to have some information about this forthcoming conference.

Technical program
The technical program has been developed by a program committee composed of people from industry and academia with Dr. A. Palaga from the French atomic Energy as President.

The conference starts on September 2, 2003 and will be inaugurated by Mrs Nicole Fontaine who is Minister of the French Government for Economics, Finance and Industry. The opening address is followed by six plenary lectures on subjects such as:

1. Energy perspective: new world energy requirements and future role for hydrogen - Marianne Haug, Director, Energy Efficiency, Technology and R&D Office, IEA.
2. Hydrogen economy and the automobile industry. The Renault-Nissan view – Pierre Beuzit, Vice-President Research, Renault, France.
3. Hydrogen from fossil fuels – Carl Jöchen Winter, Energon, Germany; Jacques Saint-Just, HyRadix, France.
4. CO2 sequestration – Edouard Freund, Executive Vice-President, Institut Français du Pétrole, France.
5. Hydrogen from nuclear – Jacques Bouchard, Director of Nuclear Energy Division, Commissariat à l’Énergie Atomique, France.
6. What is the real potential for renewable hydrogen? – David Hart, Head of Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Research, Imperial College, United Kingdom.

The plenary sessions on September 3, 2003 include such topics as:

1. Standards, regulations, and safety – Ulrich Schmidtchen, DVW, Germany.
2. Round table discussion - Daily use of hydrogen: safety, codes and regulations – Chairman: Reinhold Wurster, LB Systemtechnik GmbH, Germany.
3. Life cycle analysis of hydrogen fuel – Joerg Schindler, Chairman, LB Systemtechnik GmbH, Germany.
4. The road to hydrogen economy: the Iceland project – Thorsteinn I. Sigfusson, Professor, University of Iceland and Chairman Icelandic New Energy.
5. Building an hydrogen infrastructure for Europe – Philippe Schulz, Fuel Cell Task – Force, TotalFinaElf, France; Hans Weidner, Hydrogen Storage and Infrastructure, Adam Opel AG, Germany.

The plenary session on September 4, 2003 is devoted to International perspective. After an opening address by Mrs Loyola de Palacio, Vice President, Commissioner for Transportation and Energy, European Commission, there are five plenary lectures:

1. Impacts and experience learnt from public policy support to fuel cell technology development – Roger Ballay, President of the PACo network, France.
2. Canadian perspectives – Tapan K. Bose, Director, Hydrogen Research Institute, Canada.
3. America’s hydrogen energy technology roadmap – Robert Dixon, Senior Advisor for Climate Change, US Department of Energy, USA.
4. Development of hydrogen energy technology in Japan – Ken-ichiro Ota, Professor, Yokohama National University, Japan.
5. European vision of hydrogen energy – Carlo Rubbia, President of ENEA, Member of European Hydrogen High Level Group, Italy.

On September 5, 2003 there are three plenary lectures on subjects as varied as:

1. The road to the hydrogen vehicle – the view of PSA Peugeot Citroën – Jean-Pierre Goedgebuer, Vice President Research PSA Peugeot Citroën, France.
2. Hydrogen fuel for the coming decades – Daniel Deloche, Vice President Aeronautics, Space and Advanced Technologies, Air Liquide Group, France.
3. The challenge of a hydrogen based economy for sustainable development – Jacques Labeyrie, Scientific Director, ADEME, France.

There are also several parallel sessions. The details about the topics in the parallel sessions are available on the website: www.afh2.org.

The conference clearly gives a detailed picture of hydrogen activities in different countries of Europe. Since France produces almost all its electricity from nuclear energy, it will be interesting to hear about their vision regarding the production of hydrogen from nuclear sources.

The relation between hydrogen and the automobile industry from the European perspective should be quite new for the North American participants. We will hear the points of view from such companies as Renault – Nissan and Peugeot Citroën.

As a physicist, I am quite keen to listen to Carlo Rubbia’s talk on European vision of hydrogen energy. Dr. Rubbia is a Nobel laureate in physics who has taken up the cause of hydrogen. Hydrogen is certainly in good hands and without doubt has a great future.