Several of the nation’s top engineers shared insights during a recent meeting with members of eXtremeMAT-H₂, an NETL-led consortium of national laboratories, to accelerate the development of reliable, cost-effective alloys that can withstand long-term exposure to H₂-containing environments at elevated temperatures, such as environments found in advanced, H₂-fueled power plants and other industries.

“This meeting of the eXtremeMAT-H₂stakeholder advisory board allowed representatives from utilities that produce electricity, gas turbine manufacturers, companies that produce H₂ gas and other industries to provide their feedback on the quality, relevance and direction of our research,” said NETL’s David Alman, associate director, Materials Engineering and Manufacturing.

The virtual meeting is held approximately every six months. The advisory board includes engineers and representatives from 16 companies as well as research and professional organizations. Much of the discussion focused on addressing materials-related challenges associated with the use of H₂ as a fuel and its impact on the materials of construction at key industries.

The use of H₂ as a fuel is an integral part of the nation’s efforts to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 because it offers significant potential to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in sectors that are difficult to decarbonize, including power generation, heavy-duty transportation, chemical production and industrial heating.

“It is well known that H₂ can make alloys brittle. While lower-temperature H₂ embrittlement has been studied extensively, there have only been a few studies focused on the impact of H₂ at elevated temperatures. With more power production and industrial processes expected to switch to H₂, it is important to address this gap and understand the impact of H₂ on the long-term performance of alloys. This meeting enabled industry to hear an update on eXtremeMAT-H₂’s progress and for the eXtremeMAT-H₂ team to learn the perspectives from a variety of different industries on research needs,” Alman said.

The consortium’s approach uses computational tools to accelerate the development cycle of cost-effective alloys needed to realize durable materials for extreme environments.

“The tools being developed by eXtremeMAT-H₂ allow for better predictive capabilities of alloy performance and can reduce the time and cost of designing reliable and safe components for H₂ systems. The eXtremeMAT-H₂ team is developing a better understanding of the connections between the alloy chemistry, microstructure and properties in H₂—information that is paramount for making more accurate predictions about alloy service life and designing alloys that are more resistant to failure when exposed to H₂-containing environments. Better alloys for components are critical in the transition to using clean H₂ to produce electricity, chemicals and steel while reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” Alman said.

In addition to NETL, the eXtremeMAT-H₂ consortium includes members from the Ames National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories.