Biodata

Prof. Dr. Aishah Abdul Jalil

Director, Centre of Hydrogen Energy, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Malaysia.

Professor Dr Aishah Abdul Jalil received her Bachelor of Engineering (1993, Industrial Chemistry), Master of Engineering (1995, Chemical and Environmental Engineering) and Ph.D. (2002, Molecular Chemistry) from Japan. Currently, she is a Director of Center of Hydrogen Energy and very active earnestly involved in research focussing on design and synthesis of catalysts and advanced materials for various applications in energy and environmental catalysis, petrochemical reactions, water splitting, wastewater treatment, fine chemistry, as well as drug delivery system. At present, by implementing Chemistry for green applications, she has managed to publish more than 250 scientific papers in high impact international and local journals. As a favorite lecturer, more than 30 PhD, 50 Masters and 140 undergraduate students were graduated under her supervision, while many more are still ongoing.

Speech detail

Global energy transformation towards a more environmentally sustainable future

Global energy production is predominantly dependent upon fossil fuels and their consistent utilization not only results in their rapid depletion but also adversely affects the environment. The combustion of fossil fuels not only emits long-lived CO₂ leading to global warming, but also short-lived toxic pollutants such as SO_X and NO_X that cause serious health problems and ecosystem pollution. Thus, global decarbonisation in the transportation, industry and electricity generation sectors is crucially needed to mitigate anthropogenic climate change. In this context, a quick switch from the fossil-based economy to a net-zero emission economy specifically from alternative renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, tidal, biomass, etc. which are greener and sustainable has been a growing interest from scholars and industries with versatile production routes. Accelerating the deployment of renewables to fossil energy requires complementary energy storage and energy carrier strategies. Recently, hydrogen became widely acknowledged as a promising energy carrier due to its high energy density (2.75 times higher than hydrocarbons), high energy conversion efficiency, non-carbon dioxide emissions and wide range of sources. The EU announced its Hydrogen Strategy last year, Japan renewed its commitment to Hydrogen energy, while South Korea and Australia announced multimillion-dollar investments in the hydrogen industry. ASEAN energy market still dominated by fossil fuels and all the renewable energy initiatives especially towards hydrogen economy are lagging behind schedule, this might be due to an abundance of natural resources in the current scenario and high renewable energy costs. The cost-effective production methods, policies, research and development and hydrogen infrastructure development are still under investigation.