The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM) announced $8.8 MM for 11 university-based research and development projects to improve the performance of H₂-fueled turbines. The selected projects will develop advanced materials and components that can better manage and withstand the extreme environment generated during H₂ combustion to enable the use of up to 100% clean H₂ in gas turbines for low-carbon power generation, helping to advance the Biden-Harris Administration goals of 100% carbon-free electricity by 2035 and net-zero emissions economy-wide by 2050.

Further, accelerating the commercialization of advanced technologies developed through funded projects will support the growth of robust supply chains and good-paying jobs throughout the power and industrial sectors.

“Advancing H₂ turbine performance is critical to increasing the use of low-carbon fuels like clean H₂ to help achieve our climate goals,” said Brad Crabtree, Assistant Secretary of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management. “Today we are investing in cost-shared, cutting-edge research at U.S. universities that will help make clean H₂ more affordable and widely utilized, while also expanding the H₂ workforce.”  

Six funding recipients will perform fundamental materials research to produce knowledge, data, and understanding that can be utilized to enable improved capabilities for hot gas path component design in gas turbines using H₂-containing fuels:

• Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of Arizona State University (Tempe, Arizona)
• Clemson University (Clemson, South Carolina)
• Colorado State University (Fort Collins, Colorado)
• Regents of the University of California (Davis, California)
• Regents of the University of Minnesota (Minneapolis, Minnesota)
• Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (College Station, Texas).

One funding recipient will focus on applied research for turbine hot gas path components that will utilize advanced cooling architectures and advanced materials/manufacturing technologies:

• Pennsylvania State University (University Park, Pennsylvania).

Four funding recipients will work toward the development of knowledge, data and understanding of the risk associated with material fatigue and thermal/mechanical stresses in rotating detonation engines operating on H₂ fuels and strategies for minimizing the risk through material selection and design improvements that would maintain any achieved performance benefits:

• Purdue University (West Lafayette, Indiana)
• Regents of the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, Michigan)
• The University of Central Florida Board of Trustees (Orlando, Florida)
• University of New Mexico (Albuquerque, New Mexico).

DOE’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), under the purview of FECM, will manage the selected projects. Since January 2021, FECM has committed an estimated $147 MM in projects that explore new, clean methods to produce H₂ and to improve the performance of H₂-fueled turbines. These projects support DOE’s H₂ Shot initiative, which seeks to reduce the cost of clean H₂ by 80% to $1 per 1 kilogram in one decade to develop and commercialize new, clean H₂ pathways in the U.S.