Information on the International Hydrail Conference

Featured Speakers

Daryl Wilson, Chief Executive Officer, Hydrogenics Inc. “It’s time for integrative thinking on Energy: We can’t afford to waste any more”

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Daryl Wilson was appointed President and Chief Executive Officer in December 2006, bringing a varied 25-year background in technology and industrial management to the company, including operations, manufacturing, human resources, research, product development, organizational change and turn-around experience. Prior to joining Hydrogenics, he held senior leadership positions at Royal Group Technologies, Zenon Environmental, Toyota and Dofasco. Daryl began his career with a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Toronto. In 1990, Daryl also earned an MBA from McMaster University in Operations Management/Management Science.

Herr Detlef Matthiessen, Member of Parliament, Schleswig-Holstein FRG

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Detlef Matthiessen is a Member of Parliament in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where he is Speaker for Energy Policy and Technology Innovation. Born in 1954, Herr Matthiessen was a founding member of the Green Party in Germany, and has a long history of involvement in the energy business having previously held positions as an energy manager consulting with small- and medium-sized companies and as an entrepreneur in developing wind and solar projects. Among Herr Matthiessen’s many interests are the development and deployment of smart grid technology, and integrating renewable energy-generated electricity into the grid.

The Honourable Glen Murray, Ontario Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure

Video

Glen Murray was appointed the Minister of Infrastructure and the Minister of Transportation in February, 2013. Minister Murray has had a lifetime of activism in urban planning, sustainable development and community health. He has served on several university, hospital and community boards and is a founding member of the Canadian AIDS Society. Murray served as mayor of the City of Winnipeg from 1998 to 2004. As Chair of the Big City Mayors Caucus, he led the successful campaign to transfer the equivalent of 5 cents per litre of the federal gas tax to municipalities for infrastructure renewal and construction. In 2004, Murray moved to Toronto and served as Senior Resident at Massey College and a Visiting Fellow at the Faculty of Architecture and Landscape Design at the University of Toronto. He was appointed Chair of the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy by Prime Minister Paul Martin in 2005. Murray became president and CEO of the Canadian Urban Institute in 2007.

Prof. Weirong Chen, SW Jiaotong University, China “System Integration of China’s First Hydrogen Locomotive”

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Prof. Dr. Weirong Chen is the executive vice director of National Rail Transit Electrification and Automation Technique Research Center and Executive vice dean of School of Electrical Engineering of Southwest Jiaotong University, which is the top university on rail transportation of China. Prof. Chen is the State Council special government allowance winner and Mao Yisheng Railway Science and Technology Award winner. His research interests involve railway electrification and automation technologies, intelligent information technologies and new energy technologies. Prof. Chen has taken charge more than 30 projects and been honored National Science and Technology Progress Award. He has published more than 200 academic paper and 2 monographs.

Panel Presentations

Panel 1: Canada, the U.S. and the Birth of Hydrail

• Alistair Miller, AECL “Hydrail: a Building Block for Energy Delivery in a Low-Carbon World”
• Robert Stasko, SCI “The Ontario Advantage – and The Closing Window of Opportunity”
• Stan Thompson, “Lessons Learned on the Track Toward Hydrail”; Fraser Valley Heritage Railway

Panel 2: Overview of RD&D Progress in Hydrogen and Transportation

• Mike Fowler, University of Waterloo “The Energy Hub and Transportation”
• Forest Wang, UOIT “The Hydrogen Lab and Rail Transportation Applications”
• Joseph Chow, Ryerson Engineering “Sustainable Rail Transportation”

Panel 3: Pioneering Projects: Reports from the Early Movers

• Stan Thompson, “Hydrail: The Word Made Steel – TIG/m and the World’s First Hydrogen Streetcar”
• Bill Thunberg, Lake Norman Transportation Commission “Realizing Transit: Clearing the Funding Hurdle”
• Shen-En Chen, University of North Carolina at Charlotte “UNC Charlotte’s Hydrail Initiatives”

Panel 4: Global Forum – Project Reports from the International Community – Hydrogen and Rail

• Andreas Hoffrichter, University of Birmingham “Hydrogen for Railway Traction”
• Holger Busche, “Schienenfplieger Hydrail Project”, Germany
• Dmitry Grigorovich, Scientific Research Centre for Railway Transport, “H2 Power Car”

Panel 5: Future Electrification of Light Rail Transportation in Ontario

• Karen Pitre, Electrification Project Lead, Metrolinx “The Electrification Plan for GO Transit”
• Tim Dickson, R&DD Lead, Bombardier Transportation “PRIMOVE – wireless electrification”
• Edward Huang, NBT-Fuel Cell Locomotive Project and Application

