University of Amsterdam: Ning Yan receives award for novel flow-electrolyzer concept to produce hydrogen

The jury recognizes Ning Yan and his team for “an exciting and innovative way” to produce green hydrogen more cost-efficiently and at a larger scale by combining the advantages of different electrolyser concepts. Using a membrane-less solution coupled with a novel cyclic operation, he introduces a new low-energy water-splitting process to produce pure hydrogen, which will be an important element of our future energy system.

“With his new approach to cost-efficiently produce sustainable hydrogen, Dr Yan is a true trailblazer for a greener future”, said Roman Rosslenbroich, co-founder and CEO of Aquila Capital, the German-based investment and asset development company focussing on clean energy and sustainable infrastructure. Aquila Capital manages wind energy, solar PV and hydropower assets of more than 12 GW capacity and invests in energy efficiency, carbon forestry, and data centres. With its annual Transformation Award, it recognises outstanding practice-oriented scientific work that has the potential to play a central role in decarbonizing economies.

Originality, quality and impact
This year’s jury consisted of Prof. John Schellnhuber (Director Emeritus at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research), Prof. Eicke R. Weber (former director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems), and Prof. Yukari Takamura (professor at the Institute for Future Initiatives, University of Tokyo) as well as two managers from Aquila Capital. They selected Ning Yan’s paper based on criteria for originality, quality, and impact. In close second place was a paper from Asegun Henry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) regarding Thermal Energy Storage.