FITech Hydrogen project course

The FITech Hydrogen project course aims to teach both course students and participating companies to understand the business opportunities and challenges of the hydrogen economy. In the course, students suggest practical solutions for the various real-life challenges of companies working in the hydrogen economy. At the same time, students will develop their transferable skills such as teamworking, search and application of information for solving real problems, communication and presentation of ones’ own ideas.

Course contents

The course is aimed primarily at the personnel of companies working in the hydrogen economy. Project topics are collected from member companies of the hydrogen cluster and other companies in the field. Companies can announce topics, even if no employees of the company are taking part on the course. The topics can be either broader or limited in scope, and the amount of credits gained from the course, 2-5 credits, is determined based on the complexity of the group’s topic and the amount of work and expertise required from the students.

A two-credit course can be based on, for example, a well-defined theme or a challenge indicated by the teacher for which there is a solution. The broader course is typically based on the so-called to an open-ended problem, i.e. to a real-life challenge that has not yet been solved, or otherwise to a wide-ranging problem.

Project topics spring 2025

• Permitting of power-to-X projects: Focusing on either the environmental impact assessment process, chemical permit requirements, or issues related to building permits.
• Solutions for mobile hydrogen refueling: Developing a concept for mobile refueling of trucks, buses, machinery, and ferries.
• Small-scale mobile hydrogen refilling: Exploring concepts, components, and sourcing for single kg/day hydrogen transfer.
• Heat usage/sector integration: Technical challenges in connecting hydrogen production waste heat to district heating system. Opportunities for new heat usages and heat storage.
• Building a hydrogen production business case.

Collaborators in the project course: Kelluu, Helen, eTehdas, P2X Solutions

At the beginning of the course, students will select one project topic and deepen their knowledge of the subject through guided meetings and project work during the course. The groups will present their results in the final seminar of the course.

Learning outcomes

The students of the course learn to

• analyse and understand a given problem related to the hydrogen economy and its components
• plan and implement teamwork with steps to solve the problem
• identify the roles of the members of the project team, agree on the group’s areas of responsibility and division of work, and combine their own work with the group’s work
• anticipate the possible challenges of teamwork
• communicate on the topics of their own field of expertise to stakeholders with different educational backgrounds
• to communicate the progress and perfromance of the project to external stakeholders
• to search for and combine information to solve the problem
• to produce an analysis of the given problem and suggest well justified solutions to solve it.

Teaching schedule

There is an online initial meeting in 17.3 9-11. and a closing webinar in 26.5 9-11. Other times will be agreed upon with the group.

Completion methods

Project work, report and final presentation. The course is implemented as group work (5-7 students in two groups), which makes it possible to complete the course in English or Finnish.

Send a short motivation letter (maximum ½ page) with your application, explaining why you want to study the course and which project topic interests you.

More information in the University of Turku study guide.

You can get a digital badge after completing this course.