DOE Hydrogen Program Merit Review: Safety-Related Session Summary
David Mann, National Hydrogen Association
From May 15-18, 2007 the US hydrogen industry came together to evaluate our national progress on breaking down the barriers to the widespread development of a hydrogen economy. Approximately 300 projects were showcased at the Crystal City Marriott in Arlington, Virginia at the US Department of Energy Hydrogen Program’s Annual Merit Review. The Merit Review opened with a plenary session providing an overview of all of the Department of Energy’s hydrogen activities. Speakers represented the offices of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Fossil Energy, Nuclear Energy, and Science.
Safety, Codes and Standards
Dr. Milliken spoke about the value and need for codes and standards and the general challenges facing their creation and adoption. Dr. Milliken felt progress was being made, giving examples such as the completion of a technical reference for hydrogen compatibility, a compendium of permitting tools, the development of a hydrogen safety panel, and a hydrogen incident database. DOE plans on continuing recent sensor-related activity, publishing a best-practices manual, creating hydrogen quality specifications, and increasing their emphasis on early market activities, particularly safety and portable fuel cells. The FY08 budget request of $16 million includes a doubling of funds from $1.5 million to $3 million for sensors. This accounts for the bulk of the budget request increase over the FY07 appropriation of $13.8 million.
Education
Dr. Milliken spoke about the hydrogen program’s education activities. She indicated good progress with the completion of a web-training course for first responders and the creation of the H2IQ campaign. DOE will also restart middle and high school educational activities. Dr. Milliken pointed to upcoming activities as being vital, including the NHA’s H2U student design competition and the H2 and You campaign. They plan on ramping up first responder training, developing training for code officials, and issuing new solicitations. The education budget is requested at double current levels for FY08 with most of that being targeted to early deployment activities.
Manufacturing R&D
Dr. Milliken spoke on Manufacturing R&D. The largest challenge is that the technology to be manufactured is still developing. The budget is quite small for this new program, but will be increasing to $5 Million for FY08 and a solicitation is expected in summer 2007.
Market Transformation
Dr. Milliken closed the session with a discussion of Market Transformation. She highlighting the difficulties hydrogen products face. Dr. Milliken said that the Energy Policy Act authorizes DOE to pursue early adoption and that last month DOE put together a meeting with federal procurement managers and hydrogen industry folks to exchange knowledge and begin a federal early adoption program. The recent DOE RFI is another sign of activity on this front. More information can be found here: http://www.hydrogen.energy.gov/news_markets.html.
Dr. Milliken’s full presentation is available on the Department of Energy website at: http://www.hydrogen.energy.gov/annual_review07_plenary.html.
Posters and presentations from other meeting sessions are available on the main page of the 2007 Annual Merit Review Proceedings at: http://www.hydrogen.energy.gov/annual_review07_proceedings.html.
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