With $5 million from DoE, BU team aims to make green hydrogen part of the energy solution
By Patrick L. Kennedy
A trio of BU mechanical engineering professors have landed a $5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) to lead a collaborative project to solve crucial elements of the world’s renewable energy puzzle, by making green hydrogen.
For the most abundant element in the universe, hydrogen is hard to harness. Theoretically, the gas is a mighty alternative to the fossil fuels that have caused the climate crisis. When hydrogen is burned, the only byproduct is water vapor. That means hydrogen could power long-haul trucks, electricity turbines, even steel plants, and much more, all without emitting carbon dioxide.
But there’s a catch. Currently, most hydrogen is produced using natural gas, a process that does emit CO2.
A better way exists, though. In the electrolysis process, an electric current splits water molecules to produce hydrogen. If that electric current could be sourced from excess wind and solar power, then not only could clean-burning hydrogen itself be produced cleanly, but that would also solve a problem holding back renewable energy: intermittency. This green hydrogen could be used in fuel cells that could then run regardless of whether the sun is shining or the wind is blowing.
The catch there is cost. Currently, it takes $5 to produce one kilogram of green hydrogen. The DoE wants to get that down to one dollar per kilogram by 2030 and is betting that professors Srikanth Gopalan, Soumendra Basu, and Uday Pal (all ME, MSE) can help.
A big reason for the cost barrier today is a materials problem—and all three of the BU faculty researchers are experts in different aspects of materials science.
During electrolysis, oxygen pressure builds up at the interfaces between materials, resulting in one of the electrodes detaching from the cell, degrading the whole system.
“We’re solving that problem with a whole new class of materials, called Ruddleseden-Popper phases,” says Gopalan, the PI. “The structure of this material is such that it can accommodate high oxygen pressure—it can basically suck up all this oxygen.”
Another kind of degradation occurs in a hydrogen fuel cell, says Basu. A key component of a fuel electrode is nickel, which coarsens over time. “What if you could add a very thin layer of something that stabilizes the nickel? So, we have been looking at using a material called gadolinium-doped ceria to stabilize the nickel and also enhance electrode kinetics, and we have shown that the performance degradation is dramatically decreased.”
By partnering with Saint-Gobain Research North America and Upstart Power, Inc., the team will eventually translate their findings into replicable stacks of fuel cells that will meet and perhaps exceed DoE’s goals, the professors say. “The companies are going to bridge the gap between what we’re doing at the lab scale, and what we eventually want to build at commercial scales.” Researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute are also collaborating.
As part of the grant, the researchers will also design mini-courses and experiments for underrepresented and minority high school students in BU’s Upward Bound Math Science program. The grant also includes funds for at least one BU student per year to undertake a summer fellowship at BU’s Institute of Global Sustainability, where they’ll learn about energy policy.
The professors credit BU with priming the pump by investing in their work more than a decade ago. The results of their first collaboration led to bigger and bigger grants from the DoE. “But this [$5 million grant] was the big one, where it all came together,” says Basu. “And I think the nature of collaboration here really helped. BU is kind of unique in the way it encourages collaboration.”