Friday, March 31, 2023

LH2 Era™ Liquid Hydrogen Weekly News Summary (2023-Mar-31)

Image credit: Destinus



(curated from Google)


Matt Moran is the Managing Member at Moran Innovation LLC, and previous Managing Partner at Isotherm Energy. He's been developing power and propulsion systems for more than 40 years; and break-through liquid, slush, and gaseous hydrogen systems since the mid-1980s. Matt was also the Sector Manager for Energy & Materials in his last position at NASA where he worked for 31 years. He's been a co-founder in seven technology startups; and provided R&D and engineering support to many organizations. Matt has three patents and more than 50 publications including the Cryogenic Fluid Management series. He also leads the monthly LH2 Era™ Webinar.

Thursday, March 30, 2023

OSU Sustainable Aviation Forum Highlights

OSU Sustainable Aviation Forum participants. I'm in the back row, far right, light plaid shirt. (image credit: The Ohio State University)

I was invited again this year to participate in the Sustainable Aviation Forum hosted by The Ohio State University (OSU) at their airport location on March 28, 2023. Although it's a six hour roundtrip drive from my home office, it was well worth the investment in time (and electricity to recharge my car :) Great venue, speakers, topics, and colleagues!

Hydrogen in the Mix


Let me start by expressing my appreciation to Josh Knights at OSU for inviting me again this year. Also, gratitude to my fellow NASA alumni Joe Shaw who initially got me tied into this activity. Last year I was the outlier participant bringing up hydrogen during the panel sessions and breakout working groups, so I'm glad they didn't scratch me off the list for this year...

On the topic of hydrogen, what a difference just one year makes! Many of the presentations explicitly addressed hydrogen this time around, whereas none did last year. And the General Manager of Advanced Technology at GE Aerospace, Arjan Hegeman, gave a fantastic keynote presentation that included their development program in collaboration with Airbus for a hydrogen jet engine.

A student group from OSU also presented an impressively comprehensive project they tackled on sustainable aviation that included a look at hydrogen. And one of the event hosts who I met at last year's event, PhD candidate David Mapunda, did an excellent job keeping us on track topically and temporally throughout the forum.

SAFs and Batteries


The other two options for decarbonizing aviation were also well represented this year: sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) and batteries. The Technical Director of the Flight Sciences Dept at Honda Aircraft, Kui Ou, and GE Aerospace's Arjan Hegeman both described active development programs around SAFs.

And the Chief Engineer at Textron eAviation, JD Terry, talked about their new design incorporating batteries integrated into the wings of an aircraft. This panel session was expertly facilitated by my OSU colleague, Professor Matilde D'Arpino, who is doing cutting edge research in several electric aviation and power systems areas with her team.

Strategy and Workforce


The joint venture between GE and Honda was also featured with the President of newly formed GE Honda Aero Engines, Mel Solomon, giving an overview of their goals and efforts. Discussions on regional aviation strategy were provided by state of Ohio representative Adam Holmes; Ohio economic development speakers Elaine Bryant (JobsOhio) and Rich Granger (FlyOhio); and OSU Professor Amber Woodburn McNair. And the wrap up talk was from Joe Zeis of the Ohio Governor's office.

A great panel discussion on aviation workforce challenges was well represented by OSU at Lima Dean Tim Rehner, Boeing Director of R&T Mark Cleary, Deborah Scherer of One Columbus, and Eboni Wimbush of the Airport Minority Advisory Council. Attracting and retaining the needed skillsets continues to be a critically important issue as the global aviation community transitions away from legacy fuels. This topic also dovetailed nicely into earlier opening remarks by OSU's Dorota Grejner-Brzezinska.

Infrastructure 


Another interesting theme throughout the forum was infrastructure. Rex Alexander of Five-Alpha provided very insightful perspectives on what it takes to create or convert a vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) site to accommodate electric aircraft. 
Just a couple of interesting takeaways from his remarks were the long runs of heavy gauge copper wire often required, and the fact that it isn't very green if recharging is done with electricity from a coal power plant.

This infrastructure topic resonated with me since one of my current projects is supporting a customer developing in-situ liquid hydrogen infrastructure capability for the Air Force and Army. Hydrogen generated onsite by electrolyzers splitting water using a renewable energy microgrid. Then liquefied and loaded onto queued aircraft autonomously.

