Tsinghua University associate professor Zhu Dequan is one of the featured speakers at Hyvolution Chile 2025. In this article, he talks about international cooperation and applications of green hydrogen in local industry, particularly in the agricultural sector.
Zhu Dequan graduated from the Department of Chemical Engineering of Tsinghua University in 1991 with a master’s degree in chemical engineering. He currently serves as vice president of Beijing Tsinghua Industrial R&D Institute (BTIRDI), where he has been working since 2001.
Over the past twenty years, he has focused on commercialization of technological achievements, investment supervision and startup management. He has founded, invested in and incubated dozens of nationally leading technology companies, including XinHui Technology (new materials), Tinavi Medical (surgical robotics), SinoHytec (hydrogen energy systems), Hybot (hydrogen fuel cell vehicle manufacturing) and HyPOWER (hydrogen power supply), making the institute the largest hydrogen energy industrial platform in the world.
To date, more than seven companies under his leadership have applied or are in the process of applying to China’s Science and Technology Innovation Council (STAR Market). He has extensive practical experience in engineering research and the transformation of scientific and technological achievements.
Here, Prof. Zhu answers some questions from the Hyvolution organization.
China and Chile have more than five decades of active international collaboration. Where do you see opportunities in which this link could be materialized? What can China teach us in this regard?
Chile has the best wind and solar resources in the world, which is the basis for the development of the green hydrogen industry. It also has a wide and varied range of applications. China, on the other hand, has a global competitive advantage in terms of technology, supply chain and demonstration of applications in the hydrogen industry. Both countries have enormous potential and opportunities for complementary cooperation in the hydrogen industry.
In Hyvolution Chile 2025 you will participate in a panel about economic incentives and financing for the production and use of green hydrogen and its derivatives. How to motivate governments, international institutions and private organizations to finance green hydrogen initiatives based on success stories that you could point out from your position as vice president of the Beijing Tsinghua Industrial R&D Institute?
According to the laws and development pathways of the hydrogen industry, through fund investment, the development of emerging technology enterprises in the hydrogen sector should be promoted through investment funds, while hydrogen application scenarios will be created and demonstration projects will be built. Based on a clear rationale and visible cases, there should ideally be an incentive for governments and private organizations to promote policies and funding to support the growth of this sector.
How does a university innovation center such as the Beijing Tsinghua Industrial R&D Institute (BTIRDI) establish strategic links with bodies such as the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) to have a direct impact on the promotion of green hydrogen technological innovation? For example, the case of the work carried out by The International Hydrogen Energy Center (IHEC).
BTIRDI is a science and technology results transfer institution jointly established by Tsinghua University and the Beijing municipal government. It has more than twenty years of experience in result transfer and practice in the hydrogen field, and has promoted and participated in the hydrogen transportation application demonstrations at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games and the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games. At the same time, based on the context that the Chinese government is vigorously promoting the development of the hydrogen industry, with the specific support of the Beijing municipal government, it has established a strategic relationship with UNIDO through the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China.
The IHEC has been behind initiatives for the demonstration of green hydrogen and ammonia production and its application in agricultural matters. Chile, which is mainly an exporter of fruits and vegetables for the whole world, has a great opportunity in this aspect. How do you see it, from what you know of the territory and the advances that exist in terms of clean energies?
The hydrogen industry ecosystem includes the green hydrogen industrial chain on the supply side (production, storage, transportation and supply of green hydrogen) and three industrial application chains on the demand side: transportation, industry and construction. Particularly, the transportation industrial chain is the first to be developed. Chile has the highest quality wind and photovoltaic energy resources in the world and can not only boost the green hydrogen industry, but also, as a global exporter of fruits and vegetables, can develop cold chain transportation and other industrial hydrogen applications.