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.