Insights into the New Hydrogen Economy (Paperback)

This open access book offers a comprehensive exploration of the future of the hydrogen industry. It builds upon insights gathered from a series of expert workshops and follow-on activity. International experts from various fields, including industry, public policy, and academia, engaged in dialogue and knowledge exchange, resulting in invaluable findings and observations.

This book builds upon that process to offers an in-depth analysis of the key issues facing commercial hydrogen energy development in the late 2020s. It highlights how hydrogen has the potential to emerge as a major component of the global energy industry, aiding the decarbonization process. Among the important lessons learned, the book discusses how both hydrogen and electrification will both play a significant role in the energy sector, but hydrogen could emerge as the larger energy carrier, and the two developments will largely operate independently of each other.

The book also highlights the significance of industrial infrastructure such as ports, pipelines, hubs, and clusters in scaling up hydrogen use. Finally, the book considers the importance of hydrogen purity for future applications and acknowledges the potential for geologically sourced hydrogen to be a vital component of supply in the future.

Karim L. Anaya has over 15 years of experience in utility regulation, having worked for telecom, water and energy regulators in developing and developed economies. She is a former Senior Research Associate at the Energy Policy Research Group (EPRG) at the University of Cambridge. She has helped to shape the next generation of electricity networks and system operators (assessing different innovation projects and local flexibility markets), collaborating with regulatory agencies, public utilities and electricity system operators. She has also advised on price control regulation, providing new and enhanced evidence of productivity growth of GB electricity distribution networks. She is currently a Senior Regulation Lead at ENOWA, an energy and water utility. Here, she is helping to build the new energy pricing and carbon regulation frameworks, electricity tariff scheme and energy market design for NEOM, a special economic region in Saudi Arabia. Karim holds a PhD degree in Energy Economics and a Master degree in Technology Policy from University of Cambridge.

Adetokunboh Bakenne is an experienced engineering researcher and consultant. He obtained his PhD in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Manchester. He then focussed on matters of energy technology and policy with his move to The Open University, where he worked as a research fellow on the future of the hydrogen economy. Bakenne has extensive consultancy experience in matters concerning commercial technology and risk assessment in a range of sectors

William J. Nuttall has more than 20 years’ experience as a researcher and commentator on energy technology and policy. Originally trained in physics (MIT USA PhD 1993) his main areas of professional interest have been nuclear energy in all its various aspects, and hydrogen energy. He is the author with Dr Adetokunboh Bakenne of Fossil Fuel Hydrogen (Springer, 2020). From 2012 to 2024 Dr Nuttall was Professor of Energy at The Open University, UK. He is currently a Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Bristol, UK. He maintains close links to various universities and research institutes worldwide. 

Joseph B. Powell is Executive Director & Shell Endowed Chair for Energy Transition at the University of Houston, and Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.   He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, Fellow and former Director of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, former Shell Chief Scientist – Chemical Engineering, former chair of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technical Advisory Committee, and served more than 36 years in industry in commercialization of new processes for production of chemicals, fuels, and biofuels, and global strategy for the energy transition to a net-zero carbon economy.    He is co-inventor on more than 125 patent applications, has received AIChE / ACS / R&D Magazine awards for Innovation, Service, and Practice, and is co-author of Sustainable Development in the Process Industries:  Cases and Impact (Wiley, 2010).   Dr. Powell obtained a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, following a B.S. from the University of Virgini

Andy Wilson is an experienced engineer with extensive experience in the energy sector. He obtained his PhD in Nuclear Engineering from The Open University, in the areas of light water reactors, hydrogen production and energy storage . He has since worked for the Civil Service in energy storage and is currently working in the nuclear fusion sector.