Hydrogen in transportation for a safe and sustainable future

On 03.06.2020, the Norwegian Minister for Petroleum and Energy and the Minister for Climate and Environment presented the Norwegian government's hydrogen strategy. In 2022, the Centre for Environment-friendly Energy Research (FME) HYDROGENi dedicated to the research and innovations within hydrogen was established in Norway. NTNU is one of the main partners of this FME led by SINTEF.

This village focuses on technological and societal issues of hydrogen use as fuel in transportation. The main objective is to identify current issues and suggest related solutions.
In the search for low-carbon fuels with high-energy content, hydrogen represents the end-point. It almost nullifies transportation emissions and, at the same time, is strategic for the Norwegian and European energy sector, as overproduction peaks from renewables may be turned into hydrogen.

Multidisciplinary alliances need to be formed to harness diverse skills. This will allow understanding if hydrogen transport technologies are efficient, safe, energetically and economically sustainable, and their environmental and social impact.
 

Relevant competency

Such an important topic needs a cross-disciplinary approach, and students from all the studies are welcome. Some examples of relevant competences in the following:

• Mechanical engineering or marine technology will be useful to address efficient design of H2 means of transportation (e.g. ships, buses, trains, airplanes, etc.)
• RAMS (Reliability, Availability, Maintenance and Safety) or SHE (Safety Health and Environment) competence to assure safe H2 use
• Sustainable energy or environmental engineering to manage the environmental impact of this new technology
• Economics or technology management to address the economic perspective
• Applied ethics for the social repercussion of this technology change

About the village 

The village shall investigate relevant aspects from the whole value chain of hydrogen technology (from industry and authorities to end users/general public), with special emphasis on the potential obstacles and bottlenecks for implementation of hydrogen as fuel in the transport sector.

A comprehensive understanding of the working principles of electrolyzers and of hydrogen fuel cell cars is guaranteed through practical examples and experiments carried out in the classroom. You will be able to build and drive small-scale models of hydrogen cars and observe the electrolysis process (hydrogen and oxygen production from water) in real time.

You will be working with project/programme leaders/managers, researchers (Master & PhD students and Postdocs). If/when appropriate, the results findings will be published in peer-review international journals.

The village involves activities and seminars. The main external partners are SINTEF and the NTNU Team Hydrogen, which are respectively the largest independent research organization and the largest R&D group in Scandinavia. 

There is the possibility to work on a series of exciting projects run by SINTEF:

• Increase of the lifetime of H₂ fuel cell city buses;
• Fuel cells in high-speed passenger boats, in ferries, and cruise ships;
• Techno-economic studies and life cycle analysis of hydrogen technologies;
• Safe Hydrogen Fuel Handling and Use for Efficient Implementation;
• Processes and technologies for production of green H₂ from fossil and renewable sources;
• H₂ liquefaction processing and transport;
• Development of materials and concepts for H₂ fuel cells and electrolysers;
• And other projects from NTNU Team Hydrogen

Regardless of the project, the students in the village will be able to cooperate with people from other subject areas towards the common aim of safe and sustainable H₂ transport. They will improve the capability to communicate, plan, decide, solve tasks, handle disagreement and relate to professional and personal differences, in order to answer topical research questions, such as:

• What are the available H₂-based technologies for transportation?
• Are they efficient, safe, energetically and economically sustainable?
• What is the social and environmental impact of these emerging technologies?

Facts

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