SPOKANE — Washington State University’s cryogenic hydrogen research center was selected to receive $4.8 million from the federal government to advance hydrogen related technologies and build a fueling station.
Coming from a pool of $62 million in grants, the funding was provided by the U.S. Department of Energy to “accelerate the research, development, demonstration, and deployment of next-generation clean hydrogen technologies,” according to the Department of Energy website. The grant program was announced in support of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Investing in America agenda.
Hydrogen has long been touted as a clean and sustainable fuel option in the face of growing environmental concerns.
“So what’s really neat about hydrogen — you can make it anywhere you have electricity and water,” said the WSU Hydrogen Properties for Energy Research (HYPER) lab director Jacob Leachman. “What is so, so important for humanity is that we can make hydrogen, which allows us to make clean molecules and power very large machinery … very efficiently with no carbon emissions at all.”
However, the difficulty of working with liquid hydrogen has largely prevented its effective use in the U.S., said Leachman. Hydrogen is only a liquid when it is at around -423 degrees Fahrenheit. Any warmer and the liquid boils, returning the atoms to a gaseous state.
It is this difficulty that Leachman and his colleagues at WSU are attempting to combat.
“The people who have produced hydrogen fuel in the country have never been the people that had to use the hydrogen fuel, so there’s always been this disconnect,” he said. “And so what we want to do is make sure that when hydrogen boils — ‘cause it will, through transfers and other things — that we have the ability to capture and cool down and reliquefy that boil-off.”
About $3 million of the funds WSU received will go toward creating a device called a “multiphase continuous liquid hydrogen flow loop,” which will allow HYPER lab mechanics to visualize where and how hydrogen is boiling in a refueling component being tested. This device will be the first of its kind in the world, said Leachman, and will increase the amount of data that can be collected in a test by a factor of 10.
WSU is unique in that it is the only university in the U.S. to have a cryogenic hydrogen lab, according to the WSU website. Over the last 5 years, the HYPER lab has provided testing for components from refueling stations — a service that can be hard to find.
“We can actually now generate this data and research for people and validate their components,” Leachman said. “Should overcome a significant barrier to the industry.”
The remaining $1.8 million in funding is the result of a partnership between WSU and a New York based company called Plug Power in order to build a hydrogen fueling station for large vehicles. Plug Power hydrogen fuel cells currently move about 30% of the country’s food retail and grocery product forklifts, according to its website.
Luke Wentlent, a research and development engineer for Plug Power, said the new fueling station is supposed to be a demonstration of a next generation hydrogen refueling station.
“We’ll see how well we can push the limits and make sure this thing works well and safely and efficiently and cost effectively,” Wentlent said. “And then we eventually hand that off to the university to own and operate.”
The station is slated to be completed in mid-2026, after which it will open for research purposes, said Leachman. By around 2028, the station could be used to fuel WSU and community vehicles.
Leachman said there is widespread hope for the hydrogen industry’s successful future.
“If you look at the legislation that’s been voted on for hydrogen, both parties, it’s something we all want and need,” he said. “We need clean hydrogen molecules for all of the fertilizer, fuel, and everything we do in our region.”
