EPRI part of team sponsoring new “Low-Carbon Hydrogen Accelerator”
The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), which has one of its four principal offices and laboratories in Knoxville, has joined forces with Shell, the City of Houston, Greentown Labs, and the Urban Future Lab (UFL) at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering to launch the “Low-Carbon Hydrogen Accelerator (LCHA).”
As part of the new initiative, the partners also announced last week the seven start-ups that are participating in the Greentown Go program designed to support solutions across low-carbon hydrogen production, storage, and distribution. LCHA received 88 applications from 18 countries, representing numerous innovations that are advancing low-carbon hydrogen production, enhancing hydrogen storage and distribution, and providing business model innovations for the management of hydrogen supply chains. After a highly competitive judging and selection process, seven companies were chosen, representing the broad innovation needed across the low-carbon hydrogen supply chain to reach deep, economy-wide decarbonization:
- Advanced Ionics (Milwaukee, WI) is enabling green hydrogen production without the green premium;
- Arco Technologies (Bologna, Italy) is developing a proprietary Anion Exchange Membrane electrolyzer with the lowest capital expenditures and operating expenses possible today;
- Clean Power (Greater Manchester, United Kingdom) is developing a novel, low-cost, highly durable hydrogen polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell delivering zero-emission electricity;
- Element Resources (Houston, TX) is enabling compressed hydrogen storage tank technology;
- Smartpipe Technologies (Houston, TX) is developing a robust self-monitored repurposed pipeline system for hydrogen with minimal environmental disruption;
- SPEC Sensors (Newark, CA) is creating a robust and reliable meshed sensor network for hydrogen leak detection and line-monitoring systems; and
- RUNWITHIT Synthetics (Alberta, Canada) is creating a live, digital twin modeling platform that generates decision-support data for regional hydrogen-demand scenarios.
EPRI and Shell will provide the start-up participants two main pathways for engagement: a technology validation track and a technology demonstration track. More details can be found in this news release.
