The University of Central Florida is helping to lead the country's charge of obtaining 100% clean electricity by 2035 with a new $800,000 award from the U.S. Department of Energy to advance hydrogen fuel research.

The award is through the DOE Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management's University Turbine Systems Research program and is part of nearly $6.2 million awarded to seven universities for research and development projects to make hydrogen a high performing, efficient gas for turbine-based electricity generation.

The research is important because using clean burning, carbon-free fuels, such as hydrogen, will offer an alternative to carbon-based fuels that produce greenhouse gases and contribute to climate change. Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe and can be produced from various resources. Its only combustion byproduct is water.

U.S. President Joe Biden set goals of creating a carbon-pollution-free power sector by 2035 and a net zero emissions economy by no later than 2050. Hydrogen fuel technologies could play a major role in reaching those goals.

"Part of our path to a net-zero carbon future means investing in innovation to make clean energy sources like hydrogen more affordable and widely adopted so we can reach our goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050," said Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm in a release announcing the awards.

"These projects will put us one step closer to unlocking the scientific advancements needed to create a strong domestic supply chain and good-paying jobs in the emerging clean hydrogen industry."

Along with the U.S., the European Union, China and Japan are also investing billions of dollars in the race for developing hydrogen combustion turbine technologies.

UCF's project will focus on better understanding how to implement hydrogen in modern, electricity-generating turbines, including exploring the best fuel blends and their combustion characteristics.

"The high reactiveness of hydrogen poses challenges to use hydrogen blended fuels on existing infrastructure and also increases the probability of nitrogen oxide formation in the exhaust," says the project's principal investigator, Subith Vasu, a professor in UCF's Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.

"Thus, our team is investigating vital, fundamental characteristics of hydrogen fuel combustion using our unique experimental facilities and will develop high-fidelity computer models that support the design and development of next-generation hydrogen combustors to make a carbon-free society a reality."

The project co-investigator is Artem Masunov, an associate professor in UCF's NanoScience Technology Center and Department of Chemistry. Raghu Kancherla, a postdoctoral researcher in Vasu's lab, will also play an integral role in this project.

The other universities selected for the DOE awards were Purdue University, Ohio State University, Georgia Tech, the University of Alabama, San Diego State University and the University of California, Irvine.

"We feel very good that we were chosen by DOE to lead this research, as we have a track record of working very closely with the industry to develop advanced gas turbine technologies," Vasu says.

UCF's growing work into hydrogen research was also evident earlier in the year when Center for Advanced Turbomachinery and Energy Research Director and Pegasus Professor Jayanta Kapat was selected by the DOE to study hydrogen storage as part of a $500,000 award. The award will fund research to prove the feasibility of a novel hydrogen storage concept, called a Cryogenic Flux Capacitor.

"Hydrogen is key in global decarbonization efforts, and despite intense competition from other universities, these two awards from DOE show that CATER researchers at UCF are well-placed in leading hydrogen to decarbonization to all sectors, including power generation, aviation, industry and space," Kapat says.

Related Links
UCF's Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
All About Oil and Gas News at OilGasDaily.com

Tweet

Thanks for being here; We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain. With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords. Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year. If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor $5 Billed Once credit card or paypal		SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter $5 Billed Monthly paypal only

Cheaper hydrogen production
Henan, China (SPX) Sep 13, 2021
Electrolytic hydrogen production powered by renewable energy is seen as an environmentally friendly means to ameliorate global climate and energy problems. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, a research team has now introduced a novel and inexpensive material for electrodes that may provide for highly efficient, energy-saving hydrogen production: porous, phosphorized CoNi2S4 yolk-shell nanospheres. Both half reactions of water electrolysis-hydrogen and oxygen evolution-are unfortunately slow and req ... read more