Theme 4
alternative liquid fuels
20th July 2022
Alternative liquid fuels (ALFs) such as ammonia are increasingly regarded as a key component of the future energy mix towards the net zero imperative. Through our launch workshop, you also told us that alternative liquid fuels was one of the major areas that you wanted to discuss. On the 20th July UK-HyRES held the fourth themed workshop focused on the research challenges, future vision and opportunities surrounding ammonia and alternative liquid fuels to answer that call.
Discussion focused not only around ammonia but also of some other alternatives such as ethanol, methanol and formic acid. In the workshop we first watched an insight talk by Josh Makepeace (University of Birmingham) who set out the background of ammonia and why it is so promising, including how the related fuel cell technologies might look. We also heard from Laura Torrente-Murciano (University of Cambridge) who explored the reasons why ALFs are needed, remarking “We need novel integrated energy systems taking into consideration energy supply and demand profiles”.
With safety a common discussion throughout all of our workshops, we later heard from Stuart Hawksworth (Head, Centre for Energy and Major Hazards, Health & Safety Executive & President, International Association for Hydrogen Safety). He reminded us that “safety can not be an afterthought” and that we need to think smarter about safety and develop new evidence based standards. John Irvine (University of St Andrews) gave the final insight talk, with his perspective on the future vision for alternative liquid fuels and green ammonia, highlighting the particular industrial interest in ammonia for shipping.
The Collective expertly facilitated the session to allow attendees to debate key questions designed to determine the research challenges and the opportunities, framed around the Theory of Change.
The UK-HyRES team would like to particularly thank our invited speakers for their insightful contributions as well as all attendees. Developing a UK Centre of Excellence would not be possible without this fantastic engagement.
The research team will now start work analysing the comments and outputs, with the final outcomes published on our website in the coming weeks.
Thanks again for all participation, don’t forget our next event takes place on the 15th September, in-person, at the University of Warwick. A Research Challenges Showcase, we plan to discuss the steps forward, present our findings and continue the conversation. Registration details will available on our Events page in due course.
A recording of the workshop is available below, you can also download the workshop slide deck and view all the insight talks.
