My second international conference of the year was the Metal Hydrides conference, this time at a more local venue of The Lowry on the Quays in Salford, Manchester. Not exactly exotic, but going to a conference near home does have its benefits (mainly that I was able to bring my bike in the boot of the car!).
The week began with an early start (even for me!) to be at the Lowry for 9 via dropping cars and luggage at the hotel. The first session began with a plenary lecture that set the scene for the rest of the conference: a discussion of the current energy system and the potential for application of hydrogen technologies, notably metal hydrides. This conference was much more focussed than WHEC in South Korea (see other posts) and so many of the technical sessions were very relevant and interesting. All the "big names" in my research area were there, and so it was great to hear what they are doing and also to speak with them during the breaks.
The welcome reception was held at the Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) and was a good opportunity for me to catch up with some of the researchers I had met a year ago at the Gordon conference in tuscany. I also discovered some areas of the museum I had missed on my previous visits this year.
Tuesday began with plenary lectures reporting back on the status of hydrogen technologies in the UK and Japan. It is promising to see how close the Japanese car manufacturers are to commercialisation of the technologies. Most of the UK progress is in research at an earlier stage of development.
I then took a break from the sessions to finish off my presentation before attending some more interesting technical sessions in the afternoon. Before the poster session, I then went swimming in the quay! I had left my wetsuit at home, but decided to risk it (it was the hottest day of the year!) - I managed 45 minutes before turning blue and heading back to the greenhouse-like conference room on top of the Lowry (below) to look at the posters.
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