Learn about Fuel Cell Technologies Office webinars held in 2013 through the descriptions and linked materials below. Also view webinar archives from other years.

Webinars presented in 2013:

International Hydrogen Infrastructure Challenges Workshop Summary – NOW, NEDO, and DOE

December 16, 2013

This webinar summarized the international information exchange on the hydrogen refueling infrastructure challenges and potential solutions to support the successful global commercialization of hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles. The information exchange took place in June 2013 at the German Ministry of Transport, in Berlin. Workshop participants included topical experts from Germany, Japan, the United States, Scandinavia, and the European Commission. Key focus areas of the webinar included the station requirements necessary to meet the latest SAE J2601 protocol and the development of alternative fueling protocols, maintaining and measuring purity to the SAE J2619 fuel quality standard, and the availability and accuracy of meters for hydrogen dispensing for 700 bar onboard fueling. Also included was an overview of the current status of key hardware for 700 bar refueling.

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Micro-Structural Mitigation Strategies for PEM Fuel Cells

November 19, 2013

The Energy Department presented a webinar on micro-structural mitigation strategies for PEM fuel cells focusing on morphological simulations and experimental approaches. Presented by Ballard Power Systems, the webinar highlighted an open-source fuel cell simulation package funded by EERE that allows users to simulate both the performance and durability of a PEM fuel cell membrane electrode assembly. In this webinar, the details of the model were discussed with a focus on the theory, background, and validation/results of the simulation package.

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Fuel Cell Buses

September 12, 2013

Globally, there are more than 70 fuel cell buses in operation in 10 countries. Another 50 hydrogen buses are expected to come on line in the next 18 months. These zero emission buses are showing significant improvements in fuel economy over conventionally powered buses and experts predict dramatic reductions in their relative life cycle cost in the coming decade. On behalf of the Federal Transit Administration's National Fuel Cell Bus Program, CTE presented a summary of worldwide fuel cell bus activities, highlighting key strategies and partnerships and how these are shaping the future of fuel cell bus adoption. Following this, the California Fuel Cell Partnership presented on its California Fuel Cell Bus Roadmap, providing a strategy and funding approach to move fuel cell bus technology from the current stage of full-scale validation to early commercialization through Centers of Excellence by 2016.

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What Can We Learn from Hydrogen Safety Event Databases?

September 10, 2013

This European/United States bilateral webinar was held in conjunction with the 5th International Conference on Hydrogen Safety (ICHS2013) and highlighted important safety event database tools that have been developed to bring lessons learned and related information to the forefront of the hydrogen community. These Web-based tools include Europe's Hydrogen Incident and Accident Database (HIAD) and the United States' Hydrogen Incident Reporting and Lessons Learned Database (H2Incidents.org). These tools serve as examples of different, but complementary, approaches. The safety event information collected in this manner can serve as a valuable resource. The webinar introduced these safety event databases, explored their features, and illustrated how they are being integrated and used to engage, educate, and inform various stakeholders. In addition, recent improvements to the databases were discussed.

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Hydrogen Compatibility of Materials

August 13, 2013

This webinar described hydrogen embrittlement and its impact on hydrogen distribution and storage. In particular, the webinar examined the challenges and existing guidance for selecting structural materials for hydrogen service. Speakers from DOE's Sandia National Laboratories reviewed the "Technical Reference for Hydrogen Compatibility of Materials," an important tool for identifying promising materials for hydrogen service and summarizing hydrogen compatibility data, as well as discovering gaps in available materials data and standards for qualifying materials for hydrogen service.

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DOE Analysis Related to H2USA

July 24, 2013

EERE staff and Fuel Cell Technologies Office-funded researchers provided an informational briefing on models, tools, and various analyses relevant to H2USA, a new public-private partnership focused on advancing hydrogen infrastructure to support more transportation energy options for U.S. consumers, including fuel cell electric vehicles. The new partnership brings together automakers, government agencies, gas suppliers, and the hydrogen and fuel cell industries to coordinate research and identify cost-effective solutions to deploy infrastructure that can deliver affordable, clean hydrogen fuel in the United States.

