Throughout our Hydrogen Week posts so far, we have highlighted hydrogen activity across the country, including in key clusters such as the North East and Humberside.
But I didn't want to let the week pass without mentioning some of the innovation taking place here in Cambridge.
One of the businesses sharing their projects as part of Hydrogen Week is Cambridge company Levidian. Their LOOP technology produces hydrogen and graphene through the decarbonisation of methane. Both of these products will have a big role to play in the technologies of the future, and it is exciting to me that they can both be derived from the same process.
Towards the end of last year, there was also a lot of publicity for work being done in my old stomping ground, the Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry. The Reisner Group deployed "artificial leaves" on the river Cam, which were able to convert the polluted river water into hydrogen and clean drinking water. There are plans to commercialise the technology, which we look forward to seeing.
These Cambridge innovations are linked by the generation of both hydrogen and another useful product through the potential exploitation of waste streams. Three benefits from one process. They also further demonstrate Cambridge's GreenTech expertise, both in the commercial and academic sectors. We look forward to seeing what new technology emerges from Cambridge – and beyond! - ahead of next year's Hydrogen Week.
However, unlike earlier versions, which could produce green hydrogen fuel from clean water sources, this new artificial leaf operates from polluted or seawater sources and can produce clean drinking water at the same time.
Tests of the device showed it was able to produce clean water from highly polluted water, seawater, and even from the River Cam in central Cambridge.
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