On November 14, 2024, Academician Xie Heping, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and Director of the Institute of Deep Earth Sciences and Green Energy at Shenzhen University, was invited to deliver a keynote speech at the China-Europe Workshop on Hydrogen Energy, part of the "China Week" event held at the Clausthal University of Technology in Germany. Xie's presentation was titled "Establish a Novel Track for 'Direct Seawater Electrolysis for Hydrogen Production Powered by Offshore Renewable Energy'". Professor Schade from Clausthal University highly praised Xie's presentation, highlighting the innovative nature, vast potential, and promising economic benefits of the proposed technology for direct seawater electrolysis for hydrogen production powered by offshore renewable energy. Schade also expressed interest in collaborating with Xie's team on advanced hydrogen storage and monitoring technologies to jointly promote the research and commercialization of the entire hydrogen energy supply chain.
Xie Heping's team has achieved a series of groundbreaking innovations in fields such as deep-earth, deep-sea, and deep-space high-precision core sampling, low-energy electrochemical CO2 capture, near-zero-carbon direct coal fuel cells, low- and medium-temperature geothermal power generation, and direct seawater hydrogen production. At the symposium, Xie shared the team's latest progress on their disruptive seawater electrolysis technology, which produces hydrogen without the need for desalination, and discussed its future prospects. This technology was published in Nature and was selected as one of China's Top 10 Science Advances in 2022.
Xie also presented his vision for the "Dongfang Heping" offshore hydrogen production vessel, which aims to directly transport "green hydrogen", "carbon-negative green methanol", and "green ammonia" across oceans.
Professor Hou Zhengmeng from Clausthal University of Technology introduced Academician Xie Heping and commended the content of his report.
Professor Schade expressed high regard for the technological achievements of Xie's team.
