The US Department of Energy (DOE) Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) announced $18 million for 9 projects that seek to detect and quantify hydrogen emissions throughout the supply chain to maximize the climate benefits of hydrogen production.

Current global hydrogen production is roughly 100 million metric tonnes per year and, by 2050, the hydrogen market is projected to grow to $1.4 trillion. These projects

The capability to detect and quantify hydrogen will help mitigate any potential near-term warming effects that could result from a larger hydrogen economy. Future hydrogen production is projected to increase by a factor of 5 to 8 (between 470 Mt/yr and 800 Mt/yr) by 2050, as hydrogen use expands to include energy storage, long-distance transportation, and industrial processes.

Hydrogen detection methods today are primarily focused on leaks that could pose a fire hazard, typically at volumes of parts per million. Significantly lower concentration leaks may have a climate impact without posing an immediate safety hazard. ARPA-E’s Exploratory Topic M: H2SENSE projects will work to create a new generation of sensors that will detect and quantify leaks at parts per billion volume to address this need.

The following teams were selected under H2SENSE:

• GE Vernova Advanced Research Center. H2-LOCATE: H2 Leak LOCAlization and QuanTification Using Physics-Enhanced Analytics and Fence-Line Monitoring - $2,700,000. GE Vernova Advanced Research will implement a high-fidelity and cost-effective gas sensing technology based on dielectric excitation of sensing materials and will couple it with physics enhanced analytics to detect and identify hydrogen leaks at industrial sites. The localization capability will differentiate and rank multiple leaks with a spatial resolution within 10 meters of actual leak locations. The cost-effective and simple deployment of hydrogen leak monitors with their 5-10 parts per billion detection sensitivity will support the evaluation of hydrogen sites over diverse geographic locations and climate conditions to ensure safe, environmentally sound, and economic growth of the hydrogen industry.

• Colorado State University. Hydrogen Emissions Monitoring System Based on Trace Gas PARS Sensor - $1,954,931. Colorado State University will develop and validate a hydrogen point sensor based on photoacoustic stimulated Raman spectroscopy for trace detection of hydrogen in the atmosphere with a lower limit of detection of 1 part per million in 5 seconds. The analytics method will be tailored to the complexity of a given site, with an inverse modeling approach for simple sites and a tracer co-release method for more complex sites. This effort addresses the need for trace hydrogen emissions monitoring systems in the emerging hydrogen economy.

• National Energy Technology Laboratory. Novel Fiber Optic Sensor Systems and AI-Driven Methods for Hydrogen Pipeline Emission Quantification - $1,700,000. National Energy Technology Laboratory will develop and field validate novel distributed fiber optic sensors installed on the pipeline and an AI-driven pipeline-specific quantification method called H2-SMART to locate and quantify hydrogen emissions from hydrogen pipelines accurately and efficiently. The novel fiber optic-based sensors are selective for hydrogen and offer kilometer-scale distance coverage for large-area emissions monitoring.

• University of Wisconsin-Madison. Large-Survey-Area H2 Leak Detector based on a Quadcopter-Mounted Laser Imager - $2,491,594. The University of Wisconsin-Madison will develop a precise hydrogen sensor and a novel laser-based system to image and record videos of hydrogen leaks. The laser-based system uses an inverse backscatter absorption gas imaging (iBAGI) technique to quantitatively image hydrogen plumes with megapixel spatial detail. The iBAGI system can be mounted on a quadcopter to facilitate large-area emissions monitoring. Computer algorithms, data science, and computational fluid dynamics will be used on the videos to estimate leak rates.

• Serinus Labs. Parts Per Billion Hydrogen Plume Emissions Reporting System (ppb-HyPERS) - $2,540,659. Serinus Labs will combine ultra-sensitive proprietary hydrogen sensors with ultra-reliable low power radios to produce wireless hydrogen sensor nodes, collectively forming a wireless ‘mesh’ network over outdoor areas. Sensor data will be combined with weather data and parsed using RTX Technology Research Center’s artificial intelligence framework that can accurately identify and quantify hydrogen leaks.

• Northeastern University. Wireless Hydrogen Integrated Sensing via PiezoElectric Resonators and Switches (WHISPERS) - $2,430,000. Northeastern University will develop a platform that aims to revolutionize the detection and localization of hydrogen emissions by integrating advanced miniaturized and near-zero power hydrogen sensing technology with sophisticated airflow modeling. The sensing nodes generate a detailed geographic heatmap of hydrogen concentrations and flow within the monitored area. The nodes can last for years on a small battery because they employ a zero-power electromechanical switch that activates the sensing module only when detecting elevated hydrogen levels. Cost-effective and scalable, this platform promises to significantly enhance hydrogen emissions monitoring.

• Princeton University. HydroNet: Integrated Photonic System for Hydrogen Leak Localization, Quantification and Monitoring - $1,700,000. Princeton University will develop hydrogen sensing capabilities based on novel spectroscopic advances with high selectivity and sensitivity. A dynamic sensor packaged on a drone will provide rapid leak quantification and localization to support the growth of the emerging hydrogen economy.

• Aerodyne Research. Autonomous Method to Quantify and Localize Hydrogen Facility Emissions - $1,880,484. Aerodyne Research will develop an innovative sensor system to locate and quantify hydrogen emissions. Tracer gases will be released, and machine learning software will control the sampling and tracer gases to produce live emissions results. By identifying hydrogen leaks, this technology will support the burgeoning hydrogen energy industry.

• 2Witech Solutions. Hybridized High-Q Plasmonic Hydrogen Sensor - $1,000,000. 2Witech Solutions will develop the first mobile 20 parts per billion-level self-cleaning plasmonic hydrogen sensor system, which will improve sensitivity compared with state-of-the-art sensors by one order of magnitude. The system will use a plasmonic metasurface, a surface coating with excellent hydrogen permeation, for trace detection against varied environmental backgrounds.