DOE awards $2.4M to hydrogen refueling projects
18 July 2012
The US Department of Energy (DOE) is awarding $2.4 million to 5 projects to collect and analyze performance data for hydrogen fueling stations and advanced refueling components. The award winners will provide a 50% cost-share.
The five projects—located in California, Illinois, and Connecticut—will track the performance and technical progress of innovative refueling systems at planned or existing hydrogen fueling stations to find ways to lower costs and improve operation.
These new projects will collect data and monitor the performance of hydrogen fuel stations, advanced components and other innovative hydrogen technologies using renewable energy or natural gas. By analyzing performance in real-world environments, these projects are intended to help hydrogen fueling equipment manufacturers improve the designs of existing systems to achieve higher efficiencies and test new system components. Additionally, this data will help focus future research and development efforts.
The projects selected for negotiation of award include:
California Air Resources Board. This project will analyze an operating hydrogen refueling station that uses natural gas to produce hydrogen. This station has an on-site storage capacity of over 180 kg of hydrogen and is capable of delivering over 60 kg of back-to-back fill-ups in less than one hour. (DOE Award: $150,000)
California State University and Los Angeles Auxiliary Services, Inc.. This project will collect data from hydrogen refueling architecture deployed at California State University - Los Angeles. This station will be publicly accessible 24 hours per day and will fuel up to 20 hydrogen powered vehicles daily. (DOE Award: $400,000)
Gas Technology Institute. This project will analyze operational, transactional, safety, and reliability data from five hydrogen fueling stations. The project will deploy its hydrogen compressor technology at these stations, which will be accessible to the public for fueling commercial vehicles, government-owned vehicles and consumer fuel cell electric vehicles. (DOE Award: $400,000)
Proton Energy Systems. Proton Energy Systems will conduct two projects. This fist will provide operational data from two existing stations that integrate hydrogen generation, compression, storage and dispensing. The stations generate fuel cell-grade hydrogen from water through on-site, solar-powered electrolysis. The research team will collect data on station operation, maintenance, repair and energy consumption. (DOE Award: $400,000)
Additionally, Proton Energy Systems will lead a second project to deploy an advanced high-pressure electrolyzer at an existing hydrogen fueling station and nearly double the dispensing capacity of its storage tanks. (DOE Award: $1 million)
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