Panel 6: City Building and the Impact of New Transportation Technologies on the GTA

• Linda Weichel, VP Partnerships, CivicAction
• John Brodhead, Executive Director, Evergreen CityWorks

Panel 7: Electricity Grid Panel – Convergence of Smart Grid, Energy Storage and Transportation

• Jon Dogterom, Cleantech Lead, MaRs Energy Institute “Clean Public Transportation”
• Ioan Agavriloai, Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) “Operational Outlook”
• Jason Hoyle, Senior Energy Analyst, Energy Centre, Appalachian State University “Impact of Negative Marginal Cost of Electricity”
• Ravi Seethapathy, Manager System Innovation and Advanced Grid Development, HydroOne “Challenges and Opportunities arising from Surplus Base Load”

In alphabetical order

John Brodhead

John is the first Executive Director of CityWorks, a strategic initiative of Evergreen. Prior to joining CityWorks, John was Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Cabinet Affairs for Premier Dalton McGuinty and served in other roles in the Office of the Premier, including Executive Director of Communications and Senior Policy Advisor. John was also Vice President for Strategy and Communications for Metrolinx. Prior to joining the provincial government, John served in various capacities in the federal government, including working for the Minister’s of Infrastructure and Communities and National Defence.

Holger Busche

Holger Busche is head of Schienenflotte GmbH, a company founded to initiate innovative rail projects, especially hydrail. Although a geophysicist by training his work incorporates many disciplines including technology, economics, and politics. He is an active advocate for hydrail technology and seeks to engage non-railway-focused organizations in hydrail promotion.

Weirong Chen

Prof. Dr. Weirong Chen is the executive vice director of National Rail Transit Electrification and Automation Technique Research Center and Executive vice dean of School of Electrical Engineering of Southwest Jiaotong University, which is the top university on rail transportation of China. Prof. Chen is the State Council special government allowance winner and Mao Yisheng Railway Science and Technology Award winner. His research interests involve railway electrification and automation technologies, intelligent information technologies and new energy technologies. Prof. Chen has taken charge more than 30 projects and been honored National Science and Technology Progress Award. He has published more than 200 academic paper and 2 monographs.

Joseph Chow

Dr. Chow is the Canada Research Chair in Transportation Systems Engineering and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at Ryerson University, with appointments in the Environmental Applied Science and Management program and Centre for Urban Energy. He has published over 30 articles, conference proceedings, or reports in transportation systems planning, network modeling, transport economics, and urban logistics. Since starting in 2012, Dr. Chow has secured nearly $1M in external research and supporting funds. He is a nominated member of several committees in the Transportation Research Board of the U.S. National Academies, serves as a referee for over a dozen research journals, and has won several awards and fellowships during his academic career. Dr. Chow completed his Ph.D. in University of California, Irvine, in 2010 and his Masters and Bachelors at Cornell University in 2001 and 2000, respectively.

Jonathan J. Dogterom

Jon leads Cleantech at MaRS Discovery District, a globally top ranked Practice that provides business mentorship, market intelligence, seed capital, and connections to corporate partners and customers for emerging technology companies. Prior to joining MaRS, Jon led Business Development for Hydrogenics Corporation. He was also previously with the Pembina Institute where he ledcorporate consulting services on low-impact renewable energy and energy policy. In 1997 Jon co-founded Sustainable Energy Technologies, which is a leading Canadian provider of power electronics for the solar power industry.

Dmitry Grigorovich

Dr. Grigorovich is Head Executor at the All-Russian Institute of Railway Transportation in the Russian Federation, where he leads the design team developing a hydrogen fuel cell based Power Car system which—by eliminating diesel emissions—enables track crews to work in tunnels safely for up to eight days without high volumes of forced air ventilation. This solves a major problem in the severe cold of Russian winters. [presented by Stan Thompson]

Andreas Hoffrichter

Andreas Hoffrichter, Ph.D, MSc, BSc, Bankkaumann; University of Birmingham: Birmingham Centre for Railway Research and Education. Andreas Hoffrichter completed a three years vocational training as Banking Merchant in Germany in 2003. He read business at a Business College from 2003 to 2005, and from 2005 to 2006 worked as a volunteer in California, assisting people with mental handicaps during the Anderer Dienst im Ausland. In 2006, he moved to Birmingham in the UK to study Transport Management at Aston University and completed the course with a first class honours Bachelor of Science degree in July 2009. In October of the same year, he started PhD research at the University of Birmingham, UK, at the Birmingham Centre for Railway Research and Education, investigating hydrogen as an energy carrier for railway traction. In addition to the doctoral research, he completed, with distinction, a Master of Science degree in Railway Systems Engineering and Integration in 2012, which he read for, part-time, since 2010. The PhD was completed in the second quarter of 2013 and the research led to the development and construction of the first hydrogen-powered locomotive in the UK. Since the beginning of the research, Andreas Hoffrichter presented papers at several conferences, including The 4th International Conference on Railway Traction Systems (RTS 2010) and the Low Carbon Earth Summit in 2012. Additionally, he published several peer reviewed journal papers as well as reviewed papers on behalf of journals. He was the host organiser for the 7th International Hydrail Conference, which took place at the University of Birmingham in 2012.

