Star to star at APAC Hydrogen Conference

Star Scientific is set to play a key role at the Sustainable Energy Council’s APAC Hydrogen Summit and Exhibition in Sydney on October 26 and 27.   The SEC is the same organisation that delivers the World Hydrogen Summit in Rotterdam, at which Star Scientific has previously played a key role in the large Australian Delegation.

In addition, the SEC has partnered with the Australian Hydrogen Council, and this event will act as the AHC’s national conference.

The fact that this is the first time this APAC event is being held in Australia is largely due to our Chairman, Andrew Horvath.  Andrew sits on the SEC’s global Hydrogen Advisory Committee and has lobbied hard for this event to be brought to Australia.  If Australia is to be a “hydrogen superpower,” it should host an international conference of this weight.

A number of very high-profile international delegations are attending the event, with some exciting speakers, and Star Scientific has scheduled meetings with many of them.  This is truly an international event, with delegates from Germany, the United States, the Netherlands (Port of Rotterdam) as well as the APAC region.  There will also be senior Ministerial speakers from the Australian Commonwealth and State Governments.

Andrew Horvath will be a keynote speaker at the Conference on Day 2, and as usual, he will be saying things from the unique perspective of Star Scientific.  To hear Andrew and other VIPs speak you’ll have to register as a full conference delegate. However, registration for the Exhibition component is free, and there you’ll be able to hear from our Matt Hingerty and Steve Heaton, live on the technical stage.  And for the first time, Star Scientific will be exhibiting at a booth, so please come and say hi!

To register for the event, please go here: https://www.asia-hydrogen-summit.com

Unveiling our star exhibit

One of the reasons why we have previously shied away from taking space in exhibitions was the simple question of what to show.  Yes, we can show our videos, but it is pretty much standard procedure at exhibitions like these to have something solid and tactile.  This put us in a dilemma – the solar and battery companies have things pretty easy; their technology is well-known, safe, and easy to transport. The battery units and panels look good stuck on an exhibition booth wall.  The same for electrolyser and turbine producers – it’s easy for them to display a cut-away model.

For us, it’s a bit different.  For safety reasons, we can hardly display a working model of our famous “coffee pot” demonstration unit or of our H2X heat exchanger. As our technology is unique, there are also important IP aspects to protect.

So, we threw the challenge to our engineering and workshop team.  What we wanted was something that allowed us to explain how the HERO® heat exchanger process works, while protecting our IP.

The boys excelled themselves and came up with a generic, descriptive model of a heat exchanger cell, with demonstrative inlet pipes for the gases, a working medium tube, and an H2O outlet.  It is made mostly from Perspex, so it is lightweight, tough, and transportable.  Congratulations to James, Ash, Dan, and Jeff for the design, particularly Jeff for fettling it together.

In combination with our “coffee pot” and “H2X” videos the yet-to-be-named “unit” will help us to take HERO® to the world.

Farewell Sam

Speaking of our videos, the star of them, our Principal Investigator and co-developer of HERO®, Sam Kirk, is moving on from Star.

Earlier this year Sam and his wife, Lauren, welcomed to the world their first child, and Sam has taken a position at the University of Newcastle to be closer to his young family.

Sam will forever be a part of the Star Scientific story and we wish him all the best for the future – he isn’t too far away and it’s a good bet that our paths will again cross.

News from Star Scientific

Read more on the latest developments from our research facility, as well as Australian and international news relating to the hydrogen economy.

The transition gets serious.

We have observed a distinct shift in the public discourse around the renewable energy transition here in Australia with similar echoes from around the world.  It can be summed up succinctly in the phrase “the rubber is hitting the road”, as the theory of orthodox renewable technologies runs into the reality of their roll-out.

For example, here in Australia, those who are responsible for managing our grid have warned that a massive amount of capital investment is required if renewable energy is to hit 2030 and 2050 net-zero targets.  As developers peg out the ground and the oceans for transmission lines and turbines, everyone from farmers to bird lovers and surfers is pushing back.  In North Queensland, the Australian Environment Minister is caught between the horns of a dilemma in having to approve a wind turbine project in the rainforest which is being fiercely opposed by environmentalists and local communities.  Serious questions are being asked about not just the availability of critical minerals, but also common materials needed for the transition, such as copper.

All of this makes for a very receptive environment for breakthrough technologies like HERO®, especially if they get around grid-related issues.  We’ve noticed a distinct difference in attitude in our talks with governments – we are now very much “pushing against an open door” here in Australia and especially in the U.S.

