The Southwest Texas Analysis Institute has efficiently constructed a hydrogen inside combustion engine that may energy a business truck utterly carbon-free — nonetheless, getting hydrogen pumps put in across the state stays a significant pace bump.
The nonprofit San Antonio-based analysis institute just lately confirmed off its new hydrogen-fueled demonstration car — a semi-truck with a transformed combustion engine that produces low emissions whereas nonetheless offering sufficient energy for a heavy-duty truck.
The 13-foot-tall vibrant blue tractor-trailer parked in entrance of the Tom Slick Cafe at SwRI’s annual assembly of advisory trustees and board of administrators final month, decked out with the logos of sponsors that helped pay to develop the know-how, and labeled with a big “H2” on the facet.
In addition to the SwRI sticker marking it, it may cross for an everyday 18-wheeler.
Below its front-loaded hood, the engine is well seen — with specifically transformed areas of the in any other case normal-looking combustion engine painted royal blue to allow them to be seen in demonstrations.
However whereas the high-tech, low-carbon, environmentally pleasant truck is able to hit the roads proper now, America’s roads are hardly prepared for the truck.
Boundaries to scaling up hydrogen infrastructure are nonetheless considerable, particularly the truth that hydrogen shouldn’t be simple to retailer as a liquid, plus it’s extremely flammable and general lacks authorities help.
Whereas SwRI’s hydrogen truck may theoretically journey about 500 miles with no need to refill, it could be troublesome for it to discover a gasoline station on a visit to, say, Los Angeles.
Semi-trucks are vital contributors to transportation-related emissions, accounting for roughly 23% of the sector’s whole emissions within the U.S.
Texas vitality leaders are hopeful that the Lone Star State can lead a hydrogen revolution — beginning now. Texas is already thought-about an vitality chief on the earth and already makes use of hydrogen. SwRI leaders are additionally hopeful, noting that Texas is commonly a big laboratory for vitality innovation.
“We’re all the time attempting to anticipate the place issues are going to come up sooner or later, and develop options for these arising issues, whether or not they be within the authorities sector or the business sector,” stated Adam Hamilton, president and CEO of SwRI.
The H2-ICE demo car
For SwRI researchers, a working hydrogen engine has been years within the making.
Now, the analysis institute and its companions try to assist clear up the issue of tips on how to construct out extra hydrogen infrastructure, akin to protected, easy-to-access refueling stations.
In 2022, SwRI first launched the “H2-ICE consortium,” which introduced collectively engine and truck producers, gasoline and lubricant suppliers and direct suppliers to assist clear up the issue in accordance with SwRI. The consortium goals to indicate how H2-ICE automobiles can work alongside different zero-emission car applied sciences (akin to batteries).
To achieve the group’s objectives, it wanted to construct a hydrogen-powered engine that emitted very low nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions, together with low carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Each emissions, given off when fossil fuels like gasoline or diesel are burned, contribute to smog — which is a dangerous combination of air pollution that may make the air unhealthy to breathe.
In 2022 the H2-ICE consortium set an aggressive 18-month timeline to create such an engine for a semi-truck that was additionally appropriate with California’s air requirements — that are the strictest within the nation.
That’s as a result of the group needed the undertaking to align with the Environmental Safety Company’s Part-3 greenhouse fuel coverage, which is a part of a broader effort to scale back emissions from heavy-duty automobiles and engines, stated Ryan Williams, a SwRI Powertrain Engineering Division supervisor and the H2-ICE consortium’s program supervisor.
The EPA’s Part 3 focuses on establishing stricter requirements for greenhouse fuel emissions particularly for vans and buses, though it’s unclear if these requirements might be rolled again underneath the Trump Administration.
Final Could, SwRI introduced it had efficiently constructed an indication car with a functioning hydrogen engine for a semi-truck that match these requirements. SwRI scientists have been in a position to convert a pure fuel engine supplied by Cummins to run on hydrogen, utilizing parts equipped by consortium members.
SwRI shared the feat as its prime achievement of 2024 on the annual assembly in February. Altogether between the elements that have been donated and the engineering effort, roughly $5 million was invested into the demonstration car, Williams stated.
“We’re now taking this round to commerce reveals and we would like it to be apparent what’s occurring within this,” Williams instructed the San Antonio Report whereas showcasing the car and the transformed engine.
Whereas serving to on a regular basis People perceive the chances created by hydrogen engines is essential, serving to policymakers perceive them can be important, he stated: “I feel the tempo at which these engines are launched into the general public can be pushed by coverage.”
In December, SwRI introduced a second consortium referred to as H2HD REFUEL to sort out among the boundaries to refueling. Over the subsequent 4 years, SwRI researchers will use hands-on experiments, system modeling and theoretical research to higher present hydrogen refueling gear and discover potential alternate options.
“We’re pursuing and attempting to recruit business shoppers to be members of the second consortium to advance that know-how,” Hamilton stated.
The state of hydrogen refueling
As of 2024, there are near 60 open retail hydrogen stations in america, most of that are in California and Hawaii, in accordance with the U.S. Division of Power’s Various Fuels Information Middle. Nearly all of the hydrogen refueling stations in Texas are privately owned, together with one at SwRI.
One of the troublesome facets of a hydrogen financial system — a world by which hydrogen exists as a outstanding supply of gasoline — is the fabrication and distribution of the gasoline itself, stated Michael Webber, professor of vitality assets on the College of Texas at Austin and head of the Webber Power Group.
