Thirty-five students from Turkey, Croatia, Bulgaria, Italy, Hungary, China and South Africa attended the International PEM Summer School 2008 between 14-18 July 2008 in Istanbul. Together with the teachers, total attendance was 47 people. More than 75 applications from Turkey and other countries in Europe and Asia were sent to ICHET Fuel Cell R&D Director Dr. Suha Yazıcı. UNIDO-ICHET fully supported students for accommodations and food for 5 days and also cared for the air fare of one student. According to Dr. Yazıcı, "one reason to keep the number of student small was to engage them in laboratory activities". Two fuel cell test stations were indeed utilized for three days for them to do hands-on experiment.
Organised by the European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), Institute for Energy (IE), in cooperation with UNIDO-ICHET, “Ovidius” University of Constanzain Romania and the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK), the summer school addressed science and fundamentals of material science and electrochemistry applied to fuel cells.
Miri, a PHD Student from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture in Zagreb (Croatia), was amongst the students who benefitted from its teachings:
"I really appreciated this summer course. It actually changed my mind about fuel cell and hydrogen technologies. Before visiting your laboratory i had no hands-on experience on fuel cell components. Working with the fuel cell test station and experimenting various settings and parameters definitely gave me a better feeling and understanding on them".
Future editions of this successful event are being considered, with a heightened focus on in-depth experiments.

The United Nations Global Marketplace - UNGM - is the procurement portal of the UN System. It brings together procurement staff from the United Nations and the supplier community. If you are a supplier of goods or services, you can register as potential vendor. While registering on the UN Global Marketplace does not guarantee that your company will be shortlisted to participate in UN tender opportunities, you should be aware that only registered providers will be considered. As a first step in registering as a supplier please fill in the form. An email will then be sent to you providing you with your username and an autogenerated password for logging in to the UNGM site. You will also be provided with a link to the full 13 step registration form, where you can submit all the details of your organisation.

“Environmental concerns, energy security, industrial opportunities, better utilization of platinum reserves… The drivers for hydrogen activities are different for each country” Dr. Frano Barbir reports. It is one of the points that emerged from the panel session on "How Hydrogen Can Contribute to Meeting the Challenges of Climate Change and Energy" that took place on 1 July during the United Nations ECOSOC High-level Segment. Led by Dr. Barbir, this session saw panelists from Turkey, U.S.,Canada, India and South Africa describe hydrogen energy activities in their respective countries. A common feeling was that these activities need to be sped up, but the main concern expressed was fear that technologies might fail to come through on cost. Some of the challenges identified were fuel cell cost and durability, hydrogen storage density and platinum availability. Indeed, this debate exposed the divide between “market driven” versus “policy driven” solutions for the implementation of hydrogen energy technologies.
Besides, it was acknowledged that education is important at all levels and that public acceptance has to go through the involvement of local communities for all demonstration projects.

The International Centre for Hydrogen Energy Technologies was represented by its Scientific Director Dr. I. Engin Türe during the National Energy Days, which took place on 1-3 July in Istanbul.

UNIDO-ICHET Senior Project Engineer Dr. Osman Malik Atanur presented a poster on the Centre's "hydrogen production from lignocellulosics" R&D project during the 4th National Analytical Chemistry Conference that took place on 25-27 June 2008 in Elazığ (East of Turkey).
With as many as 38 oral presentation and 169 poster presentation sessions, the event was attended by most Turkish researcher working on analytical chemistry and chemistry.

Resources

• Interview of Dr. Atanur published in the Çukorova Gap supplement of Hürriyet national daily newspaper (Turkey) on 28 June 2008.
• "Size exclusion chromatography and HPLC analysis of the products of lignocellusosics hydrolyse by catalytic thermal process" (pdf, Turkish)

UNIDO-ICHET Fuel Cell R&D Director Dr. Suha Yazıcı participated to the International Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Education Forum, a side event of the 17th World Hydrogen Energy Conference (WHEC2008) that took place on 15-19 June in Brisbane, Australia. The forum was attended by 65 participants, including 40 secondary school students and 12 teachers from Australia, New Zealand and United States.

Participants at the forum launch, including in front row (from left to right):
Prof. Dr. Jurgen Garche, Brad Evans, Murray Meaton, Dr. Andrew Dicks,
UNIDO-ICHET founder Prof. T. Nejat Veziroğlui Dr. Katrina Lyon and Luigi Bonadio.

Resources

• Arno Ever's gallery.

UNIDO-ICHET Senior Scientific Director Dr. Engin Ture will be a featured speaker during the international session of the Mountain States Hydrogen Business Council’s 4th Annual Hydrogen Implementation Conference. This conference, scheduled for 22-24 July 2008 in Laramie, Wyoming, will bring together technology experts, industrial leaders, academia, financial investors and policy supporters to share information and ideas on speeding up the progress toward the use of hydrogen. During this session, Dr. Robert Dixon of the International Energy Agency will be convening a panel of representatives from India, Israel, Scotland, Brazil, Poland, Turkey, Canada, China and France for a world view on the implementation of hydrogen energy.

Resources

• Annoucement

"Dear ladies and gentlemen!
The international conference "Hydrogen on Islands" will be held in October 22. -25. 2008 in Bol, a famous Croatian tourist destination on the island of Brač.
It is a conference held within the programme of the UN Industrial Development Organization, or more precisely its International Centre for Hydrogen Energy Technologies (UNIDO - ICHET).
It at the same time represents the first conference from this field of science and technology of growing importance to be held in Croatia. Special attention needs to be paid to the choice of venue, a Croatian island, that will hopefully in the future implement the solutions that will be presented at this Conference.
A number of leading scientists and experts from the field of hydrogen and hydrogen economy coming from international organizations such as International Energy Agency (IEA), Joint Technology Initiative, UNIDO-ICHET etc, and world leading energy corporations such as Shell, StatoilHydro, etc, have already applied for the Conference.
To learn more about the conference programme, organizers, sponsors or venue please visit us.
If you are interested to participate as speaker we urge you to fill out the paper registration form.
The applications will be available in a week and we will inform you on time.
Looking forward to seeing You!"

Prof. Frano BARBIR, PhD
President of the International Organization Board
International Conference Hydrogen on Islands
UNIDO-ICHET Consultant

During its four-day High-level Segment (30 June – 3 July 2008), held at United Nations Headquarters in New York, the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) will focus on a range of issues on the UN's development agenda. Led by UNIDO-ICHET's Senior Consultant on Science & Technologies Dr. Frano Barbir, a panel session on "How Hydrogen Can Contribute to Meeting the Challenges of Climate Change and Energy" will take place on 1 July.

Resources

• Session's programme

The World Energy Energy Congress (WHEC 2008) took place between 15-19 June 2008 in Brisbane, Australia. UNIDO-ICHET Consultant Dr. Frano Barbir recounts the session on Hydrogen Islands he was chairing:

"I am writing this report from Brisbane Australia where the World Hydrogen Energy Conference just ended. It was attended by some 700 participants from 44 countries. I organized and chaired a session on Hydrogen Islands where [Dr. Nicolas Lymberopoulos] presented the concept and rationale behind the Hydrogen Island Initiative including UNIDO-ICHETs role and activities. The session was well attended and prompted lively discussion. Everyone agreed that the islands (or remote areas) are a logical way to start implementing hydrogen economy on a local level. This was further emphasized in the closing presentation of the Conference by Dr. David Hart from Imperial College. We have made contacts with several groups who intend to start hydrogen projects on islands. We also made contacts with equipment manufacturers [...] who expressed interest in participating in the initiative [...].
Best regards
Frano"

• Dr. Lymberopoulos' presentation