Jointly with our partner Hydrogen Europe Research, we are proud to present a series interviewing women in the green hydrogen sector.
Introducing Yasaman Nosrat Tajoddin
Yasaman Nosrat Tajoddin is a researcher in the HyRES (Hydrogen Technologies and Resilient Energy Systems) unit within the Centre for Sustainable Energy at Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK) in Trento. Since August 2024, she has been working on EU-funded hydrogen projects, including the North Adriatic Hydrogen Valley (NAHV), pre-Normative Research on Hydrogen Releases Assessment (NHyRA), and later on Hydrogen Industrial Inland Valley (HI2).
Her research focuses on life cycle sustainability assessment, certification of renewable fuels of non-biological origin (RFNBOs), and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions modeling across hydrogen value chains. She works at the intersection of policy, sustainability, hydrogen technologies and energy systems.
Yasaman holds a Master’s degree in Energy Engineering from University of Padua in Italy and a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Ferdowsi University of Mashhad in Iran. Her expertise includes energy system modeling, optimization, and sustainability assessment, with a focus on supporting the transition toward reliable and low-carbon hydrogen systems.
Can you briefly describe your role, your workplace, and the specific work you do in your organisation?
I am a researcher in the HyRES (Hydrogen Technologies and Resilient Energy Systems) unit within the Centre for Sustainable Energy at Fondazione Bruno Kessler in Trento. HyRES operates across multiple complementary pillars, including multiscale numerical simulations, advanced engineering, technology validation at relevant industrial scale, and territorial initiatives such as hydrogen valleys.
Within this framework, the unit covers the full hydrogen value chain from laboratory-scale development to system-level deployment. This includes dynamic and stationary system modelling, CFD simulations, techno-economic analysis, Life Cycle Assessment, and hydrogen safety studies.
The research spans a wide range of technologies such as electrolysers (e.g. PEM), fuel cells, hydrogen storage and compression, distribution and end-use applications. Activities range from material-level optimisation (e.g., reducing critical raw materials and improving efficiency) to macroscale system integration in hydrogen valleys.
The unit combines EU-funded projects and industrial collaborations with consultancy activities, ensuring strong links between academic research and real-world applications.
What is the core issue your research work is trying to address, and what concrete advancement in the hydrogen sector (technical, methodological, system) your research aims to enable?
My work focuses on two closely linked challenges in the hydrogen sector: ensuring robust sustainability assessment of hydrogen technologies and enabling reliable certification of renewable and low-carbon hydrogen.
On the sustainability side, the key issue is ensuring that hydrogen technologies are not only low-carbon in relative terms, but also aligned with broader environmental limits. For this reason, I apply Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and recently expanded toward absolute sustainability assessment against planetary boundaries.
On the certification side, the challenge is to ensure transparent, consistent, and regulation-compliant tracking of renewable hydrogen through Guarantees of Origin (GOs) and Proof of Sustainability (PoS) schemes, supported by robust greenhouse gas accounting methodologies.
Together, these areas contribute to more credible sustainability evaluation frameworks and support the development of a trustworthy and scalable hydrogen market in Europe.
What role have you personally played in advancing this contribution?
I contribute by translating regulatory requirements into practical tools and methodologies within real projects. For example, I organized a workshop for partners of the NAHV project on RFNBOs, Proof of Sustainability (PoS), and Guarantees of Origin under EU regulations, helping stakeholders better understand certification requirements and greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting.
On the sustainability assessment side, I have conducted Life Cycle Assessment studies, including an absolute life cycle sustainability assessment of hydrogen production to evaluate whether GHG savings alone are sufficient to justify hydrogen as truly “renewable” from a broader environmental perspective. In addition, I performed an LCA of solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) systems within the AMON project to assess their environmental performance and impacts.
Together, this work connects regulatory frameworks with quantitative sustainability analysis, supporting more credible and transparent hydrogen systems.
You mentioned collaborations with some Hydrogen Valleys projects. Can you tell us more about this, what opportunities and/or challenges such inter-regional projects offer for developing a hydrogen ecosystem in sectors such as transport, industry, or energy systems?
Hydrogen valleys are important because they integrate the entire value chain, production, storage, distribution, and end use, within one ecosystem. This allows systems to be designed holistically rather than as isolated components.
Inter-regional projects like NAHV also create the foundation for future hydrogen trade across countries. They help identify real challenges – technical, regulatory, and economic – and test solutions in practice, which is essential for scaling up hydrogen deployment in Europe.
One of the main challenges is the complexity of coordinating multiple stakeholders across the value chain and different countries. At the same time, the regulatory framework for renewable and low-carbon hydrogen is still evolving and not always consistent across Europe.
This creates uncertainty for project developers. In addition, infrastructure development, market creation, and alignment between national strategies remain key challenges. Addressing these issues is essential for enabling large-scale and cross-border hydrogen systems.
What inspired you to pursue a career in hydrogen research, and what excites you most about this field?
My interest in hydrogen comes from a broader motivation to contribute to the energy transition in a meaningful and holistic way. I was particularly interested in the need to consider not only economic aspects of energy systems, but also a more holistic sustainability dimension of these systems.
What excites me most is the system perspective of hydrogen. It’s not just about one technology; it’s about how production, infrastructure, markets, and policies interact. The field is evolving very quickly, and there is a real opportunity to shape how these systems are designed and deployed. Being part of that process and contributing to better decision-making for future energy systems is what motivates me.
How do you think gender diversity impacts innovation in the hydrogen sector?
Innovation benefits from diversity. If we only rely on part of society, we limit the range of ideas and solutions we can develop. The hydrogen sector, as an emerging field, has a unique opportunity to build inclusivity from the beginning.
Greater female representation brings different perspectives, improves creativity, and leads to more inclusive and effective solutions. Diverse teams tend to produce higher-quality research and better decision-making, which is essential for designing complex systems like hydrogen value chains.
What advice would you give to young women considering a career in hydrogen research or STEM fields in general?
Don’t hesitate, just start. You don’t need to be perfect to begin; what matters is showing up, putting in the effort, and building confidence over time.
There is a lot of space for new ideas and creativity in the hydrogen sector. While challenges and stereotypes may still exist, it’s important to stay confident and persistent. Your perspective is valuable, and your contribution matters. By being present and engaged, you are already helping shape the future of energy.