Highlighting excellence at the Durban University of Technology, Dr Emmanuel Tetteh and Ms Nombeko Sijadu truly excelled at the recent 54-hour Green Hydrogen Hackathon Challenge.
The hackathon took place online, for a period of three days. The aim of the hackathon was to bring together Master’s and PhD students from Africa and Europe, to develop innovative solutions and ideas that address the challenge: ‘How can green hydrogen contribute to regional development?’
Sijadu’s team won first prize in the challenge, meanwhile, Dr Tetteh’s team took second position.
Sijadu is serving as a hydrogen economy intern, at DUT’s Green Engineering Research Group (GERG) under the Chemical Engineering Department. Her research focuses on green hydrogen as a safe and reliable energy carrier to replace fossil fuel and its potential to decarbonize the planet. .
Her winning team consisted of seven members from South Africa and Europe where their project titled: “Green Hydrogen and Us” solved the problem of awareness and engagement related to hydrogen.
“Our project could identify the gap or the barrier, that leads to green hydrogen transition not being practiced or developed on the speculated period. Then our proposal involved clear objectives, availability of necessary resources, support and involvement of stakeholders, the concept of “catching them young,” introducing hydrogen through different marketing forms including media, entertainment and developing pilot scale as a form of practice as we preach about it. We conceptualised the “Green hydrogen & Us” conforming that this needs to be acknowledged by everyone from kids to all other nations,” said Sijadu.
Dr Tetteh, a Research Fellow/Principal Investigator at DUT’s Green Engineering Research Group (GERG) said the hackathon was sponsored by the Department of Higher Education, Science, and Innovation. It was facilitated by the Central University of Technology, Free State (CUT, Innovation Services) and the University of Groningen (Impact Hydrogen, Netherlands).
“Participants from Africa and Europe were allowed to explore new opportunities and sustainable solutions for the shift to a hydrogen economy. A multidisciplinary team comprising of diverse students and academics was tasked with addressing challenges related to hydrogen technologies, including but not limited to production, mobility, storage, leak detection, and awareness,” explained Dr Tetteh.
He found out about the challenge from the DUT Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research, Innovation and Engagement, Professor Keolebogile Motaung who circulated a call to all the students to participate.
Dr Tetteh shared that his team consisting of members from Ghana and South Africa was tasked to address the greenhouse emission challenges associated with the usage of fossil fuels in the road transport sector.
“The team’s ideation proposed the development of a sustainable solar-driven electrolyser to produce green hydrogen for the road transport sector with wastewater treatment beneficiation. I believe our project met the hackathon challenge objective by using interdisciplinary approach to propose technological solutions to produce green hydrogen as alternative fossil fuel for the road transport sector to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. Notwithstanding, our proposed technology at its conceptual phase and green hydrogen education is still underrated in Africa, our project became the runner up,” added Dr Tetteh.
Dr Tetteh said he was honoured to participate and contribute knowledge for technological development of green hydrogen solutions as a national initiative that benefits DUT’s ENVISION2030 strategy on a global map of excellence.
The two participants are proud that they managed to excel in this challenge despite the research stress and having to be glued to their laptops for 54 hours to interact with their teams and mentors. This was also despite the loadshedding challenge resulting to unstable internet connectivity forcing them to switch between their phones and laptops. They also extended a special thanks to the DUT Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research, Innovation and Engagement, Professor Keolebogile Motaung for encouraging them to enter this hackathon.
The Executive Dean: Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment at DUT, Professor Fulufhelo Nemavhola congratulated the two staff members for promoting DUT’s excellence in the hackathon and encouraged them to keep the DUT flag flying high.
Pictured: Dr Emmanuel Tetteh and Ms Nombeko Sijadu.
Simangele Zuma
