The University of Toledo hopes to land a coveted federal hydrogen hub in 2024.
UT and several other partners have formed the Great Lakes Clean Hydrogen coalition, which wants the U.S. Department of Energy to name it as one of those regional hubs for research and production.
The coalition will officially start courting the government agency once it begins accepting proposals in the next week or two. As many as 10 hubs are expected to be named for production, which will probably begin in 2024.
The local group’s partners have some familiar names, including Energy Harbor, First Solar, the Toledo Area Regional Transit Authority, Owens Community College, Cleveland-Cliffs, the Regional Growth Partnership, and GEM, Inc.
But more come from elsewhere in Ohio, outside the state, and beyond the Great Lakes region, including Case Western Reserve University, Michigan Technological University, and the University of Michigan; the Idaho, Pacific Northwest, Lawrence Livermore, and Argonne national laboratories; the Ohio Fuel Cell Coalition, and General Electric Aviation, Linde, Plug Power, Nexceris, and Nel.
“We think we have a pretty strong case,” said Frank Calzonetti, UT’s vice president for research and geography professor. “We’ve had great support from the national labs, and that started with the lab day event.”
That reference was to a daylong workshop inside UT’s College of Engineering in January, 2020 after it had been announced that Energy Harbor’s Davis-Besse nuclear power plant in Ottawa County had been chosen for a $10 million, pioneering research project to study nuclear plants’ ability to produce hydrogen for industrial and commercial uses.
While nuclear plants have historically been used only for generating electricity, the Idaho National Laboratory has been investigating how well they can also produce hydrogen through electrolysis at high and low temperatures. It said steam from that process can be 20 to 40 percent more efficient than conventional electrolysis, the process of using electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen.
Richard Boardman, the Idaho lab’s chief technology officer, said at the time that only about 2 megawatts of Davis-Besse’s 925 megawatt capacity was needed by the pilot program at any given time.
Tracy StClair, Energy Harbor’s corporate functional area manager, said low-temperature electrolysis was selected as the test technology at the nuclear plant, although the high-temperature alternative is “quickly advancing” as well.
“The project is in progress, with many components on site and infrastructure on the ground to bring power from the plant to the electrolysis skid,” he said. “The skid selected will produce approximately one ton of hydrogen per day from a little more than 2mw supply. Commissioning is anticipated to be in 2024.”
Idaho National Laboratory believes many of today’s remaining 98 nuclear plants could be converted into hybrid plants to work as anchors for regional hydrogen hubs. That also could keep many of them viable longer, Mr. Boardman has said.
“Clean energy infrastructure development near our nuclear facilities will create additional jobs and economic growth for our local communities while generating tangible value for our shareholders,” Mr. StClair said.
Consideration will be given in the future for hydrogen production at Energy Harbor’s Perry nuclear plant east of Cleveland and its twin-reactor Beaver Valley complex west of Pittsburgh, he said.
Hydrogen can be used in anything from automotive fuel cells to NASA space vehicles, but is expensive to harness and produce. It is coveted because it is both clean and powerful.
TARTA recently bought 12 new buses that run on conventional diesel fuel, but is looking into hydrogen as a clean fuel source for a future bus fleet. It also has considered electric buses, said Laura Koprowski, the authority’s chief executive officer.
“Our plan is to transition our fleet away from diesel fuel by 2038,” Ms. Koprowski said, noting that while a federal mandate prompted that goal, it also is consistent with TARTA board of trustees action earlier this year to start planning for an eventual zero-emission fleet.
The timing of the government’s research and development initiative jibes with what TARTA has wanted to do, Ms. Koprowski said. If the research proves hydrogen’s viability, TARTA would likely spend $850,000 to $1 million for 12 hydrogen-fueled buses or a mixed order of hydrogen and electric buses.
Either option would keep about 530 tons of climate-altering carbon dioxide pollution annually, and residents along TARTA’s densely populated routes would likely benefit from cleaner air, Ms. Koprowski said.
Current diesel buses cost about $519,000 each, and both diesel and hydrogen buses are built to last for about 12 years, Ms. Koprowski said.
Liquid hydrogen now costs about $4 per gallon, comparable to diesel. One advantage for hydrogen over electricity is fuel cells’ 350-mile range, Ms. Koprowski said, as it is not known if the future’s electric buses will be able to go that far without recharging.
“It’s a really interesting time for our industry with so many fuel options,” she said.
The Stark Area Regional Transit Authority in Canton, Ohio has had hydrogen-fueled buses for a few years now, and U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D., Ohio) announced last month the U.S. Department of Transportation had awarded SARTA nearly $2.4 million to expand its fleet.
Kirt Conrad, SARTA chief executive officer and executive director, has said the grant money is allowing that transit authority to purchase three additional hydrogen buses, boosting its total fleet to 23.
At the Cleveland-Cliffs iron briquette production plant in East Toledo, the goal is to replace natural gas with hydrogen, while Cincinnati-based GE Aviation is looking into hydrogen’s potential for replacing jet fuel.
Mr. Calzonetti said the government is seeking to promote more diversity, equity, and inclusion through the program.
“There’s a lot of interest in supporting unions, too,” he said. “We’re very excited. We’re getting a lot of recognition nationally.”
First Published September 17, 2022, 4:11 p.m.