As public anxieties mount over climate change and governments increasingly prioritize decarbonization, it’s clear the future of transportation is electric.
Electric vehicle (EV) sales have continuously ticked upward for passenger vehicles in recent years, while use of electric trucks, buses and delivery vans is rising as well. Fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) offer an alternative method away from fossil fuels, generating electricity on board the vehicle from the use of oxygen and compressed hydrogen. Each method, however, is not without its issues.
Current Obstacles to EV and FCEV Charging Infrastructure
Lack of charging stations, coupled with frequent malfunctions, pose obstacles to the rise of EV sales, further inhibiting decarbonization goals.
On the flip side, increased numbers of EVs on the road, paired with daily variations in non-dispatchable electric generation—from increased solar and wind power, for example—has put extra strain on the power grid. It’s becoming clear that infrastructure for EV charging is not as straightforward as once thought. A single Level 3 EV charger draws more power than the average American home over the course of a few hours. Dense concentrations of EVs and consumer charging habits round out the list of challenges pushing the need for fossil-fueled “peaker plants” to meet swelling demand.
Municipalities and long-haul carriers are now looking toward FCEVs, which are generally faster than EVs in fueling times—and typically exceed the driving range of battery-based EVs. However, lack of hydrogen fueling infrastructure outside of California is causing roadblocks to more widespread use of this technology. While there are more than 64,000 EV charging stations across the United States, there are fewer than 100 hydrogen fueling stations nationwide.[1]
Multi-Purpose Charging Stations
Standard Hydrogen Corporation, a clean energy infrastructure company based in New York, has teamed up with POWER Engineers to address these challenges of hybrid-microgrid fueling stations. Our client’s platform, the Energy Transfer System™ (ETS), provides zero-emission renewable hydrogen, while also using hydrogen as an energy storage medium to provide electricity services, such as fast EV charging.
The fueling station purchases renewable electricity to produce, compress and store hydrogen onsite. This hydrogen can be used to generate electricity to sell back to the grid or charge EVs, or it can be applied directly to fuel FCEVs.
Microgrid Technology
Microgrids operate independently of the large-scale national electrical grid system, meaning they can distribute power to one or multiple users in a given area. Standard Hydrogen’s ETS sits “behind the meter,” drawing power off the grid to generate hydrogen or supplement grid power during times of peak demand.
Hydrogen as an energy storage medium offers substantial flexibility; the microgrid can purchase electricity when it’s least expensive and “sell” electricity when prices rise. Additionally, the microgrid can take advantage of developing 45V tax credits for producing green hydrogen.
Hydrogen Production, Storage and Use
Standard Hydrogen designed the ETS as a modular platform and, together with POWER, has developed the preliminary engineering designs for the Standard Plant ETS described in more detail below. The Standard Plant ETS is readily configurable for specific customer needs, and adjustable to continue to meet those needs as they change with time. In all cases, Standard Hydrogen’s business model for the ETS includes using the single station to serve the dual needs of electrical energy storage for the developing electric grid, plus behind-the-meter recharging and/or refueling for electrified transportation.
Within ETS facilities, hydrogen production is facilitated through use of a megawatt (MW)-scale water electrolyzer to split water into its oxygen and hydrogen molecules. The oxygen is safely vented to atmosphere, while the hydrogen is compressed and stored onsite. Standard Hydrogen opted for a complete, containerized electrolyzer that only requires an electrical connection and municipal water—reducing overall engineering costs and lead times.
The hydrogen compressors are capable of processing hydrogen from 400 psig to 7,500 psig, with onsite hydrogen storage at 7,500 psig—though lower pressures may be substituted. From the compressor, hydrogen is used to either generate electricity in a 500-kW fuel cell or directed to the hydrogen fueling station. Similar to the electrolyzer, Standard Hydrogen uses a containerized complete solution for the fuel cell, which also supports EV charging to relieve the power grid.
Overall, each ETS can produce hundreds of kilograms of transportation-grade hydrogen daily, with stored hydrogen capable of providing backup power for the grid for days at a time.
Modular, Scalable Facilities
Each ETS facility is compact, with a footprint measuring less than a third of a football field. Standard Hydrogen plans to make them standardized and easily deployed across multiple regions throughout the US. The company will install the first ETS in upstate New York in Ithaca, with plans for 10 more in the company’s first deployment phase.
Due to this uniform “Standard Plant” design, POWER leveraged skid designed units for equipment. This enables availability of equipment and ease of maintenance, bolstered by site-agnostic mechanical, electrical, process, and controls engineering for utility supply and automated operations. Civil, structural and architectural engineering, as well as environmental permitting services, are site-specific to account for variances in local, state and environmental regulations and requirements.
Once the facilities are up and running, they will be controlled remotely via centralized control stations. This allows each station to maintain round-the-clock operations with limited downtime, only requiring onsite presence during planned maintenance or unplanned work stoppages.
Regulatory Compliance
With continued deployment of hydrogen fueling infrastructure, the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) has set forth new standards to streamline hydrogen storage and vehicle charging safety. While NFPA 2 is not law, it can be adopted by the Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ) as code.
When the NFPA 2 went through a revision in 2023, POWER communicated directly with one of the authors of the code to stay up to date with the developments, allowing us to incorporate changing hydrogen storage requirements into the overall process designs.
With a greater understanding of separation distances for hydrogen equipment, our engineers were able to design storage conditions and overall system layout that minimized the filling station’s footprint.
Propelling the Clean Energy Transition
Standard Hydrogen’s ETS facilities provide one platform to serve both EV and FCEV markets. They boost EV charging networks, which are still catching up to the increased number of EVs on the road. The system provides grid neutral EV charging that is both more reliable and more efficient. It also alleviates the need for grid upgrades, including traditional fossil fuel peaker plants.
FCEV infrastructure, in contrast to EV charging networks, is still in the early stages of commercial development. With hydrogen-fueled vehicles not yet widely in production, Standard Hydrogen’s technology is ahead of the curve. As FCEVs become more available, Standard Hydrogen’s vision is to make zero-emissions refueling readily available—paving the way for increased electrification of transportation in a way that takes some pressure off the grid.