Recently, Stony Brook University received a grant of more than $4.9 million to develop a clean hydrogen research demonstration project for a low-pressure, ambient-temperature hydrogen-storage system to improve resiliency and reliability of a health care system's energy operations, adding to its already stellar reputation.
The grant was awarded by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, and the system will be used at a Northwell Health hospital site.
This storage system uses a hybrid approach, utilizing the outcome of multi-year technology development and analysis coming from Stony Brook's Institute of Gas Innovation and Technology , located in the Advanced Energy Research and Technology Center , to the New York State Center of Excellence in Energy. The large-scale storage system combines hydrogen production and will store it in a solid adsorbent system for easy storage and release of hydrogen on-demand under mild conditions.
According to a press release from the University, “the project is a step forward to store hydrogen in solid adsorbents at scale to establish the process feasibility of such systems for safe deployment.
“The selection of modular units in the system at the hospital site will attempt to ensure that the system capacity can expand or contract to meet varying customer demands.”
Once a successful demonstration has been carried out, the system can be replicated across several industry sectors including hospitals and data centers to not only store and deliver reliable energy but provide energy security.
“As a recognized leader in energy storage, Stony Brook University is shaping the future of clean energy through innovation and research, including in this pioneering hydrogen storage project,” said Stony Brook University President Andrea Goldsmith, in a written statement.
"The investment by NYSERDA to support this project will enable significant advances in flexible energy storage that can meet dynamic industrial and consumer demand. Demonstrating this novel technology in a hospital system will ensure that patients and health care workers are not subject to power outages or shortages in their critical care systems."
“There is a global race to develop highly efficient systems for large-scale energy storage that can operate under ambient temperature and moderate pressures in an off-grid mode, said Devinder Mahajan, Professor of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering and director of I-GIT, who is also principal investigator of the project.
This project will demonstrate a large-scale hydrogen storage system at Staten Island University Hospital's North Campus that will integrate an electrolyzer, hydrogen storage system, and a fuel cell stack to deliver power on-demand for multiple applications, such as back-up power and EV chargers.
While the I-GIT team — which includes Professors T. Venkatesh and Clive Clayton — will provide technical expertise, a consortium of partner companies, including Northwell Health, ConEdison, Plug, H2B2, Hydrexia, BrainDrip, are providing over $6 million in cost-share and a host site, bringing the total project cost to over $11 million, and will ensure that the system is replicated for commercial deployment.
“This advancement is a great example of the power of partnerships and the long and successful history of the Advanced Energy Research and Technology Center supported by the state of New York,” said Kevin Gardner, vice president for Research and Innovation. “A productive energy innovation ecosystem yields major advancements and gets them to the demonstration phase as is being done here.”
