The 5th International Conference on Hydrogen Safety (ICHS) was opened today in Brussels. The conference is supported by the European Union and the FCH JU, which was clearly felt during the opening ceremony. Not only is the conference held in the Charlemagne building in Brussels, the conference centre of the Commission, but the gala diner for the participants at the closing of the event on September 11 will be sponsored by the FCH JU and held at the Berlaymont building, the official seat of the Commission.
HySafe president Andrei Tchouvelev opened the session with the words: “We talk about hydrogen safety not because some think hydrogen is not so safe. To the contrary, we talk about hydrogen safety because we want to keep it safe. And for the next 3 days we will share how we can do it successfully.”
The first morning of the conference was chaired by D. Ristori, Director General Joint Research Centre of the European Commission. Statements were given by representatives of the EU General directions for enterprise, transport, energy, and JRC as well as of the FCH JU. Also represented in the list of the opening speakers were representatives of the hydrogen and fuel cell programs of Japan, USA, China, Lithuania, and Germany and the European Hydrogen Association.
Participants look forward to three days packed with information and the possibility to communicate and to exchange ideas and informations.