The transition can be done, but governments need to keep their minds open to the technologies that deliver it – and the good news is that it seems they will be.

Major APAC Hydrogen Conference comes to Sydney.

The Sustainable Energy Council, the body behind the Global Hydrogen Summit at Rotterdam, is bringing its major Southern Hemisphere conference to Sydney over the 26^th – 27^th of October.  The conference and exhibition will be combined with the annual Australian Hydrogen Council Conference.

It is expected the Conference will be attended by major Australian Ministers along with Energy Ministers and government representatives from across the region, Europe and the United States.  The conference is also expected to attract major industry delegations from around the globe.

Star Scientific will be playing a major role at the event and looks forward to showcasing our technology to industry and government delegates alike.

Attendance at the exhibition half of the Conference is free. If you are interested in attending, please go to the Asia-Pacific Hydrogen 2023 Summit & Exhibition website.

Regional News

Star Scientific recently attended an excellent workshop under the umbrella of “NewH2”, the industry body combining the efforts of industry, government, and academic players in the hydrogen industry in the Hunter Valley.   The Hunter Valley is just north of the Central Coast region where Star Scientific is located and is anchored on the industrial port of Newcastle.

A long fossil fuel (mostly coal) supply chain reaches up the valley along the Hunter River, and companies and communities are coming together to plan the energy transition, with excellent input from our friends at the University of Newcastle.

Star Scientific was present at a workshop at the new ‘The Melt” innovation hub at the mining town of Muswellbrook.  A joint venture of the University and government, the Melt allows local renewable energy entrepreneurs to access free engineering support services.

Elsewhere in the local area, abundant land is being set aside by major companies and the Council to develop “renewable energy parks”, which may include hydrogen facilities.  Star Scientific will continue to take a key interest in these developments.

Rotary Science Challenge

Every year we choose to “put back” into our local community by sponsoring the Central Coast Rotary Science Challenge, where local secondary schools compete over two days in a series of science-related tasks and problems.

The day culminates in the “bridge challenge” where aspiring engineers have to build a balsawood and tape bridge that has to endure a series of ever-increasing wheeled weights running over it.  They eventually collapse, much to the joy of assembled kids, sponsors, teachers, and dignitaries.

We sincerely hope to one day see one or more of those young people in a Star Scientific lab coat!

 

News from Star Scientific

Read more on the latest developments from our research facility, as well as Australian and international news relating to the hydrogen economy.

 

Welcome back to the Star Scientific stakeholder’s newsletter. The last year has been very much a “ducks on the pond” time for us – quiet on the surface but pedaling furiously underneath. We are expecting a very big second half of 2023, and we look forward to keeping you informed. Please stay tuned to our Twitter and LinkedIn pages.

In the Shop

On the factory floor and in the labs the team has been working on our Mars pilot and one other that we haven’t announced publicly but is also related to the Central Coast food cluster. We are also working on a very important project that will be a milestone in the development of HERO® and will demonstrate to the world that HERO® is peerless when it comes to continuously extracting heat and energy from renewable energy sources.

We will fill you in in future editions.

Hubs Galore

Our Central Coast Food Hydrogen Cluster continues its work; indeed, we hosted a delegation from a potential customer this week. Last month, Central Coast Industry Connect (of whom we are a member) announced that it had secured land for the development of its AUD $17m Food Manufacturing Industry Hub. While this project has a broader remit than heat and energy, covering the whole spectrum of food production, Star Scientific will undoubtedly have a role to play in the future. Even better, it is just nearby to us and is located next to a campus of the University of Newcastle. And just to add to the proliferation of hydrogen hubs in our region, the Federal Government recently announced that it will fund the establishment of a separate Hydrogen Hub in the port city of Newcastle, just north of where we are on the Central Coast. This will be a more general hub, for a range of industrial stakeholders and our friends at the University of Newcastle. Star Scientific will be an eager participant in the activities of this hub too.

Regulatory and Policy Matters

One of the reasons we have been relatively quiet is that a lot of our efforts have been deployed into getting the regulatory environment right for our rapid expansion. Red tape doesn’t make great copy for tweets and newsletters, but it is vital for hydrogen’s progress. We’ve had to overcome basic and obvious issues like our home state government that didn’t count hydrogen as a “gas” in its critical legislation. To be fair to governments they have been working hard with us and bodies like the Australian Hydrogen Council to get these matters right, with one example being the Australian Federal Government’s efforts to develop a Guarantee of Origin Scheme.

