By Mosima Rafapa
Dr Douw Faurie is driving South Africa’s clean energy future with a breakthrough in hydrogen storage technology. His doctoral research at the Tshwane University of Technology’s (TUT) Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment (FEBE), has advanced metal hydride reactors from lab experiments to real-world applications using cutting-edge computational modelling and machine learning.
Dr Douw Faurie is driving South Africa’s clean energy future with a breakthrough in hydrogen storage technology.
Graduating at FEBE’s Spring 2025 ceremony, Dr Faurie collaborated with the University of the Western Cape to address a critical gap in engineering expertise for hydrogen storage. His research, guided initially by Prof Andrei Kolesnikov and later by Dr Kasturie Premlall, focused on advancing hydrogen energy systems from lab-scale experiments to real-world applications.
His thesis, Dynamic Modelling of Metal Hydride Reactors through Multiple-Variable Neural Network Regression, developed a digital twin model that accurately predicts real-world reactor behaviour while remaining computationally efficient.
“This model brings hydrogen storage technology closer to being safe, viable and cost-effective,” said Dr Faurie. His work has already led to two journal articles and two peer-reviewed conference publications, highlighting both academic and industrial impact.
Hydrogen energy is central to South Africa’s clean energy transition. The country’s abundant platinum group metals are essential to hydrogen production and storage, making innovations like Dr Faurie’s crucial for sustainable energy development, local industry growth and job creation.
“Hydrogen energy is key to South Africa’s future,” Dr Faurie said. His research supports the UN Sustainable Development Goal 7: Affordable and Clean Energy, tackling safe, efficient, long-term storage challenges.
By improving the modelling and design of metal hydride reactors, Dr Faurie’s research brings the world closer to scalable hydrogen energy solutions that can power sustainable cities and industries.
“During my Master of Engineering research, I realised that many models used to simulate metal hydride reactors were overly idealised,” he explained. “I wanted to develop a model that was both more accurate and computationally light, something that could predict future operation and support real-time optimisation.”
Dr Premlall, commended the research, noting it combines engineering, modelling and machine learning to produce industry-ready solutions that align with global sustainability goals.
Dr Douw Faurie graduated with his Doctoral Degree at FEBE’s Spring graduation in October 2025. With him is his research supervisor, Dr Kasturie Premlall.