PROGRAM AREA OVERVIEW

18. TECHNOLOGIES FOR HYDROGEN TRANSPORT AND STORAGE

U.S. energy dependence is driven by transportation because at the present time nearly all of our vehicles run on either gasoline or diesel fuel. The transportation sector accounts for two-thirds of the 20 million barrels of oil our nation uses each day. Fifty five percent of this oil is now imported, and, without any change to the status quo, imports are expected to grow to 68% by the year 2025. This situation can be ameliorated only if alternative energy carriers are developed to promote future national energy security. Hydrogen is a leading candidate because it can be clean, efficient, and capable of production from diverse domestic resources, both renewable and non-renewable. Hydrogen can be employed in high-efficiency power generation systems, including internal combustion engines or fuel cells for both vehicular transportation and distributed electricity generation. The energy security and diversity benefits of hydrogen are the basis of the President Bush’s Hydrogen Fuel Initiative in January 2003, which commits government funding for accelerated research, development, and demonstration programs, leading to an industry decision on the commercialization of hydrogen by 2015.

There are three primary technology barriers that must be overcome to realize the commercialization of hydrogen. First, the cost of safe and efficient hydrogen production and delivery must be lowered to be competitive with gasoline and diesel fuel. Second, fuel cell system costs must be significantly lowered while meeting performance and durability requirements. Third, on-board vehicular hydrogen storage systems must be developed that allow for driving ranges expected by consumers. Grant applications in response to this topic must show how proposed innovations would result in significant advances in performance and cost reduction over state-of-the-art technologies. Grant applications are sought only in the following subtopics:

a. Advanced Materials and Technologies for Hydrogen Pipelines—The transport and delivery of hydrogen in pipelines, as well as hydrogen storage in high pressure tanks in the near-term, will be an important part of the hydrogen infrastructure that will help enable a hydrogen economy. Although there are currently about 700 miles of hydrogen transmission pipelines in the U.S. and more in Europe, several technology issues need to be resolved and significant cost reductions are required for effective hydrogen pipeline transmission and distribution. These issues include: a better fundamental understanding of hydrogen embrittlement and diffusion to enable the development of lower cost metal alloys, plastics, or composites for hydrogen pipelines; improved metal welding or other joining techniques to reduce the material and labor costs associated with pipeline construction and repair; and improved seals to reduce hydrogen leakage in fittings and other components. It has also been suggested that interior or exterior coatings could be retrofitted on existing or new pipelines to achieve compatibility with hydrogen service. Grant applications are sought to develop advanced and novel approaches to significantly reduce the cost of new hydrogen pipelines (by as much as 50%) and/or technology to retrofit existing natural gas or petroleum pipelines for pure hydrogen transmission and distribution.

b. Hydrogen Compression Technology—Efficient and cost effective hydrogen compression technology has been recognized as a critical component of effective pipeline delivery. However, today’s hydrogen compression technology is lacking in reliability and durability, which often requires the installation of spare compressors and adds significantly to cost. Current hydrogen compression can require energy use equivalent to as much as 15% of the hydrogen compressed. Grant applications are sought to develop advanced and novel hydrogen compression technology specifically for use in hydrogen transmission, analogous to the transmission in today’s natural gas pipeline infrastructure. Areas of interest include lubricant free designs to avoid contamination and better sealing to reduce/eliminate hydrogen leakage. Grant applications must demonstrate that levels of compression from 0-500 psig to 800-1200 psig can be achieved, along with significant improvements in reliability/durability, energy efficiency, contamination, and sealing.

c. High-Pressure Hydrogen Tanks—Compressed hydrogen tanks (e.g. 5,000-10,000-psi) represent one of the best available, near-term commercial technologies for hydrogen storage systems for stationary and vehicular applications. However, cost reduction is a critical issue that remains to be addressed, and there is a need for high strength materials such as carbon fiber composites that are amenable to high volume, low cost manufacturing methods. Grant applications are sought to develop novel materials or processes to significantly reduce the cost of high pressure hydrogen tanks. Areas of interest include methods to reduce the cost of carbon fiber materials, including carbonization/graphitization, surface treatments, spinning; alternate precursor routes and oxidation methods, such as microwave-assisted techniques; alternatives to carbon fiber; and/or alternative manufacturing approaches such as a fiber wrap approach; and materials amenable to high pressures (e.g. 1000 atm) and low temperatures (less than 100 K) that are viable for hydrogen tank technologies. All tank designs should have the potential of meeting the 2010 DOE/FreedomCAR system performance targets of 2kWh/kg [6 wt% hydrogen], 1.5 kWh/L, and $4/kWh.

References:

1. National Hydrogen Energy Roadmap, U.S. Department of Energy, November 2002. (Full text available at: http://www.eere.energy.gov/hydrogenandfuelcells/pdfs/national_h2_roadmap.pdf)

2. Hydrogen, Fuel Cells & Infrastructure Technologies Program Multi-Year Research, Development and Demonstration Plan, June 3, 2003 Draft U.S. DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. (Full text available at: http://www.eere.energy.gov/hydrogenandfuelcells/mypp/)

3. Annual Progress Reports, Hydrogen, Fuel Cells & Infrastructure Technologies Program, U.S. DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. (Available at: http://www.eere.energy.gov/hydrogenandfuelcells/pubs.html#progress)

4. FreedomCAR Technical Targets: On-Board Hydrogen Storage Systems, U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, 2004. (Available at: http://www.eere.energy.gov/hydrogenandfuelcells/pdfs/freedomcar_targets_explanations.pdf)

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