Hyzon, a supplier of zero-emission hydrogen fuel cell-powered commercial vehicles, has announced the appointment of Shinichi Hirano as chief engineer of the company’s fuel cell department.
The move follows 17 years as a principal research engineer and technology expert at Ford, where Hirano led the Ford-Daimler fuel cell alliance and USCAR fuel cell teams in partnership with the US Department of Energy.
In his early years, Hirano studied electrical engineering at Tokyo’s University of Science, before continuing his fuel cell catalyst and MEA research as a guest scientist at Texas A&M University’s Center for Electrochemical Systems and Hydrogen Research.
His professional career started at Mazda, where he spent eight years leading several hydrogen- and fuel cell-related research projects for the company, alongside the development of Mazda’s Demio fuel cell vehicle.
Hirano brings to Hyzon over 30 years of valuable automotive fuel cell technology expertise. He holds 25 US patents in the automotive hydrogen fuel cell and battery sector. He has also published 15 papers in peer-reviewed journals.
“Shinichi is extremely talented and very well regarded by colleagues in the global automotive fuel cell and hydrogen arenas, having been the resident expert at two of the world’s largest vehicle brands,” commented Craig Knight, CEO and co-founder of Hyzon. “We’re excited to apply his expertise to further fortify Hyzon’s leadership position in hydrogen fuel cell technology and pursue our mission to provide commercial vehicles with zero emissions and zero compromises.”
