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US launches major hydrogen funding project
The US government has started funding projects designed to create a commercial-scale hydrogen energy sector, with the federal Department of Energy announcing $40mn in spending designed to lower production costs. These 29 grants will be made during the 2019/2020 financial year, promoting affordable and reliable large-scale hydrogen generation, transport, storage, and utilisation across multiple sectors, writes Keith Nuthall.
The funding is part of a H2@Scale project being developed by the Department of Energy, which in a note stressed how the US produces more than 10mn t/y of hydrogen, nearly one-seventh of the global supply. The vast majority – 95% is produced from natural gas via ‘reforming’ at major gas plants, with the hydrogen used mainly for oil refining and fertiliser production.
However, this reforming process can be too costly to expand other potential end uses that the Department of Energy wants developed, such as fuelling transport, stationary power production, industrial or building heat supply, and fuelling industrial and manufacturing sectors (such as steel manufacturing). ‘One of the challenges is to make technologies to produce, deliver, store, and utilise hydrogen affordably enough to become mainstream,’ notes the Department. US Energy Secretary Rick Perry added the grants would further this goal by creating ‘more affordable hydrogen technologies’.
The grants include $5.4mn being paid to Frontier Energy, of Oakland, California, to demonstrate integrated production, storage, and fuelling systems; Massachusetts-based Giner ELX will receive $4mn for demonstrating integrated hydrogen production and consumption systems that will improved utility operations; and Chicago’s Exelon Corporation will show how an electrolyser operates at a nuclear plant to create in-house hydrogen supplies and demonstrate how the gas can be utilised in the electricity market.
Universities are also receiving money – for example, the University of Oregon will receive $500,000 for developing technology that can make hydrogen through precious metal-free membranes conducting electrolysis of dirty water.
A hydrogen fuel cell car refuels at a Hawaii naval base
Photo: Daniel Barker/US Navy
