Dr. Hamed Aslannejad has been a prominent figure in the field of hydrogen since 2008, with a strong background in the development of solid oxide fuel cell systems. His primary area of expertise lies in the production and utilization of hydrogen through electrochemical conversions, particularly in the domains of electrolyzers and fuel cells, and their integration into energy systems. With a foundation in chemical engineering, he is deeply involved in the multi-scale modeling of electrolyzer and fuel cell units, aimed at enhancing their sustainability and longevity. Dr. Aslannejad is also dedicated to the concept of a reversible electrolyzer unit that can seamlessly connect to both electricity and gas grids, serving as an innovative energy storage solution. He holds a Ph.D. with the prestigious Cum Laude designation and was honored with the Interpore Young Researcher Award in 2020. Presently, he serves as the technical manager of Work Package 3 within the GronevermogenNL program, where, in collaboration with their consortium, they are pioneering the direct application of hydrogen in the Netherlands.
René Peters is an expert in engineering physics with a background at Eindhoven University of Technology. After his PhD in 1993 at the same university, where he optimized gas flows in pipeline networks, he worked at Shell Research on gas extraction from nearly empty gas fields. He then joined TNO in 1998, where he held various positions in gas extraction, transport, and storage. He is currently director of gas technology, directing research on sustainable gases such as green gas and hydrogen, the role of gas in energy transition and system integration.
His current focus is on smart utilization of existing energy infrastructure and system integration. He leads the North Sea Energy program, a public-private research program for system integration in the North Sea. This investigates the transition from oil and gas to renewable energy at sea by more than 30 partners from industry and government. This has led to the PosHYdon pilot, in which the conversion of offshore wind to hydrogen at sea is being demonstrated on a platform in the North Sea. In addition, René Peters is a board member of IRO (association of suppliers to the offshore energy sector), board member of the World Energy Council NL and the Energy Reinvented Community. He also leads the TKI New Gas consortium for Geo Energy research under Top Sector Energy and is a member of the Board of Experts as advisor to the Ministry of EZK in the field of flow metrology.
Linda Steg is professor of environmental psychology at the University of Groningen. She studies factors influencing sustainable behaviour, the effects and acceptability of strategies aimed at promoting sustainable behaviour, and public perceptions of technology and system changes. She is a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, and the Dutch Scientific Climate Council. She is laureate of the Dutch Royal Decoration with appointment as the Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion, and laureate of the Stevin prize of the Dutch Research Council. She was lead author of the IPCC special report on 1.5°C and AR6, and participates in various interdisciplinary and international research programmes in which she collaborates with practitioners working in industry, governments and NGOs.
Lennart van der Burg is hydrogen expert and as cluster manager green hydrogen responsible for the green hydrogen R&D development program within the leading Dutch applied research centre TNO. In 2022 only, the program contains more than 50 projects related to hydrogen production, transportation, storage and application. Lennart is leading the Power-2-Hydrogen program line of the Shared research initiative VoltaChem. Here we work together with industry on next generation PEM, SOE, AEM and CO2 electrolyser technology and breakthrough improvements with respect to circularity, cost, performance and upscaling.
Lennart has a strong dedication to tackle climate change and is besides TNO active as a local councillor and was involved in the social enterprise on sustainable lifestyle. Lennart has over 15 year professional experience in the renewable energy and water technology sector. Before TNO he worked for 7 years at engineering company Sweco. Lennart and has a master degree in environmental economics and water technology.
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Maria Fennis, CEO HyET Hydrogen / Co-CEO HyET Solar encountered sustainable technology development at HyET Solar after studying Chemistry at UU. This is where her enthusiasm was aroused and after working in product development for several years, she started doing her master in Science and Business Management full time at UU. It seemed very sensible for Maria to also learn a bit more about how exactly to put such a great product on the market, strategy, vision, people, capital. After having seen a number of other companies, including Nedstack where she first came into contact with hydrogen, she returned to Hyet Group 4 years ago to first further build up HyET Hydrogen and then to further develop the HyET Group proposition together with Rombout Swanborn. Crucial here are the collaborative projects with universities, finding strategic partners, finding the right people, and making sure there is enough capital to continue growing.
Dr. Ruud Kortlever is an associate professor at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) in the Department of Process & Energy. His group is interested in electrochemical conversions that are relevant for renewable fuel production and the electrification of the chemical industry. With the help of mechanistical insights, modelling and experimental work his group contributes to solving contemporary energy problems by developing new electrocatalytic systems and devices.
