Show Me the Road to Hydrogen

Status

Sequential Number

Identification Number

Matching Research Agency

Missouri Department of Transportation

Principal Investigator

Student Involvement

Project Objective

In order to tackle the challenge of safe deployment of alternative fuels (including hydrogen), a broad research, training, and education agenda will be pursued to develop a rural hydrogen transportation test bed for developing, demonstrating, evaluating, and promoting hydrogen-based technologies in a real-world environment. The NUTC matching funds will be used to offset the cost of two hydrogen-fueled Ford E-450 shuttle buses to be used in the commuter bus service.

Project Abstract

The Missouri University of Science and Technology (MST) and Ford Motor Company will demonstrate a commuter bus service and hydrogen refueling at a station in rural Missouri near Ft. Leonard Wood. Initiated by a request from the U.S. Army Maneuver Support Center (MANSCEN) at Ft. Leonard Wood (FLW), MST is helping to establish a commuter service between FLW and the neighboring towns of Rolla and Lebanon each of which are located about 25 miles from the military base on Interstate-44. With funds provided by the Defense Logistics Agency through the Air Force Research Laboratory, this hydrogen initiative is seeking a partnership with an energy supplier to build and operate a hydrogen fueling facility that includes on-site generation of hydrogen through electrolysis as well as selling a range of other traditional and alternative fuels. 

Task Description

N/A

Anticipated Benefits

The research mission includes the following technical objectives:

• Collect and evaluate real-world data to address safety and environmental issues, develop statistically validated codes and standards, formulate policies and regulations, and understand reliability and large-scale deployment of hydrogen technology under diverse operating conditions.
• Modeling, simulation, and design optimization of composite hydrogen storage cylinders for safe installation and operation.
• Develop, validate, and transition to a manufacturing environment, commercially ready, non-destructive testing technologies for hydrogen storage and transport systems.
• Test, demonstrate, and validate hydrogen vehicles, hydrogen transportation infrastructure, and vehicle and infrastructure interfaces for complete system solutions.
• Gain public acceptance to the use of an alternative energy source to power the transport system that is independent of the fossil fuel supplies.
• On-site generation of hydrogen from ethanol or crude ethanol beer via novel supercritical water reformation process
• Integrate research results into a comprehensive undergraduate and graduate curriculum to educate the future workforce on hydrogen technologies.
• Develop and implement an outreach program, in collaboration with other national programs, which has a special emphasis on safety training for operators, maintainers, code officials, and first responders.

Modal Orientation

Milestones

Relationship to other Research/Projects

Technology Transfer Activities

Transportation Research Board Keywords

Transportation, alternative fuels