17 November 2023

10:25 – 11:10

Amphitheatre Say

Pierre Crespi

Pierre Crespi has a doctorate in fluid mechanics and completed a post-doctorate at NASA in 1990. He worked as an aerodynamic test engineer on the Ariane 5 rocket, then on the French TGV high-speed train between 1991 and 1995, before joining Air Liquide advanced Technologies. He built three cryogenic machines for scientific experiments in space (International Space Station for NASA, PLANCK & HERSCHEL space telescopes for ESA). In 2002, he helped create a new division dedicated to orbital cryogenics, then took over management of all ALAT’s space activities (ARIANE 5 cryogenic tanks, satellite cryogenics). In 2008, he set up Advanced Technology Japan in Kobe (Hydrogen for energy and Helium for science), then returned to ALAT in 2011 as Director of Innovation: H2 Energy, biogas, maritime LNG, space cryogenics, H2 for aviation, quantum computing, fuel cells, etc. Since 2021, he has been focusing more specifically on foresight and strategy. His specialties are energy transition and hydrogen energy for mobility.

Big Science and Hydrogen: a winning ticket to carbon neutrality?

For 60 years, the Air Liquide Group has been working on major international industrial and scientific programs, which have enabled us to develop the technologies and skills now used for the energy transition. The Ariane program has developed a means of space transportation that uses hydrogen as an energy carrier, and we have produced all the hydrogen tanks for it. This expertise has naturally led us to become involved in other mobility sectors, such as recharging stations for ground transportation or liquid hydrogen tanks on trucks and aircraft. Big Science is also playing its part in this energy transition, with facilities such as CERN’s LHC or the ITER fusion reactor, which use huge superconducting magnets cooled with liquid Helium (-269°C). Future hydrogen liquefiers (-253°C) will be derived directly from these large Helium liquefiers, and the use of superconductivity is inevitable to transport energy in an increasingly electrified society. Industry is now on the road to carbon neutrality, and our Group is one example, with ambitious targets for reducing its carbon footprint, both for its own needs and those of its customers.