About the Conference Organizers

The 2024 Renewable Hydrogen Storage and Transport Conference is a joint effort between two organizations, AIChE and the Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute. 

Organized By:

About the Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute

Seeking to address the need for a long-range program in basic research and graduate education in the field of hydrocarbon chemistry, the University of Southern California established the Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute in 1977. Under the leadership of a Nobel Prize winning Chemist, the late George A. Olah, and a well-known Physical Chemist, the late Sydney Benson, the initial mission of the Institute was to carry out fundamental research in the chemistry of hydrocarbons. During Olah’s highly successful tenure, and the current leadership of G. K. Surya Prakash, the Institute’s research focus has been expanded to include energy storage and carbon dioxide capture and utilization. Building on that legacy, a search for sustainable solutions to the mitigation of global warming through innovative chemistry has become the Institute’s primary mission today.

A meaningful solution to hydrocarbon shortages and a need to curb runaway global warming will only emerge when mankind can produce vast amounts of renewable and cheap non-fossil-fuel-based energy. With abundant cheap energy, hydrogen can be produced from sea water and then combined with carbon dioxide to produce renewable methanol, formic acid, ethylene, propylene, and many other renewable hydrocarbons. Methanol and formic acid can also be used as a convenient hydrogen storage media. In the meantime, however, it is essential that solutions be found that are feasible within the framework of existing knowledge and technologies. The Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute is at the forefront of these efforts.

About AIChE

AIChE is a professional society of more than 60,000 chemical engineers in 110 countries. Its members work in corporations, universities and government, using their knowledge of chemical processes to develop safe and useful products for the benefit of society. Through its varied programs, AIChE continues to be a focal point for information exchange on the frontiers of chemical engineering research in such areas as energy, sustainability, biological and environmental engineering, nanotechnology and chemical plant safety and security.