Renewable electricity and renewable molecules as partners in the energy transition

In his presentation, Prof Wilbrand demonstrated the extent to which, in addition to battery storage, material storage is necessary for the transition to renewable energies. As the storage capacities of battery storage systems have increased massively, but are far from sufficient to balance out renewable electricity generation over a longer period of time, further storage in the form of material media is necessary, according to Mr Wilbrand. Using the example of the greenhouse gas balance in the life cycle of cars, he illustrated the challenges of using electrical energy and the current advantages of combined systems.

David Hone, Chief Climate Change Adviser at Shell in London, presented the global importance and necessity of climate protection and possible future scenarios in a guest lecture.

The President of the TUHH, Prof. Andreas Timm-Giel, gave a welcoming speech and the Dean of the School of the Process Engineering, Prof. Johannes Gescher, opened the lecture with a laudatory speech.

Prof Karsten Wilbrand studied at the RWTH in Aachen before gaining his doctorate at the Technical University of Hamburg in 1996. He then worked at Elektrowatt-Ekono, part of the AFRY Group, before moving to Shell in 2006, where he headed up projects on sustainable mobility, currently as a senior scientist in the mobility division.