Dr Jan-jaap Aué is lecturer in hydrogen applications at Hanze University Groningen and director of EnTranCe, Centre of Expertise Energy. He is regional liaison Human Capital Groenvermogen in the Northern Netherlands, chairman of the LEVE lectors’ platform and ECCM committee member. After his PhD, he has worked at KPN Research and TNO and from 2009 at Hanzehogeschool Groningen. He has been responsible for the development of an interdisciplinary applied research group on Energy Transition, which led to the establishment of the EnTranCe|Centre of Expertise Energy in 2012. EnTranCe now has 11 lecturers and around 50FTE staff.
Theo Koster is self-employed and has spent his working life wandering around the manufacturing industry in the Netherlands. First as a journalist for a trade magazine for engineers. Later as director of various industry associations within the FME.
Since 2017, he has been committed to the region (Metropolitan Region Amsterdam) and is deployed by Techport as Business Relations Manager, among other things. Techport is a public-private partnership between entrepreneurs, government and education. Techport’s ambition is to work together in the North Sea Canal area to drive the Netherlands’ first green industrial zone by connecting, organising and innovating.
In addition, Theo Koster is the initiator of the Innovation Cluster Transport & Logistics IJmond (accommodated by OV IJmond) and holds various board positions in the region. He is thrilled to use his education, work experience and developed network of the past 35 years to support individual companies, government, knowledge institutes and schools in the regional Manufacturing and Maintenance industry in the energy transition.
Simone Maase is account manager Energy Transition for Lifelong Development at the Hogeschool van Amsterdam. Learning for and by professionals, retrainers and lateral entrants in cooperation with research and training programmes where educational offerings in manageable modules enable a personal learning path. Simone is also regional liaison HCA GroenvermogenNL for the North-West region. She was one of the initiators of the development of the National Learning Community System Integration. Simone received her master’s degree in industrial design from TU Delft.
Arjan van der Stelt studied Electrical Power Engineering at Avans University of Applied Sciences and Technology Policy at the Technical University in Eindhoven, specializing in Energy and Environment.
Since then, he has been active in the energy sector for over 20 years. He has been active in various roles, including – Manager of Business Economics at Essent – Operations Implementation Manager of the Moerdijk 2 new build project. Subsequently, he was Operations Manager of the Moerdijk 1 and Moerdijk 2 gas-fired power plants.
Currently, he is the Knowledge & Change Manager at RWE Generation, with responsibilities covering Germany, England, the Netherlands, and Turkey.
Jörg Gigler has been working on themes at the interface of sustainability, energy transition and innovation for almost 30 years. Since 2013, he has been director of TKI New Gas | Top Sector Energy. From that position, Jörg facilitates “innovators” looking for support, funding, networking and information on the themes of hydrogen, green gas, CCS (carbon capture & storage) and geo-energy. Before that, Jörg held various positions in consultancy, at companies and regional organisations, for the government and in research. Jörg studied agricultural engineering at Wageningen University, where he obtained his PhD on the topic of bioenergy in early 2000. Jörg is a regular speaker and moderator at conferences and courses.
René Schutte joined Gasunie in 2006. He has worked in several commercial roles in energy procurement, shipping and grid connections and implementation of new law and regulation requirements for Gasunie Transport Services. Since July 2018 René was Program Manager Hydrogen. In this role he was responsible to develop and implement the Gasunie hydrogen program. René now is director of HyNorth, the transition and coordination office for the Northern Netherlands Hydrogen Investment Plan, combing projects of more than 50 parties to accomplish a hydrogen eco-system of combined investment value EUR 10 billion. Until mid 2022 he was Board member at Hydrogen Europe and Chair of the Governance Board at Clean Hydrogen Partnership.
Alexandru is part of Ørsted’s Ventures and Open Innovation hub in the Netherlands. With more than 10 years’ experience in the Offshore Wind Sector he is currently working on the next gen offshore wind farms developments where System Integration will play a pivotal role towards meeting our climate goals.
Carol Xiao is Director Business Development. She has a background in Chemical Engineering, studied at Technische Universiteit Delft and started her career in the chemical industry and high tech sector. Carol: “What I enjoy most is that innovation can be disruptive: it can bring a real change to the world in how we interact, live or (economically) behave.”
Afkenel leads the Hydrogen team for Uniper in The Netherlands. She is Non-Executive Director at HydrogenOne Capital, the first renewable hydrogen investment trust listed on the London Stock exchange. She was previously COO Energy at First Hydrogen, and SVP of Hydrogen Business Development for The Netherlands at ENGIE. She has held senior positions at Gasunie, Shell and NAM. Afkenel has delivered hydrogen, heating, and oil & gas projects in the Netherlands and world-wide.
