Acquiring hydrogen from coal, the US’s most plentiful fossil fuel, will be the main focus of the centre. To achieve that, testing of various technologies will be employed, from production to transportation to utilization.
To support the centre’s efforts, a one-year cooperative agreement has been established between the university, industry partners and the DoE’s National Technology Laboratory (NETL) to create a research program to assist in the quest for a hydrogen economy infrastructure. NETL will also provide program administration for the centre’s inaugural year.
Hydrogen seemingly is the answer to two of the USA’s biggest energy challenges: greenhouse gas and air pollutant emissions, as well as its dependence on imported oil. The centre’s initial projects include hydrogen carriers, coal refining, and end-of-pipe reforming.
In addition, studies will also be conducted to help determine which research areas may most effectively overcome the barriers to the hydrogen-from-coal technology.
According to the DoE, the centre’s research will accelerate US president Bush’s Hydrogen Fuel Initiative, which seeks to develop the technology required for commercially feasible hydrogen-powered fuel cells, and the FutureGen initiative, which was developed to build the world’s first integrated sequestration and hydrogen production research power plant.
