GTI and Partners Advancing Next-Generation Hydrogen Energy Storage Technology for Clean Power

GTI and partners have been selected for an award of $800,000 from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to advance hydrogen storage technology toward increased duration, reliability, and affordability to meet growing U.S. market demand for cleaner electricity. The project approach, which combines energy stored in the form of hydrogen with an existing power plant, will integrate hydrogen from fossil and renewable energy, leading to improved level-loading of the electric grid.

In this Phase 2 project, the team will conduct a Preliminary Front End Engineering Design (Pre-FEED) study of a system to demonstrate storage of more than 54 megawatt-hours of energy as clean hydrogen produced using natural gas with carbon capture and storage—and its use for load-following in a selected natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) power plant operated by Southern Company subsidiary Alabama Power in Alabama. Hydrogen storage and discharge rates will be linked to follow daily power demand fluctuations from variable renewable energy to increase the plant’s efficiency and utilization while reducing emissions. The GTI-led team includes Southern Company, Pacific Gas & Electric, and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). Cost share from the Low-Carbon Resources Initiative (LCRI), a joint program between GTI and EPRI that is supported by over 50 industry partners, will help fund the project.

This award builds off the success of a DOE-funded Phase 1 feasibility and techno-economic studies on asset-integrated production and intermediate duration storage of hydrogen, which projected high-efficiency production using GTI’s patented hydrogen generator technology would achieve a greater than 95% rate of carbon capture at low-cost in an NGCC plant.

GTI is currently piloting this low-cost, low-carbon hydrogen generation technology under a DOE-sponsored 0.3MW project at GTI’s Des Plaines campus, and in a larger 1.6MW Hydrogen by Sorbent Enhanced Steam Reforming (HyPER) project with Cranfield University and Doosan Babcock sponsored by the UK Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). Both of these pilot projects are nearing commissioning and operation.

“This new DOE project builds on GTI’s decades of expertise in hydrogen—along with integrated hydrogen testing, modeling, and demonstration facilities—to shape hydrogen markets and ensure this low-carbon fuel is affordable and accessible to economies of all sizes and maturities,” said Don Stevenson, GTI Vice President, Energy Supply and Conversion.

Within GTI’s Hydrogen Technology Center, researchers are working to advance hydrogen as a potential means to achieve net-zero emissions at scale across the make/move/store/use energy value chain. Capturing carbon is key to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and plays an integral role in the transition toward a more decarbonized energy system.