About the Centre
Funding from both the German and New Zealand governments (BMBF and MBIE) was awarded 2021-2026 to support the development of a German-NZ Green Hydrogen Centre (based at the University of Otago, but with a NZ-wide team) and the strengthening of networking (research and industry) and outreach (public and schools), co-led by Dr Paul Jerabek (Institute for Hydrogen Technology, Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon) and Prof Sally Brooker (University of Otago), with NZ deputy lead Prof Aaron Marshall (University of Canterbury). The Centre also aims to facilitate the realisation of an industry-focused German-New Zealand Southern Innovation Campus. Check out the original Centre funding press releases (Otago, Hereon, Oct 2021).
On the NZ side, we are committed to building a deep and enduring partnership with Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu, and have brought together researchers from all NZ universities, the MacDiarmid Institute, polytechnics, Crown Research Institutes (GNS & Scion), Ara Ake, and Callaghan Innovation. We are also working with private sector experts and the New Zealand Hydrogen Council as we look to build more and stronger green hydrogen partnerships with German researchers and industries.
The Centre will host new capabilities for NZ relating to green hydrogen storage materials (which are able to store hydrogen at densities similar to that obtained by compression (to high pressures) or cryogenic cooling (liquification), but at close to ambient pressure and temperature) as this is an existing strength of our German-partners at Hereon. As part of this relationship building, Hereon will build, supply and train us on their propriety Sieverts apparatus. A/Prof Nigel Lucas (Otago) will be in charge of this instrument, which accurately measures hydrogen uptake by such storage materials. Indeed the quality of this instrument from Hereon will place us into the top four labs in the world. This adds new capability in NZ – please contact A/Prof Nigel Lucas if you are interested in access.
The first three German-NZ Green Hydrogen research grants (2022-2025) have been awarded (Minister Verrall press release 16 August 2022; also see the MBIE page here):
1. “Safe, low cost, hydrogen storage materials from NZ resources” hosted at Otago University but with an NZ wide team plus our partners at Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon (Hereon press release 4 August 2022; Otago Uni press release 17 Aug 2022; ODT 17 Aug 2022; EnergyCentral 17 Aug 2022), led by Prof Sally Brooker and Dr Paul Jerabek.
2. “Investigating ways of producing low-cost green hydrogen” hosted at Canterbury University (Canterbury Uni press release 17 August 2022), led by Prof Aaron Marshall.
3. “New Zealand-German platform for green hydrogen integration” hosted at Canterbury University, led by Drs Jannik Haas and Rebecca Peer.
Ngāi Tahu commissioned a video to showcase a few of the researchers working on hydrogen in Te Waipounamu (South Island, NZ), specifically the leaders of the above German-NZ Green Hydrogen research grants. You can check it out on Youtube by clicking on the image below.
A link to a video commissioned by Ngāi Tahu showcasing four of the hydrogen researchers in Te Waipounamu (South Island, NZ) from University of Canterbury and University of Otago
The Centre has been honoured by the gift of a name, logo and proverb by Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu (deliberated on by Dr Hana O’Regan, with Aimee Kaio) which was celebrated at NZHS-1 on 1 February 2023 (please see the top left image below).