Jason Hoyle

Jason Hoyle is Research Analyst and faculty member at Appalachian State University’s Research Institute for the Environment, Energy, and Economics. He specializes in leveraging the development of sustainable resources as a source of economic development and growth, is an expert on energy- and climate change-related policy and market issues in the U.S., and regularly consults with local governments and non-profits across the state. He is also a co-founder of the International Hydrail Conference series and for eight years has authored the world’s hydrail information clearinghouse, www.hydrail.org.

Herr Detlef Matthiessen

Detlef Matthiessen is a Member of Parliament in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where he is Speaker for Energy Policy and Technology Innovation. Born in 1954, Herr Matthiessen was a founding member of the Green Party in Germany, and has a long history of involvement in the energy business having previously held positions as an energy manager consulting with small- and medium-sized companies and as an entrepreneur in developing wind and solar projects. Among Herr Matthiessen’s many interests are the development and deployment of smart grid technology, and integrating renewable energy-generated electricity into the grid.

Alistair Miller

Alistair Miller worked for almost 40 years for Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL).  His career centred on development of processes for the separation of isotopes of hydrogen, both to produce the heavy water used in AECL’s CANDU reactor technology and to remove the third hydrogen isotope, tritium, from heavy water.  His technical specialization was in development and use of computer models to model separation processes on industrial scales.  He directed the research program on hydrogen isotopes for 20 years. 

In the seven years after retirement, Alistair has continued his association with AECL as a Researcher Emeritus, collaborating with AECL’s Principal Scientist in modelling variations in global energy supply and their impact on climate change.  He also consults on heavy water technologies.

He was a Director of the Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering during the 1990s and President of the Society in 1997.  He is a Fellow of the Chemical Institute of Canada.

Alistair studied Applied Chemistry at what was then the Royal College of Science and Technology from 1958-1962 (BSc, University of Glasgow) and then studied at Imperial College (PhD Chemical Engineering, University of London, 1966).

From 1987, when he co-founded the Deep River Science Academy, he has been a Director of the Academy, which has provided well over 1000 gifted high-school students with six weeks of hands-on participation in ongoing research projects.  More recently, Alistair has developed and championed the Academy’s launch of a very successful distance-learning version of this experience to high schools in Ontario.

Alistair and his wife, Margaret, have four children: two have degrees in chemical engineering, one in engineering physics and one in biology.  They all have advanced degrees and three have exciting technical jobs; the fourth uses his technical skills as a teacher.

Alistair’s broader interests include cross-country skiing, meteorology in particular and science in general, writing, progressive theology, bread-making, cycling and hiking, travelling, and grandchildren.

The Honourable Glen Murray

Glen Murray was appointed the Minister of Infrastructure and the Minister of Transportation in February, 2013. Minister Murray has had a lifetime of activism in urban planning, sustainable development and community health. He has served on several university, hospital and community boards and is a founding member of the Canadian AIDS Society. Murray served as mayor of the City of Winnipeg from 1998 to 2004. As Chair of the Big City Mayors Caucus, he led the successful campaign to transfer the equivalent of 5 cents per litre of the federal gas tax to municipalities for infrastructure renewal and construction. In 2004, Murray moved to Toronto and served as Senior Resident at Massey College and a Visiting Fellow at the Faculty of Architecture and Landscape Design at the University of Toronto. He was appointed Chair of the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy by Prime Minister Paul Martin in 2005. Murray became president and CEO of the Canadian Urban Institute in 2007.

Karen Pitre

Since September 2009 Karen has led the Metrolinx Electrification Project. Karen oversees the team of consultants with expertise in electrification design and engineering which is required to undertake the environmental assessment for the electrification of the Air Rail Link to Pearson International Airport. Electrification of the UP Express service is identified in the ‘next wave’ of The Big Move regional transit plan – Metrolinx’ award-winning regional transportation plan.  

With over two decades of project management experience, Karen specializes in the management of strategic initiatives and urban renewal projects. Her projects include assisting with the strategic stewardship of surplus assets for the Toronto District School Board and managing waterfront revitalization projects as a Joint Venture partner for the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation. 

