Department of Energy Announces $31 Million in Funding To Advance H2@Scale

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WASHINGTON, D.C. - March 4, 2019 Today, the U.S. Department of Energy announced up to $31 million in funding to advance the H2@Scale concept. The focus of H2@Scale is to enable affordable and reliable large-scale hydrogen generation, transport, storage, and utilization in the United States across multiple sectors. . . . .

By producing hydrogen when power generation exceeds load, electrolyzers can reduce curtailment of renewables and contribute to grid stability. Hydrogen produced from existing baseload (e.g., nuclear power) assets can also be stored, distributed, and used as a fuel for multiple applications. Such applications include transportation, stationary power, process or building heat, and industrial sectors such as steel manufacturing, ammonia production and petroleum refining. Key challenges to the H2@Scale concept include affordability, reliability, and performance of emerging hydrogen and fuel cell technologies.

Topics under this funding announcement to advance H2@Scale include:

Topic 1: Advanced hydrogen storage and infrastructure R&D (up to $9M) including novel materials or hydrogen carriers for transporting and storing hydrogen, and materials for hydrogen infrastructure components.

Topic 2 : Innovative concepts for hydrogen production and utilization (up to $12M) including advanced water splitting materials, affordable domestic hydrogen production technologies, co-production of hydrogen for additional sources of revenue, and reversible fuel cell technologies.

Topic 3: H2@Scale Pilot - integrated production, storage, and fueling systems (up to $10M) including innovative approaches that successfully integrate and optimize the complete system encompassing hydrogen production, storage, distribution, and use.

Fuel cell energy supply and output. U.S. DOE image.

A fuel cell is a device that uses hydrogen (or hydrogen-rich fuel) and oxygen to create electricity. Fuel cells are more energy efficient than combustion engines and the hydrogen used to power them can come from a variety of sources. If pure hydrogen is used as a fuel, fuel cells emit only heat and water, eliminating concerns about air pollutants or greenhouse gases.

Fuel Cell Components

A single fuel cell. U.S. DOE image.

One of the more common types of fuel cell is the polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell. The PEM fuel cell consists of an electrolyte membrane sandwiched between an anode (negative electrode) and a cathode (positive electrode).

The amount of power produced by a fuel cell depends on several factors, including fuel cell type, cell size, temperature at which it operates, and pressure at which the gases are supplied to the cell. A single fuel cell produces less than 1.16 volts—barely enough electricity for even the smallest applications.

Multiple fuel cells combined into a “stack.” U.S. DOE image.

To increase the amount of electricity generated, individual fuel cells are combined in series, into a fuel cell "stack." A typical fuel cell stack may consist of hundreds of fuel cells.

Fuel cells are a flexible technology and have a broad range of applications.

Transportation

Fuel cells can be used to provide propulsion or auxiliary power for transportation applications including cars, trucks, buses, trains, ships, and submarines. They have been used to provide auxiliary power on spacecraft for decades.

Stationary Power

Stationary fuel cell units can be used for backup power, power for remote locations, stand-alone power plants for towns and cities, distributed generation for buildings, and co-generation (in which excess thermal energy from electricity generation is used for heat).

Portable Power

Fuel cells can be used to power a variety of portable devices, from handheld electronics like cell phones and radios, to larger equipment such as portable generators. They can be used for almost any application typically powered by batteries but can last up to three times longer before refueling.

tech-R&DAllyn Svoboda