The US Department of Energy (DOE) announced nearly $8 million for nine cooperative projects that will complement existing H2@Scale efforts and support DOE’s Hydrogen Shot goal to drive down the cost of clean hydrogen by 80% within the decade.

The selected projects, or cooperative research and development agreements (CRADAs), will leverage the Advanced Research on Integrated Energy Systems (ARIES) platform to enable the integration of hydrogen technologies in future energy systems, including energy storage and a specific focus on safety and risk mitigation.

The following projects were selected from the 2021 H2@Scale CRADA Call Supporting ARIES:

Topic 1: H2@ARIES—Integrated Hydrogen Energy System Testing/Validation

• The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and GKN Powder Metallurgy will validate and demonstrate the dynamic operation of a 520 kg hydrogen metal hydride storage subsystem integrated with the ARIES megawatt-scale hydrogen capabilities. (Award amount: $1,722,089)

• NREL and GE Renewable Energy will optimize wind turbine design specifically for hydrogen production from electrolysis, and validate designs using NREL’s ARIES facilities. (Award amount: $500,000)

• NREL, Southern California Gas, and University of California Irvine will evaluate the interconnection and interoperability requirements for grid forming fuel cell inverters to enable hydrogen technologies to functionally replace traditional power generation equipment. (Award amount: $1,189,000)

• NREL and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) will collaborate on a PEM electrolysis hydrogen production project focused on grid integration, variable operation with renewables, system size optimization, and modeling to study the scaling of future hydrogen systems. (Award amount: $1,157,219)

Topic 2: Applied Risk Assessment and Modeling for H2@Scale Applications

• Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) and Wabtec will perform risk assessments on a hydrogen-powered locomotive and tender design including fueling, onboard storage, and transfer of hydrogen from tender car to locomotive. (Award amount: $525,000)

• Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Seattle City Light, Port of Seattle, and SNL will perform a large-scale hydrogen storage risk assessment to accelerate the Port of Seattle and Seattle City Lights’ adoption of hydrogen for energy storage and port operations. (Award amount: $770,000)

• PNNL, Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon (TriMet), and SNL will conduct a detailed set of risk assessments of TriMet’s entire hydrogen system to support the agency’s planned deployment of hydrogen buses. (Award amount: $525,000)

Topic 3: Next-Generation Sensor Technologies

• NREL, National Energy Technology Laboratory, Gas Technology Institute, EPRI, and Paulsson, Inc. will explore emerging hydrogen leak detection technologies for outdoor wide area monitoring applications in support of the Low-Carbon Resources Initiative. (Award amount $1,000,000)

• NREL, Renewable Innovations, Inc., Boyd Hydrogen LLC, and Element One, Inc. will implement advanced sensor technologies for more reliable hydrogen leak detection in indoor hydrogen infrastructure applications to improve safety. (Award amount: $525,000)