IMPACT - Hydrogen is Our Future

We want to tackle climate change by making hydrogen a more mainstream source of energy.

We care about our environment, not just from the perspective of it's a good thing, but also we are seeing the impacts of global warming first hand, and we recognize not only the urgency of the situation, but also the hard reality that fossil fuels are not only economical, but also critical for many communities. To this end, we wanted to focus on solutions that would support those communities dependent on fossil fuel while also reducing our dependence on carbon. We decided that energy storage was one of the most critical parts of renewable energy that was missing and furthermore, it could easily phase out the dependence on oil. We started looking at different storage solutions, but one constant contender was hydrogen. Not only was it a well-defined technology that still has tons of room to grow, it also is similar to hydrocarbons. We saw a hydrogen solution as one that could not only support a green economy, but also use existing natural gas infrastructure and thereby support those communities. To this end, we identified transportation as one of the biggest challenges to the industry and asked ourselves. How could we transport hydrogen better in a way that supports existing oil and gas dependent communities. For us, this would not only solve our initial goal of a green solution, but also it would also avoid hurting dependent communities.

Our solution is to make hydrogen a mainstream source of energy. This will be done by transporting hydrogen via rail, using existing infrastructure and technologies as well, to energy companies who can incorporate hydrogen with other fuels into energy production. We have analyzed the viability of this specifically in regard to railways and pipelines. In regard to railways, we were considering shipping compressed hydrogen at 200 bar or more. At this pressure, we estimate each railcar could hold a ton of hydrogen which we priced at about $5000 per car (if it cost $10 per Kg to make and sells at $15 per Kg). We priced the cost of a rail car at about $200,000 which is double that of a traditional car. These rough numbers lead us to believe it is financially viable. Additionally, we have done many of the pressure and tolerance calculations using existing technology, so we expect our solution to only improve as storage tech does. This would allow hydrogen to be easily shipped to power plants and other industrial facilities and overcome a huge hurdle of transporting hydrogen. Additionally, using existing infrastructure would significantly reduce the cost compared to new methods which need to build their own.

Another solution we were also considering was to ship hydrogen alongside other gases through existing pipelines and sorting the gases when they exit. This would be an incredibly cheap solution, and we think it has a lot of potential. Since we are just in the concept phase, we haven’t fully analyzed all the risks associated with it, but we believe it to be just as safe as any other gas. Ideally, this would allow for a smoother transition to a green economy as the mixtures changed to accommodate more hydrogen.

Our solution serves those in the rail sector, energy sector, and everyday people. Our solution addresses the need to transport hydrogen, which will result in more jobs and economic growth which benefits everyone, from companies involved, to people who rely on energy on a daily basis. Furthermore, our solution is a green solution, it seeks to serve any population who is put in a vulnerable solution due to climate change. But in particular we are targeting populations that may be pro oil and gas due to how their livelihoods depend on it. We want to prove that renewable energy doesn’t need to hurt anyone's livelihoods to be implemented. Too often, we feel that people discount the vulnerability of people in the oil and gas industry, but we think that addressing those needs is critical to making renewable energy successful for everyone. Additionally, we think this would help the public perception of renewables and encourage more government action.

As members running Purdue University’s Innovation Methods for Purdue Advanced Collaboration Team, known as IMPACT, our team is well-positioned to deliver our solution. Our organization’s main focus is centered around a methodology for solving everyday problems through innovation science. This helps us solve problems in a systematic manner whose application can be applied to any organization or person who wishes to solve problems in an efficient and timely manner. As students of Purdue, we are surrounded by leaders and have many connections, from faculty to employers, involved in the transportation and energy sector to help our vision come to life. Our team is experienced in collaborating with other student organizations and industry professionals.

