Cornell and two Cornell research startups have joined a consortium aimed at proposing a Northeast research hub to make hydrogen a viable, clean-energy alternative to carbon-based fuels.
Gov. Kathy Hochul is leading the multistate collaboration, which is organized by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA).
With approximately $9.6 billion in federal funding available, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is expected to request proposals in early May for regional hydrogen centers that would provide a wide range of services, including research and demonstration projects. The Northeast group intends to apply for some of the federal funds.
“I’ve never seen anything quite like this in my entire career,” said Héctor Abruña, the Émile M. Chamot Professor in the Department of Chemistry in the College of Arts and Sciences, who will represent Cornell in the collaboration. He is also the director of the Center for Alkaline Based Energy Solutions (CABES), a national-level research consortium. “The level of commitment – by The White House and the Department of Energy – is astonishing.”
When used to power a fuel cell, hydrogen energy is far more efficient than carbon-based fuels, said Abruña. “Hydrogen can be incredibly efficient,” he said. “A hydrogen fuel cell engine – even if you mess it up – is almost triple in efficiency” compared to gasoline (internal combustion) engines.
Abrua will be joined by Cornell research spinoff Ecolectro, a startup company at Cornell’s McGovern Center business incubator, and Standard Hydrogen Corporation, a Cornell-related company, as part of a group of 40 partners developing the regional proposal.
Clean (so-called green) hydrogen fuel has been prohibitively expensive to produce for decades due to the use of platinum, an expensive precious metal required in electrolyzers and fuel cells. However, the DOE awarded Ecolectro $1.7 million in 2018 to develop alkaline exchange membrane materials used in water electrolyzers and fuel cells, allowing the use of non-precious metal based electrocatalysts, which would significantly reduce the cost of green hydrogen and fuel cell production.
Abrua and a team of Cornell chemists announced in February 2022 the discovery of a class of nonprecious metal derivatives that can catalyze fuel cell reactions just as well as platinum – but at a fraction of the cost. The Abrua group and collaborators published a paper in March describing how a high activity and low cost nitrogen-doped, carbon-coated nickel anode catalyzed the hydrogen oxidation reaction, which is required in hydrogen fuel cells.
Last year, Standard Hydrogen Corporation and National Grid (a consortium partner) announced plans to construct New York’s first hydrogen “energy station,” which will resemble a traditional gasoline filling station, in the Capital Region. At that station, hydrogen would be produced on-site in a renewable manner, using electricity derived from renewable wind or solar energy during the electrolysis process, transforming it into a viable source of hydrogen. The project is expected to be completed in early 2023.
The consortium is led by New York and includes Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Jersey, all of which have active hydrogen and fuel cell innovation research programs. Columbia University, Rochester Institute of Technology, New York University, Stony Brook University (SUNY), City College of New York, and the University at Buffalo are among the other New York universities involved in the consortium (SUNY).
