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8th EUROPEAN SOFC FORUM SOFC

Chairman
Dr. Robert Steinberger-Wilckens

30 June – 4 July 2008
Kultur- und Kongresszentrum Luzern
Lucerne / Switzerland

Fundamentals, Materials, Systems, Applications

Conference Language: English

The Chairman: Dr. Robert Steinberger-Wilckens

In 1992 Robert Steinberger-Wilckens received his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Oldenburg (Germany). After one year as research assistant he accepted a managing position in the engineering company PLANET, he had co-founded back in 1986. In 1997 he was appointed manager of the SOFC development at Forschungszentrum Jülich.

In his scientific career Robert Steinberger-Wilcken's main interest has been on research, development and practical application of efficient energy conversion technologies and the integration of renewable energies into energy supply systems. This included R&D projects on fuel cells for stationary power generation, hydrogen as a storage medium for wind and solar energy, as well as commercial projects on efficient energy and water supply to buildings and settlements.

In his function as manager of the Jülich SOFC programme, the technology transfer from Jülich laboratories to SOFC companies and the initiation of cooperation projects are his main responsibilities together with structuring and coordinating R&D activities at FZJ. He has taken personal interest in degradation topics by modelling and accelerated testing. The EU Integrated Project "Real-SOFC" was devised by him. He now acts as the project coordinator. Real-SOFC unites some of the main players in SOFC technology in Europe – concentrating on the planar design – and looks into new materials which will reduce the degradation to a level acceptable for stationary power generation.

Robert Steinberger-Wilckens founded the engineering company PLANET – Planungsgruppe Energie & Technik with university colleagues in 1986, which he temporarily left in 1990 to complete his PhD studies. He re-joined the company as one of the managing directors in 1993 and remained senior developer for a number of projects like energy efficient building technology, water saving, building quality certificates, solar and wind energy, energy system design, municipal energy development, hydrogen supply to fuel cell vehicles, hydrogen infrastructure development, fuel cell market development, gas cleaning technologies, and biomass gasification.

He has been lecturing at Oldenburg University on Hydrogen & Fuel Cell Technology since 2003 and on Environmental Technology at Bremen University, besides various contributions to summer schools and teaching events. He initiated the "Summer School and Student Exchange" activities within Real-SOFC and has supervised a variety of student master theses with topics ranging from energy meteorology over storage technologies and fuel cell applications to cost analyses for wind-hydrogen systems. In total, he has published over 80 contributions in textbooks, journals and conference proceedings on renewable energies, energy efficiency, environmental impact assessment, hydrogen and fuel cells.

Robert Steinberger-Wilckens participated in the EU "Building 2000" programme as early as 1987/1989. Later EU activities saw the development of the modular hydrogen filling station EUHYFIS in the 4th Framework Programme (FP4) under the CRAFT scheme from 1999 to 2000, participation in the projects RES2H2 and CUTE in FP5, and the Integrated Projects NaturalHy and Roads2HyCom in FP6. He served as an evaluator for the EU in the CONCERTO II call in 2004 and was a member of the Working Group "Stationary Fuel Cells" of the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Platform Europe in 2006, which prepared the work programme for the 7th Framework Programme.

He was member of the board of the AGÖF (German Association of Ecologically Oriented Research and Engineering Institutions) from 1997 to 2000 and head of the scientific board of the AGÖF congresses in 1998 and 1999. As a member of the Coordinating Group of the Fuel Cell Initiative of the state of Lower Saxony he has influenced regional fuel cell project funding since 2004 and as a member of the Working Group "Compact SOFC Systems" also the National Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Strategy of the German Federal Government in 2006. He has organised and co-chaired several conferences and workshops as well as served as session chairman and member of scientific and organising committees.