On Wednesday, October the 9th, 2024, during the closing ceremony of the World Power-to-X Summit in Marrakesh, the Green Hydrogen Hackathon Morocco crowned its winners. This first edition of the #GH2HackathonMorocco, co-designed by 🇪🇺 MED-GEM Network, in partnership with IRESEN and GIZ Morocco to stimulate innovation in the field of green hydrogen, brought together young Moroccan talents around an ambitious challenge: to create a sustainable national vision for green ammonia.

After 8 weeks of intensive incubation and mentoring, three finalist teams presented their projects before a prestigious jury. These teams tackled the ambitious challenge of “how to leverage Morocco’s renewable resources to establish a sustainable and economically viable national vision for green ammonia?” Under this ambitious direction, they developed deliverables including a production master plan, a techno-economic analysis for 2030, 2040, and 2050, as well as proposals for safety protocols and regulatory frameworks.

The jury, composed of prominent figures such as Omnia Aboukorah-Voigt, Director of the Energy and Sustainable Energy Cluster (GIZ Morocco); Dr. Samir Rachidi, General Director of IRESEN; Amine Houssaim, CEO of HYDROJEEL (INNOVX); and Frank Wouters, Director of the MED-GEM Network and Chairman of the MENA Hydrogen Alliance, evaluated the projects based on criteria of innovation, technical feasibility, environmental impact, and presentation clarity.

After a convincing pitch, the GaFurnu project, presented by the team of Yassir Debbah, Rabab El Attar, Bouchra Zoubaa, Sofiane Chait, Rasheed Oyewole Adebayo, and Houda Ouqacem, took first place and won the first edition of the GH2 Hackathon Morocco. As a reward, its members will receive a study trip to the Friedrich Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) in Germany, sponsored by the MED-GEM Network and funded by the European Union. Recognised for its excellence in research and innovation in materials and chemistry, FAU will also host the Lebanese winners of the “Green Hydrogen Hackathon Lebanon,” held simultaneously in Beirut in partnership with LCEC and the Lebanese Ministry of Energy and Water.

Through the initiatives of the #GH2Camp and #GH2Hackathon, successfully implemented in Morocco, Lebanon, and soon in Egypt and Tunisia in 2025, the MED-GEM Network aims to create a dynamic network of talent in the Mediterranean.