Our efforts to engage effectively with governments have not gone unnoticed.  For example, in May our Deputy CEO was invited to speak to a cross-party committee of Australian Parliamentarians looking at aspects of the global trade in hydrogen – you can read his contribution here:

Our program of meetings with important political stakeholders continues, and this week we met with the Federal Opposition Energy spokesman Ted O’Brien, who is getting a lot of attention by championing a nuclear industry for Australia.

At a more technical level, Steve Heaton remains engaged with various government bodies, while our Principal Engineer, Ashkan Vatani has been accepted by Engineers Australia to be part of their Hydrogen Codes of Best Practice working group. This group will work closely with Government departments to develop National codes that will play a pivotal role in the development of the hydrogen sector in Australia. Engineers Australia is the peak professional engineering body in Australia, so this is quite an honour.

One of the key bodies Steve is engaging with is Standards Australia, which is the country’s accredited ISO body. This work is proceeding well with the endgame being a global standard that allows us to develop and operate HERO® anywhere – and as noted below that opportunity may come sooner rather than later.

Finally, the Australian Government has announced a review of the Australian Hydrogen Strategy, which was released in 2019. Star Scientific is engaging in this review, both directly and through bodies like the Australian Hydrogen Council.

 

The Big Picture

As it has been a little while, we thought we’d give you our perspective on some of the megatrends in the world of renewable energy and hydrogen.   Earlier this year, those of you who follow us on Twitter would have seen that we were present at the Sustainable Energy Council’s World Hydrogen Congress at Rotterdam. A gauge of the interest in hydrogen was that in 2022, the Congress was attended by 1,100 people – this year it was 11 thousand!  And governments continue to pump money into hydrogen, with the billions under US President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act resulting in governments around the world responding, in albeit more modest ways (like the Australian Government’s $2 billion in its recent budget).

There are, however, clouds on the horizon. Firstly, the reality is sinking in regarding the real-world practicalities involved in the promises of nations to achieve “net zero” by 2050. “Simple” things like land-use access and the rights of communities, engineering challenges, geographic challenges and the vast amounts of materials that will need to be mined and, eventually, disposed of.  For example, see a recent report from a joint government, academic body on Australia’s challenges here:

And while the government investment in hydrogen is welcome, they remain doggedly focused on supply-side issues and export, with very little attention on the demand side. It’s all chicken and no egg. There are a couple of notable exceptions, such as the American State of New Mexico. They are comfortable that supply-side issues are under control and have moved their attention to how to use/deploy hydrogen. Star’s Chairman and Deputy CEO have recently enjoyed fruitful discussions with the Governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham. The Government of New Mexico is very interested in Star establishing our first American base there and we have been studying the details closely. We also remain very interested in Texas and continue discussions there. We expect the competition for our first US operation to intensify after the Biden Government announces funding for the successful Hydrogen Hub consortia later in the year.

Out in the business world, the focus is less on supply and more on demand.  Companies that are committed to net-zero or are just desperate to find a replacement for gas on a price basis are looking closely at hydrogen.  However, they “hit the wall” when it comes to using hydrogen, or renewable energy for that matter. For example, there is a large vegetable pulp processor on the Murray River that supplies most of Australia’s tomato pulp for sauces, etc. It uses massive amounts of gas to fire its steam requirements. “That’s okay,” says the city-based “electrify everything” cheer-squad, “just use heat pumps”. The problem is that the size or number of heat pumps that the company would need requires a massive upgrade of the electricity transmission infrastructure in the rural area it is located. For them, hydrogen could be the answer – but they need help on how to use it.

Of course, we know HERO® is the answer and we are talking to them and dozens of companies like them around the world, and many governments, about how we will fill this hydrogen deployment gap.

Global Hydrogen Conference for Sydney

Earlier in the Newsletter we mentioned the Global Hydrogen Conference in Rotterdam. The big news for us is that the SEC and the Australian Hydrogen Council will be bringing the Australia-Pacific version to Sydney in late October. Being on our “home turf”, Star Scientific will be playing a major role as a major sponsor, alongside some of the biggest energy and infrastructure companies in the world. More details soon but if you are interested, please go to:

Asia-Pacific Hydrogen 2023