Webber stated he’s presently engaged on a big undertaking with Oak Ridge Nationwide Lab, GTI Power, and several other main oil and fuel corporations attempting to determine tips on how to encourage the expansion of the hydrogen market within the U.S.
Making standalone hydrogen tends to be “soiled,” Webber defined, noting that the standard types of hydrogen manufacturing that exist right now really launch numerous carbon dioxide.
Discovering cleaner methods to make the clear gasoline is likely one of the main challenges going through the business, he defined.
Making, transferring and storing hydrogen in a fuel-ready approach shouldn’t be as simple as it’s for gasoline or diesel, on account of its extraordinarily low density, which means it takes up a considerable amount of house in comparison with the vitality it accommodates.
“Gases like methane or hydrogen are tougher as a result of it’s important to compress them loads or liquefy them and that takes numerous vitality,” Webber famous. “Then you possibly can’t retailer it fairly like gasoline, you want a much bigger tank, so it’s additionally costlier to retailer.”
That doesn’t actually work for the common small car in right now’s market, Webber stated, the place electrical automobiles will probably all the time outcompete hydrogen.
Nonetheless, hydrogen is making a reputation for itself within the trucking business as a potential different gasoline to diesel, he stated. Creating battery-powered semis is troublesome due to the excessive torque semis have to run, and since drivers don’t wish to should be stopped for lengthy durations of time for charging.
“These vans drive a whole bunch of hundreds of miles,” he stated. “So on paper, hydrogen appears to be like like a fairly good different.”
Hamilton agreed.
“It’s in all probability not good for the on a regular basis shopper but, as a result of there aren’t any retail filling stations — however for fleet supply providers, … it’s an awesome factor,” he instructed the San Antonio Report.
Texas as a frontrunner
Requested what Texas can do to develop into a frontrunner in hydrogen, Webber argued that the Lone Star State already is a frontrunner for the choice gasoline.
“We already make and manufacture and use and pipe and retailer extra hydrogen than the opposite state,” he famous. “We’re perhaps prime 10 on the earth — we have now a fairly strong hydrogen sector, and which means we have now methods to make hydrogen.”
A lot of the state’s hydrogen is used for industrial processes like oil refining, fertilizer manufacturing, and metallic therapy, nonetheless, not for driving automobiles, Webber defined. The query is that if Texas will keep its standing as a hydrogen chief and unfold hydrogen use to different sectors, akin to automobiles.
Together with SwRI and Webber, a number of researchers within the state are already taking a look at how to try this, together with College of Texas’ Michael Lewis. Final yr Lewis helped writer a report titled “A Framework for Hydrogen in Texas,” which appears to be like particularly at what is required to construct out automotive hydrogen infrastructure in Texas.
The report’s authors created the “HoWDI mannequin,” or Hydrogen Optimization with Deployment of Infrastructure financial optimization mannequin. The mannequin goals to assist business contributors maximize their revenue by balancing the advantages of utilizing hydrogen in numerous areas with the prices of constructing and working the wanted hydrogen infrastructure.
That features every little thing from making hydrogen, getting it to the place it’s wanted, and delivering it to be used.
The mannequin reveals how hydrogen is made and utilized in Texas at 23 hubs. It additionally tracks how hydrogen strikes between these hubs through pipelines or vans. The mannequin helps marketing strategy the place to construct methods to supply and ship hydrogen to folks.
In accordance with the report, the subsequent steps for Texas ought to be cost-driven. Hydrogen stations might be constructed first for vans, which use numerous gasoline and wish extra vary and quicker refueling than battery electrical automobiles.
Constructing stations close to hydrogen pipelines, particularly within the Gulf Coast area, could be sensible — however there are different good spots for stations throughout Texas. Specializing in busy freight routes within the Texas Triangle —the financial heart of Texas that exists between Houston, San Antonio and Dallas — may assist create sufficient demand to help these stations and clear hydrogen manufacturing, the report explains.
“To put the groundwork … a vital step is to have interaction in hydrogen vitality outreach to Texas legislators and communities,” it states. “With out this engagement, coverage actions and the build-out of latest infrastructure may encounter delays or different hurdles.”
For essentially the most half, help of a hydrogen financial system in Texas appears bipartisan, Webber instructed the Report.
“There are some things that appear to have bipartisan help proper now — however nuclear and hydrogen and carbon administration, carbon seize all appear to have some bipartisan help,” he stated.
In 2023, the Texas Legislature established the Texas Hydrogen Manufacturing Coverage Council to review and supply suggestions on the Railroad Fee of Texas’ insurance policies for hydrogen vitality growth within the state.
Its report provided 5 suggestions to the legislature in December 2024, together with sustaining present oversight and suggesting rule-making for hydrogen infrastructure be totally different from infrastructure necessities for different pipelines.
To this point, no new payments associated to hydrogen infrastructure have been filed but in the course of the present Texas legislative session, though Texas Hydrogen Day will happen on Wednesday, Mar. 19 on the Texas Capitol and will result in some happenings on the problem in Austin.
Again in San Antonio, SwRI is laser-focused on the science of all of it.
“SwRI is known as a well-regarded entity to do the sort of analysis, so I’m not shocked that they’d have some advances on this,” Webber stated. “I stay up for seeing what comes out of their efforts.”
