The Middle East is a vast land, mostly desertic and with limited water resources. It served as the cradle of civilization and has been home to various cultures throughout history, progressively acquiring independence. At the beginning of the 20th century, this region was named “Middle East” respecting a European perspective. Once settled, the name remained and is extensively used today to identify the area  stretching from the Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf, bordered by the Black and Caspian Seas to the north and the Sahara Desert and the Indian Ocean to the south. Map of Middle East...

Electric vehicles are a great solution for decarbonising mobility and making a large part of transportation greener and more sustainable. Easy to say, this assumption leads to some major thinking, to understand the challenges raised by the utilisation of batteries for such electric vehicles.  As highlighted in the first part of this publication, producing lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles is more resource-intensive than manufacturing traditional combustion engines: the development of the cells themselves requires about 20 materials from different countries.  During...

The Rise of Electric Vehicle Batteries and their Implications for the Automotive Industry and Global Energy Economy Electric vehicle (EV) batteries are the power source that allows electric vehicles to run. These rechargeable batteries store the electrical energy necessary to power the vehicle’s electric motor. Lithium-ion batteries are the most common type of battery used in EVs because of their high energy density, long lifespan, and low self-discharge rate. Lithium-ion batteries work by moving lithium ions from the negative electrode (anode) to the positive electrode (cathode)...

Fuel cells: the instruments for using hydrogen as a source of energy Hydrogen represents a very strong ally in producing electricity in clean and sustainable forms. The perfect instrument facilitating such impactful results, at the core of worldwide ambitions today, are hydrogen fuel cells.  Hydrogen fuel cells generate electricity using a chemical reaction. Each fuel cell has two electrodes: a negative anode and a positive cathode. At the level of these electrodes, electricity is produced through the combination with an electrolyte carrying electrically charged particles between them....

The main differences between grey and green hydrogen  Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, and it has a wide range of applications in various industries. It is commonly used as a feedstock in the chemical industry, as a reducing agent in metallurgy, and as a fuel for transportation and power generation. In this article, we will explore the traditional applications of hydrogen in industry and discuss the differences between grey and green hydrogen. Hydrogen is a colourless, odourless, and tasteless gas, but the colour of hydrogen used in industry is not related to...

The European biotech during the COVID-19 pandemic: preparing a brighter future  The powerful combination of technology and biology proved to be a unique asset in the fight against the expansion of COVID-19. Biotech especially in healthcare saw a critical acceleration in the entire continent.  Such a successful result was not so evident at the beginning of this unexpected and challenging pandemic. The European market fragmentation risked threatening the sustainability of the entire healthcare system, due to nationalistic approaches developed by each country. As Andrew Topen, chairman...

The use of biology as a technology, in various and multiple forms, has existed since the dawn of civilisation. Examples of this include the domestication of plants and animals, the discovery of fermentation and the exploitation of yeasts to bake.Biotechnology is the combination of biology and engineering principles to create, develop and deploy new products, techniques, methods, and organisms, including microorganisms, to improve human health and society.Nowadays, biotechnology is mostly associated with healthcare and pharma, accounting for more than 50% of applications, such as the discovery...

European sustainable mobility: the European market of electric vehicles Framing a European vision for electric vehicles We have said it before, the European Union’s bold goal is to be the world’s first climate-neutral continent by 2050, as outlined in the European Green Deal. This set of measures aims to modernize the EU, increase resource efficiency, and enhance competitiveness.  Easy to say, quite complex to put in place. Such an objective implies not only the harmonic collaboration among all European countries but also the deployment of a bunch of structural modifications...

The European Union (EU) has implemented a number of policies and initiatives to promote sustainable energy and reduce its dependence on fossil fuels. The overall goal is to create a secure, competitive, and sustainable energy system for the EU.  The EU’s energy strategy is thus based on three main pillars: security of supply, competitiveness, and sustainability. One of the key goals of the EU’s energy policy is to increase the share of renewable energy sources in the overall energy mix: tidal, wind, solar, biomass, and hydropower. To achieve this, the EU has set a target...

Aspiring strategies for the development of green hydrogen: targets and concrete actions As of today, over 30 governments have developed, or are in the process of developing, national hydrogen strategies to facilitate their climate action plans and to take advantage of the social and economic co-benefits offered by the green hydrogen value chain. Some policies are illustrative of this commitment:  CountryInitiativeYearJapanBasic Hydrogen Strategy2017AustraliaNational Hydrogen Strategy2019European UnionA hydrogen strategy for a climate-neutral Europe2020ChileNational Green Hydrogen...

Hydrogen is defined as “green” when its production process is based on renewable energy sources –mainly through an electrolytic process. Source: World Bank 2022 As a cross-cutting energy vector, green hydrogen is a strong ally for decarbonizing heavy industry, including chemical and energy-hungry sectors like steelmaking and cement production, as well as cleaning products, refrigeration, and electricity grid stabilization, and also some kinds of transports. It can also be converted into derivatives: by 2050, green hydrogen is projected to have a significant market share in several fields,...

“Water is the coal of the future.” That’s how French author Jules Verne summed it up nearly 150 years ago. “The elements hydrogen and oxygen, decomposed by electric current, will in the future supply the Earth’s energy,” he went on to say.  Is Verne right? Is hydrogen really becoming the ‘silver bullet’ to advance the decarbonization of the Earth? Or is it merely a ‘hype train’, as Forbes put it? One thing is certain: hydrogen alone will not stop climate change. Hydrogen production Although abundant on earth as an element, hydrogen is almost always found...