GKN Hydrogen and Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) will collaborate with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) on an innovative green hydrogen storage system.
HY2MEGA from GKN Hydrogen enables the safe, long-term storage of sustainable energy without the need for compression. This combination technology might, at scale, provide robust power in the event of widespread power outages. In addition, it emphasizes the technology required for carbon neutrality and the acceleration of clean fuel programs.
At the ARIES facility on NREL’s Flatirons Campus near Boulder, Colorado, two HY2MEGA hydrogen storage subsystems will connect to an electrolyzer and fuel cell. The electrolyzer will produce green hydrogen from renewable sources for storage in the HY2MEGA.
The HY2MEGA stores hydrogen in a solid state (metal hydrides) under low pressure and with a small footprint. According to GKN Hydrogen, this is one of the most secure methods of hydrogen storage. The fuel cell will next turn the environmentally friendly hydrogen into renewable electricity. The two HY2MEGAs will increase on-site hydrogen storage capacity by 500 kilograms. The commencement of the three-year initiative is scheduled for the end of this year.
“SoCalGas will leverage the large-scale hydrogen storage capabilities of GKN Hydrogen’s HY2MEGA from this project to help accelerate the commercialization and deployment of green hydrogen projects,” said Neil Navin, vice president of clean energy innovations at SoCalGas. “Ultimately, green hydrogen generation and storage will help decarbonize the energy system while assuring stability of the electrical grid to enable even higher penetrations of renewable sources of electricity.“
“This project is exactly what the ARIES platform was designed for: demonstrate the benefits of a new technology that efficiently stores energy produced from renewable electricity,” said Katherine Hurst, group manager and research scientist at NREL. “It brings together a national laboratory, a clean energy technology developer, and a large utility to work on solutions that help decarbonize the power grid. We are looking forward to working with GKN Hydrogen and SoCalGas to advance this technology.”
“Collaborations on green hydrogen projects are essential as we tackle this climate emergency,” said Frank Wolak, President and CEO of the Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Energy Association (FCHEA). “This project will demonstrate how hydrogen storage can help reduce carbon emissions and is an innovative step towards a clean future for everyone.”
Bruno Biasiotta, Chief Executive Officer at GKN Hydrogen said, “We are really honored to be working with great organizations like NREL and SoCalGas to validate and demonstrate green hydrogen as a megawatt scale energy source. To accelerate the energy transition hydrogen cannot just be part of the discussion, it must be part of the solution. This project will demonstrate that large scale green hydrogen storage with HY2MEGA can be used to help decarbonize and accelerate the shift to cleaner fuels.”
