GKN Hydrogen, SoCalGas & NREL Begin Solid State Hydrogen Storage Demonstration Project

Wedoany.com Report-Nov 16, GKN Hydrogen, and Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) announced the commissioning of a research demonstration project with the SDepartment of Energy’s (DOE’s) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) on an innovative clean renewable hydrogen storage solution.

The project, which will be located at NREL’s Flatirons Campus in Arvada, Colorado, uses GKN Hydrogen’s storage technology to store hydrogen in a solid state (metal hydrides) compared to traditional gaseous storage tanks.

The demonstration aims to evaluate the technology’s performance and integration with clean energy systems, such as microgrids or fuel cells. The project also aims to identify the most beneficial uses of solid-state storage of clean renewable hydrogen.

At scale, this technology could help accelerate the transition to a net-zero emissions economy by increasing the availability of resilient, on-site renewable power generation and storage.

The demonstration project will use renewable energy sources such as solar and wind to convert water into clean renewable hydrogen through an electrolyzer. Up to 500 kilograms of hydrogen can be stored in GKN Hydrogen’s storage system in a solid state by binding the molecules in a metal hydride at low pressure without the need for compression. The hydrogen can then be used in an on-site fuel cell to create zero-emissions electricity.

Utilizing NREL’s Advanced Research on Integrated Energy Systems (ARIES) platform, researchers aim to validate a variety of commercial and industrial decarbonization applications. The exact use case depends on the system’s integration, which could include solar, electrolyzers, battery storage and fuel cells with distribution equipment.

The project is scheduled to run until December 2026.