Meeting of ‘top players’ from research and industry
Global Market Leaders Innovation Day on 8 September 2020 in Erlangen
FAU is a partner of the ‘Global Market Leaders Innovation Day’ initiative run by the German financial magazine WirtschaftsWoche, which is to be held in Erlangen on 8 September 2020. Renowned researchers and young talents from FAU will present their research and ideas on the main focal topic ‘energy and climate’.
The first ‘Global Market Leaders Innovation Day’ is intended to provide a shared platform for politics, industry, science and young talents. More than 200 participants will meet in Erlangen, where science meets industry, to share their views on current research findings, network and brainstorm exciting and innovative projects of the future.
Innovation is critical to developing our society and our prosperity ‘As the most innovative university in Germany and among the top 15 innovative universities in the world, FAU has an important contribution to advancing new developments,’ says FAU President Prof. Dr. Joachim Hornegger. ‘Through strategic partnerships with world leading and international companies that have shown great momentum in leading innovation, FAU is in an excellent position to understand the needs of industry.’
FAU President will open the event
‘Prosperity is based on innovation – and as the most innovative university in Germany, we at FAU know that strength in innovation is based on intense collaboration among the top players from research and industry,’ says Dr. Joachim Hornegger, FAU President. He will open the ‘Innovation Day’ together with Beat Balzli, the editor in chief of the Wirtschaftswoche.
Professor Wasserscheid will introduce LOHC technology
Prof. Dr. Peter Wasserscheid, Head of the Institute for Chemical Reaction Engineering at FAU, will introduce his research on liquid hydrogen carriers for which he and his team were nominated for the German Future Prize 2018.
Scientists have been interested in using hydrogen as an energy carrier for a long time now. However, the gas is easily combustible and hard to store. In order to tackle this problem, the research team developed the pioneering liquid organic hydrogen carrier (LOHC) technology. With this storage technology, hydrogen is bound to an non-explosive and non-toxic liquid and released as and when required. This allows the renewable energy to be stored long-term in the existing fuel infrastructure, transported across the globe and re-used hundreds of times.
FAU spin-off bringing LOHC to the global market
Dr. Daniel Teichmann, founder and CEO of Hydrogenious LOHC Technologies, will explain how the new technology has moved from research to the global market. The FAU spin-off based in Erlangen is the top technological player in the area of storing hydrogen using liquid organic carriers and is already successfully marketing the LOHC systems in Europe and the USA. The scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs at the company are currently preparing to enter the Chinese market.
‘We are more convinced than ever before that hydrogen will make a crucial contribution to successfully creating a renewable and emission-free energy system of the future,’ says Teichmann, who completed his doctoral degree at FAU.
Masters of Tomorrow
Start-ups in the energy and climate sectors will present their innovative business ideas and projects at the ‘Masters of Tomorrow’ start-up pitch. Four FAU start-ups including Grino Water Solutions GmbH will also be attending the event. Grino Water Solutions has developed an energy-efficient and cost-effective PVOR system (Photo Voltaic Reverse Osmosis) that can provide drinking water access to people in remote regions of the world. The start-up is part of the FAU Sandbox program, which supports student start-ups.
Master’s students will present their climate protection concept
In addition, during an interactive workshop as part of the master class at the ‘Global Market Leaders Innovation Day’, students from FAU will present their sustainability and climate protection concept, which has generated a lot of interest. More than twenty students and doctoral candidates at FAU have developed the concept, and want to use it to bring together all important stakeholders and initiatives aimed at protecting the climate.
They identified at times enormous potential savings at the University in the area of climate protection and presented their concept to FAU President Prof. Dr. Joachim Hornegger in November 2019. After talking to members of the Executive Board and other internal offices as well as to all relevant parties at the Bavarian state parliament, the first steps have already been successfully implemented, for example by establishing a Green Office at FAU.
More information on the event is available at www.weltmarktfuehrer-innovationday.de