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Guidance for Filling Out a Detailed H2A Production Case Study

July 9, 2013

EERE has developed a series of publicly-available techno-economic modeling tools for evaluating the environmental impacts and costs of hydrogen delivered to fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs). This webinar addressed one of these models in detail, the H2A (Hydrogen Analysis) model. H2A allows a user to estimate the cost of producing hydrogen from a variety of different technical pathways and feedstock resources and can be used to compare the relative advantages of various production technologies for cost-effective and environmentally friendly hydrogen production. In addition, H2A analysis of individual pathways can identify primary cost drivers, the projected high cost of hydrogen based on the current technology status, and the key remaining research and development challenges to meeting cost and performance goals for hydrogen production. The webinar included information on the H2A model concept and structure, types of input data required, and methods for running the model. Results of analysis, which include the levelized cost of hydrogen, identification of the major cost contributors, and sensitivity analysis were also featured. An example case study of hydrogen production from electrolysis of water was presented to illustrate the H2A process.

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Hydrogen Storage Materials Requirements

June 25, 2013

The Hydrogen Storage Engineering Center of Excellence has been modeling and developing onboard hydrogen storage systems and components utilizing materials based storage media to meet the Energy Department's technical targets for storage systems. This webinar addressed the critical materials requirements needed for both adsorbents and chemical hydrogen carriers to meet the 2017 DOE technical targets.

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Automotive and MHE Fuel Cell System Cost Analysis

April 16, 2013

Battelle Memorial Institute and Strategic Analysis, Inc. gave an overview of automotive and material handling equipment (MHE) fuel cell system cost analyses. Strategic Analysis presented an overview of Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DFMA) techniques and outlined the basic steps and guiding principles of DFMA cost analysis, showed how it can be used to refine system design and select manufacturing process, and how it can be beneficially applied to both early-stage, conceptual concepts as well as late-stage, fully-defined systems. For MHE applications, Battelle described the cost analysis approach; the design of the system, design assumptions, and manufacturing processes modeled using the DFMA software; costs of the system, sub-system, and specific components; the main cost drivers identified through a sensitivity analysis; and a summary of opportunities for cost reduction.

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Testing Oxygen Reduction Reaction Activity with the Rotating Disc Electrode Technique

March 12, 2013

This webinar highlighted the use of the rotating disc electrode (RDE) technique to measure oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity in fuel cell applications. A review of recent literature shows that the determination of the ORR activity has numerous intricacies that have not been systemically cataloged, resulting in values for the mass activity of Pt/C that vary significantly. Next steps will be to establish standard procedures and measurement parameters for the RDE technique so that novel catalysts can be benchmarked for ORR activity versus an accepted Pt/C baseline for polymer electrolyte fuel cell applications. The webinar addressed these issues, and introduced a tentative set of testing parameters to allow for RDE experiments to result in reproducible ORR activity and durability values.

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Hydrogen Refueling Protocols

February 22, 2013

More than 200 hydrogen refueling stations are projected to be constructed across the United States, Japan, and Germany in the next few years. Automobile Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) have developed fueling protocols that incorporate critical information related to their vehicles such as fuel temperature and pressure, initial vehicle pressure, and initial state of charge of the vehicle. These protocols allow for a fast and safe fill at the station and complies with the storage system operating limits. However, a single, performance-based protocol is needed to standardize the market and allow for a safe fueling of all vehicles. In March of 2010, SAE International published the Technical Information Report (TIR) guideline, SAE TIR J2601, to standardize hydrogen refueling protocols. This webinar presented the current refueling methods including the TIR guideline, SAE TIR J2601. The TIR guideline was developed using OEM hydrogen storage systems and third-party laboratory testing. The guideline establishes a table-based approach which allows all OEMs to safely fuel vehicles within a few minutes. The fueling protocol has now gone through two years of field trials, being used in hydrogen fueling demonstration projects in the United States, Europe, and Asia.

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Advanced Electrocatalysts for PEM Fuel Cells

February 12, 2013

This webinar highlighted Argonne National Laboratory's development of advanced electrocatalysts for PEM fuel cells, including rational design and synthesis of materials for cathodes. Materials development, based on fundamental principles, is used to produce Pt-Skin structures with unique nanosegregated compositional profiles for electrodes that meet the demanding performance requirements of automotive applications.

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Wind-to-Hydrogen Cost Modeling and Project Findings

January 17, 2013

Chris Ainscough from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) presented findings from NREL's Wind-to-Hydrogen project, focusing on cost modeling of optimized central wind-based water electrolysis production. During the project, NREL analyzed the cost of hydrogen production via wind-based water electrolysis at 42 potential sites in 11 states across the nation. The analysis included centralized plants producing DOE's target of 50,000 kg of hydrogen per day, using both wind and grid electricity.

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