Refuel and fly in minutes rather than the hours it takes to recharge batteries. Twenty times the range and flight time of an equivalent battery powered aircraft. And no long copper runs or coal (or any other fossil fuels) required.


Carbon as a Proxy for "Green"


An additional topic that I brought up during the forum is related to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. We commonly use "net-zero" carbon as a proxy for addressing the existential threat of increasing GHG effects. However, the lifecycle environmental impacts of any fuel or battery is vitally important to keep in mind.

For example, I've been helping to develop a liquid methane propulsion system for one of my customers over the past few years. It's the only project remaining in my company's portfolio that isn't focused on liquid hydrogen. And my willingness to continue supporting it is waning. Here's why...

Methane (and by extension, natural gas) is a 25 times more potent GHG emission than carbon dioxide. So any leaks or other releases of methane are huge contributors to the problem. And recent satellite data has revealed how shockingly widespread and grossly underreported methane and natural gas leaks are globally.

So even if we use so called "green" methane by combining hydrogen with carbon dioxide pulled from the air (e.g., Sabatier process), it does nothing to address the impacts of methane releases throughout the delivery and distribution pathway before it's combusted. This is a case where "zero net carbon" is a totally inadequate proxy for GHG emissions and related environmental impacts.

By the way, batteries have their own significant lifecycle environmental impacts that we are already witnessing with the current supply chain scaling. Lithium mining, strategic materials sourcing, recycling,... and we are still very early in the technology adoption curve.

But my question to one of the forum panels was about SAFs, and if they suffer from drawbacks regarding GHG impacts similar to methane and natural gas. The answer I got was very candid: yes and no, depending on the feedstocks used. Biofuels apparently aren't so bad; other SAFs are another issue.

The follow up question from an OSU alumni from Brazil was even more eye opening. He described the alarming regional impact in South America already with the scaling of bio-based feedstocks to support SAF processing. The answer to his question was also very candid: we are just scratching the surface on that issue.

The Solution


I'll end this post where those of you who follow my blog know it always leads to: hydrogen. I am unabashedly biased in this regard because hydrogen completely and fully solves all the environmental impact issues when it is generated from renewable energy sources: GHGs, supply chains, scarce resources, recycling, etc. It also produces copious amounts of potable water as a "byproduct" that could be a game changer in many global regions.

While I'm an open minded advocate of any solutions that potentially get us heading in the right direction, the ultimate answer to many applications and industry sectors is clear. The sooner we make the transition away from fossil fuels and toward hydrogen, the greater our chances of pulling up on the environmental damage control stick before we hit the ground in the flight vehicle we call earth.


Matt Moran is the Managing Member at Moran Innovation LLC, and previous Managing Partner at Isotherm Energy. He's been developing power and propulsion systems for more than 40 years; and break-through liquid, slush, and gaseous hydrogen systems since the mid-1980s. Matt was also the Sector Manager for Energy & Materials in his last position at NASA where he worked for 31 years. He's been a co-founder in seven technology startups; and provided R&D and engineering support to many organizations. Matt has three patents and more than 50 publications including the Cryogenic Fluid Management series. He also leads the monthly LH2 Era™ Webinar.

Sunday, March 26, 2023

Appreciation, Giants, and Humanity's Legacy

March, 2023: NASA's integrated SLS rocket core stage for the future Artemis II mission (left); and a RS-25 engine undergoing its fourth full-scale hot fire test (right). The SLS core stage and the RS-25 rocket engines use liquid hydrogen and oxygen as propellants, the highest performance and most environmentally responsible propulsion system option for launch vehicles. (image credits: NASA)

NASA Roots


I'm currently participating in Charlie Pellerin's famous 4-D workshop on developing teams and leaders in four dimensions by measuring and managing social context fields with human physics. It was recommended to me by a retired NASA colleague I highly respect who said it was the best training he'd ever taken. The icing on the cake was it being offered free of charge to a small group of international participants remotely for one hour every week. Now at the midway point through the workshop, I think my colleague's high praise was an understatement.