Karen was the Executive Vice-President of the Toronto 2008 Olympic Bid, responsible for building initial community support, developing the strategic plan, managing the Olympic Bid Master Plan and facilitating the involvement of the three levels of government. The vision of the Master Plan highlighted the opportunity presented by the revitalization of the Toronto waterfront, and led to the commitment by three levels of government to redevelop the Toronto waterfront.

In addition, Karen is the founding chairperson of the Toronto Sports Council (TSC) and was the Vice Chair of the Organizing Committee for the 2012 Ontario Summer Games. Karen was the Co-Chair of the Varsity Campaign at the University of Toronto (which led to the revitalization of Varsity Stadium). Karen is a proud recipient of the Arbor Award for outstanding voluntary service to the University of Toronto and she was inducted into the University of Toronto Sports Hall of Fame for hockey and rowing in 1995.

Karen earned a Bachelor of Laws at the University of Windsor and a Bachelor of Applied Science in Chemical Engineering at the University of Toronto.

Ravi Seethapathy

Ravi Seethapathy serves as Manager – Systems Innovation & Advanced Grid Development, at Hydro One Networks in Toronto, Canada and currently leads its Corporate RD&D efforts involving utilities, Govt., universities, associations and other forums. He led the Corporate Smart Grid Strategy Taskforce in 2008 and from 2006 led the initial efforts in the integration of DER in the Hydro One Distribution system.  He has over 28 years of experience (in Hydro One/ erstwhile Ontario Hydro) in all fields of electric utility business and has progressively held leading positions in Protection & Control, Field Operations, Hydraulic Generation and Transmission Operations, Generation Performance, Distribution Strategy and Planning, Mergers & Acquisition, Corporate Audit, Asset Management and Asset Strategies Divisions. He holds a B.Tech (Hons) in Electrical Power from IIT, an M.Eng in Electrical Power from University of Toronto and an MBA from the Schulich School of Business, York University, Toronto. He has received several citations and awards such as the Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering and the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.

Stan Thompson

Stan Thompson leads the Mooresvile Hydrail Initiative at the Mooresville-South Iredell Chamber of Commerce in Mooresville, North Carolina, USA. In collaboration with fellow presenters Bill Thunberg and Jason Hoyle, he conceived and founded the International Hydrail Conference series in 2005. He coined the term “hydrail” in 2004 in the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy and has made invited presentations on the topic of hydrail in Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Italy, Spain, Turkey, the UK and the USA.

Bill Thunberg

Bill Thunberg is currently the Executive Director of the Lake Norman Transportation Commission, Chairman of the Centralina Economic Development Commission (A 14-county region that includes Charlotte, NC), Vice Chair of the North Carolina Code Officials Qualifications Board, Vice Chair for Public Policy at the Mooresville-South Iredell Chamber of Commerce, and a representative to the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (The governing body of the Charlotte Area Transportation System – CATS). He has extensive experience in public service, public policy, and local government, and served several terms as Mayor of the Town of Mooresville, North Carolina. He was instrumental in supporting the First International Hydrail Conference in Charlotte during 2005, is a founding member of the Mooresville Hydrail Initiative with Stan Thompson, and has been a speaker in three previous International Hydrail Conferences.

Linda Weichel

Linda Weichel brings 20 years of experience at Canada’s largest employee-owned public relations firm, Media Profile, to her position at CivicAction. Linda leads CivicAction’s your32 campaign that champions a regional transportation system and the means to pay for it.

She also oversees CivicAction’s environmental initiative, Greening Greater Toronto, and its Race to Reduce that challenges commercial landlords and tenants to reduce collective energy use by at least 10% by 2014.

Linda draws on her business leadership, communications expertise and passion for city building as she drives action across sectors to make the Toronto region prosper. She draws on knowledge of the financial services and real estate sectors, communications with private, public, and non-profit organizations, and has successfully advanced public policy objectives over two decades. Linda encourages vibrant, walkable neighbourhoods as an advisory committee member of walking tour phenomenon Jane’s Walk.

Daryl Wilson

Daryl Wilson was appointed President and Chief Executive Officer in December 2006, bringing a varied 25-year background in technology and industrial management to the company, including operations, manufacturing, human resources, research, product development, organizational change and turn-around experience. Prior to joining Hydrogenics, he held senior leadership positions at Royal Group Technologies, Zenon Environmental, Toyota and Dofasco. Daryl began his career with a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Toronto. In 1990, Daryl also earned an MBA from McMaster University in Operations Management/Management Science.