We have done extensive online research and thoroughly examined all aspects of the problem and our solution. To complement our online research, we have met with industry professionals and professors familiar with the concepts to better understand how these populations engage with these solutions. Particularly, we have focused on functional, social, and emotional jobs and needs of these people. In doing so, we have identified that besides the basic need for a job that's within their skill set, there are extensive social and individual beliefs that inhibit the acceptance of green solutions. We hope to overcome those paradigms by working within existing infrastructure. We have used this strategy in past projects that relate to renewable technology, and one thing we like to consider besides the technical and economic aspects is how people will perceive a green economy. As a result, we try to make our solutions as appealing as possible to people on all sides of the issue.

Additionally, we have team members whose families are invested in the oil and gas industry and understand the challenges of shifting to a green economy.

The way we are utilizing existing infrastructure and technology and integrating them with newer technology. Often when people think of transporting hydrogen, they think some sort of new technology is needed due to its unique situation, but by combining a bunch of existing technologies we have found a way to make it viable in today's market. Furthermore, our solution is scalable so that while demand is low, our costs are low but as demand scales our ability to meet that demand can easily scale with it. This allows us to be flexible and help support the hydrogen market in a way that lowers our risk, it eliminates the “chicken or the egg” dilemma the industry faces.

The innovation isn’t as much in the technology as it's all existing, although we have left tons of room to grow in that regard, rather our innovation is in our methods in a way to make hydrogen transportation possible. When it normally would not be considered as such.

Our goals for the next year are to reach out to more industry professionals in order to start a dialogue of how we can achieve our vision. This will require extensive planning and preparation on our end, but given our past experience with participating in competitions, talking with professionals, and collaboration in general, this is definitely possible.

The core technologies that power our solution are primarily in pressure vessel innovations. The stronger we can make pressure vessels, the more hydrogen we can store. However, our solution relies heavily on new hydrogen tech innovations such as better fuel cells and electrolysis methods. The cheaper it is to make and use hydrogen, and the more widespread it becomes, the more viable our project becomes. We are looking forward to the new and increasing boom to the hydrogen industry.

By next year, we will still be acquiring funding and trying to make this viable. However, in a few years we would like to try and start getting the cars and equipment necessary, hopefully with the goal of serving smaller hydrogen projects first. So in the first few years we would plan on serving no more than 100 people who rely on one or two smaller hydrogen projects. However, we would also be integrating into existing infrastructure systems and support those systems and the people who work on them as well.

Currently, oil and gas are still extremely profitable resources, so it will likely take some convincing to get certain officials on board with incorporating hydrogen transportation and production. As we are still in the concept phase, we have not yet created a comprehensive plan that will help us navigate logistical and legal barriers, but we are willing to lend an ear and cooperate with companies and the government. Furthermore, while hydrogen is an emerging market, it is not fully developed, so it may take some time for demand to increase.

Purdue Innovation and Transformational Change Department

Scope Consulting

We can achieve financial stability through slowly scaling up our operational carrying capacity as demand grows. To get ourselves off the ground, our first goal would be to obtain an initial investment through our university connection. This would include using grants and internal entrepreneurial resources. With these connections, we could either purchase a few rail cars and outfit them with existing types of hydrogen containers, or contract a third party to design a custom car to carry the gas. At the same time, we would work to secure a few potential buyers, most likely a new hydrogen startup or existing refinery or lab. 

After proving financial viability on a small scale, we will analyze market trends to see if the current interest in hydrogen can be cultivated into a larger demand for the product. If so, we will contact more hydrogen startups and market ourselves as the means by which hydrogen producers can reliably deliver their goods to the consumer at a reliable and cost-effective rate. Building a small network of affiliates and clientele to allow further expansion of our service, we can then start making moves to larger hydrogen energy projects. Ideally, this would mean becoming a frequent if not the main service of large-scale power plants as well as storage facilities. By this point, we should be self-sufficient enough to continuously improve our methods of storage and transport though incremental increases in pressure vessel tech to obtain radical increases in hydrogen storage. In doing so, our services will only become more desirable to the emerging market for hydrogen.