September 4, 2024. The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded Washington State University (WSU) grant funding of $4.8 million for hydrogen fuel research. One of the grants will also build a heavy-duty hydrogen fueling station on the Pullman campus.
WSU professors Jacob Leachman and Konstantin Matveev are leading a $3 million HYPER-Flow grant which aims to create the world’s first continuous liquid hydrogen flow loop with the ability to visualize and characterize the multiphase hydrogen flow inside pipes.
WSU will also receive $1.8 million as a partner in a $10 million HYPER-Fuel grant led by the Plug Power company which will improve hydrogen refueling stations for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles. As part of that project, the company will build a fueling station in Pullman, expected to be operational for research in the middle of 2026—and could ultimately fuel WSU and community vehicles.
“The funding recognizes WSU’s leadership in hydrogen-fuel development,” said Leachman, who heads up the university’s Hydrogen Properties for Energy Research (HYPER) Laboratory. “We’re going to need more people as a result of these grants, so we’re going to be recruiting, and we’re going to be doing a lot of great engineering.”
In total, the U.S. Department of Energy announced $62 million in grants for 20 hydrogen fuel projects across the U.S. These grants are focused on research, training and testing. The funding is on top of the $7 billion Hydrogen Hub investment announced in 2022 which is meant to help build the necessary infrastructure to have widespread hydrogen fuel use. WSU is also a partner in the Northwest Hydrogen Hub, which could receive as much as $1 billion in federal funding for infrastructure development.