Deakin Hydrogen Hub

🔬 It’s National Science Week!

At the Deakin Hydrogen Hub in Warrnambool, science is hands-on. Our researchers are investigating hydrogen materials, fuel cells and energy systems, testing how technologies perform and building the knowledge needed to move ideas towards practical applications.

It’s work that brings together researchers, students and industry, with everything from materials and component evaluation through to larger-scale technology testing happening right here at Deakin’s Warrnambool campus.

This National Science Week, we’re celebrating the people, curiosity and careful testing behind hydrogen research.

Interested in what happens inside the Hub? Follow along as we share more of the science, technology and people behind our work.

Will it hold? 🌉

That was the big question in Warrnambool today as students put their engineering skills, and their carefully constructed bridges, to the test at the Science and Engineering Challenge.

The Deakin Hydrogen Hub was delighted to be part of the day, with Adam Fletcher and Amy Armstrong joining as guest judges for the bridge-building challenge.

Students from Colac Secondary College, Bayview College, Terang College, Warrnambool College, King’s College Warrnambool, Timboon P-12 School and Portland Secondary College took part, putting their creativity, problem-solving and teamwork into action across a range of hands-on science and engineering activities.

We had a front-row seat to some impressive engineering thinking as teams designed, built and then tested their bridges. Some held firm. Others provided a very practical lesson in engineering! 😄

It was fantastic to see so many young people from across our region experimenting, collaborating and getting hands-on with STEM.

Thanks to the of Newcastle’s Science and Engineering Challenge team and everyone involved in bringing the event to Warrnambool.

🚌 Deakin staff and students: ride the future with us

Take a seat aboard Toyota’s hydrogen fuel cell electric SORA bus and help Deakin researchers evaluate how the technology performs on our intercampus route.
By travelling between the Waurn Ponds and Waterfront campuses, you’ll help create a realistic passenger load while researchers collect vehicle operating data under representative driving conditions.
You’ll also learn how hydrogen fuel cell buses work and why they could play an important role in reducing transport emissions.

📅 Monday 17 August
⏰ Choose from a morning or afternoon 1.5hr trip
📍 Departing and returning to Waurn Ponds Campus
🎁 Receive a $30 Deakin Café voucher
Places are limited and registration is essential:

Ride the future: take part in Deakin’s Toyota hydrogen bus trial Ride Toyota’s hydrogen fuel cell electric SORA bus, contribute to real-world Deakin research, and receive a $30 Deakin Café voucher.

🧪 Some of the biggest advances in hydrogen technologies begin long before a fuel cell is assembled. They begin with the materials themselves.

At the Deakin Hydrogen Hub, our Wet Lab is where key fuel cell materials are developed, including membranes, gas diffusion layers and membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs). These materials play an important role in determining how efficiently and reliably fuel cell systems perform.

By bringing materials development together with characterisation, assembly, validation and system testing, the Hub provides a connected pathway from early-stage research through to real-world application. 🔬

Every breakthrough starts somewhere. In many cases, it starts with the materials.

💡 Interested in learning how the Deakin Hydrogen Hub's materials development capabilities could support your organisation? We'd love to start a conversation.

If you’re at the Deakin University, Warrnambool Campus Open Day today, make sure you pop in and say hi our Director Adam and check out our hydrogen fuelled car!

🚛 Hydrogen’s viability depends not only on how it is produced, but also on how it is stored and moved.

Because hydrogen is such a light gas, it needs carefully engineered systems. It can be compressed into high-pressure cylinders, cooled into a liquid or converted into another carrier for transport.
Each option comes with different requirements for energy, infrastructure and cost.

At the Deakin Hydrogen Hub, we’re helping build a clearer understanding of how hydrogen technologies can be handled and integrated safely.

🔬 Inside the Deakin Hydrogen Hub, the Fuel Cell Assembly Lab is where important early-stage work happens before larger fuel cell systems are tested.

This space supports the assembly and pre-testing of key components, including membrane electrode assemblies and bipolar plates, helping researchers check, refine and prepare parts before they move into validation.

⚙️ It is one part of a connected testing pathway that helps turn ideas and components into systems that can be assessed with greater confidence.

At the Deakin Hydrogen Hub, the Hydrogen Technology Integration Hall is where hydrogen technologies can be brought together, tested and demonstrated at a practical scale.

Designed to support heavy vehicles and large-scale systems, the space enables hands-on work with technologies ranging from trucks and buses to generators and electrolysers.

🚛⚡ For industry, the challenge is often not a single component, but understanding how an entire system performs when everything works together.

By providing a controlled, hydrogen-safe environment for integration, testing and demonstration, the facility helps bridge the gap between laboratory research and real-world application.

💡 It's one of the ways the Deakin Hydrogen Hub is supporting industry, innovation and Australia's clean energy future.