Charlie was promoted to Director of Astrophysics at NASA in 1983, which was around the time my own career at NASA started as a recruited engineer from the electric power industry. While I was cutting my teeth on developing liquid hydrogen technologies and systems, Charlie was leading a multi-billion dollar program for a decade that launched twelve satellites, and included him inventing and implementing the $20 billion dollar Great Observatories Program.

His hero's journey included leading the development of the Hubble Space Telescope that was launched in 1990 with a flawed mirror. He overcame that unfathomable setback by mounting a successful repair mission that fixed the telescope. For this NASA awarded him his second Outstanding Leadership Medal. He was also awarded the NASA Distinguished Service Medal for leadership of the Astrophysics Program, and Presidential Rank awards from two past U.S. presidents. He later went on to teach leadership at the University of Colorado's business school and founded 4-D Systems to teach his methods to others.

Who Do We Appreciate?


All of this is offered as context to the assignment Charlie gave after last week's workshop session about the power of expressing appreciation. Completing the assignment got me thinking in broader terms with respect to the arc of my career; the progression of technology; and how things have evolved regarding who and what we appreciate.

I was very fortunate early in my career to work side-by-side with engineers from the Apollo era. Many of them had even worked for its precursor, NACA, that was formed after World War II to advance aeronautics and jet engine research. Besides learning a great deal from them about the technology of launch vehicles and spacecraft, they also modeled the behavior of humility despite their unique prowess as "rocket scientists".

To paraphrase and expand on Isaac Newton's famous quote, I've had the immense good fortune to not only stand on the shoulders of giants but to learn directly from them. Now it is my turn to teach (and continue learning) as a subject matter expert consultant to NASA's Human Landing System and other Artemis Program elements over the past several years. And the business of growing the next generation of giants continues with these new colleagues, teammates, and friends.

Artemis I launched on November 16, 2022 with the first spacecraft designed to take humans beyond earth orbit since the Apollo program. The mission successfully completed the journey to the moon and back with leadership from my friend and last boss at NASA (who was also my consulting collaborator before NASA stole him back :). An amazing accomplishment that will be followed by a crewed trip around the moon on Artemis II, and humans on the lunar surface on Artemis III for the first time since the 1970s. I could not be more proud of my colleagues and honored to have the privilege to continue working with them.

All of this has been accomplished by thousands of government workers, private sector contractors, and partners with public funds for a common shared goal. No other organization has ever put a human on another celestial body. With all its challenges, critics, and opportunities for improvement (don't we all have that?) - only NASA, its contractor team, and now its international partners has done it and is continuing to do it.

This is a good thing to remember at a time when our culture seems to promote the worship of capricious megalomaniacs who claim to have all the answers and take all the credit for the accomplishments of others. Humility, mutual respect, service to others, and collaboration in reaching important goals are worthy of our collective appreciation. On the other hand, hubris, intolerance, and the exploitation of others for self-enrichment and personal power is only worthy of our condemnation.

The Legacy of Our Species


In the much larger picture, if our space programs are building toward humans becoming an inter-planetary species, a reasonable question to ask is do we deserve it? Perhaps the answer is yes if we represent the galactic expansion of sentient benevolent beings. However, if we are metastasizing invaders that unsustainably exploit the resources of new worlds (and any inhabitants) in the way that we have throughout much our history, perhaps it would be better if we remain in the planetary womb of our creation.

I believe the ultimate test of that question is how we repair the damage we've inflicted, and continue to inflict, on our home planet. It is hard to justify moving into a new house and neighborhood when you've recklessly trashed your current home and continue to make it increasingly unlivable.

Crawl before you walk, walk before you run. As a species, we are still learning to crawl. Space exploration can help us learn how to begin taking our first steps, but it will be our progeny who learn to walk and eventually run. Perhaps even to other planets and extrasolar systems. In order for those future generations to thrive, we must learn how to live sustainably and re-establish a healthy global ecosystem or we will continue crawling toward our own extinction.


Matt Moran is the Managing Member at Moran Innovation LLC, and previous Managing Partner at Isotherm Energy. He's been developing power and propulsion systems for more than 40 years; and break-through liquid, slush, and gaseous hydrogen systems since the mid-1980s. Matt was also the Sector Manager for Energy & Materials in his last position at NASA where he worked for 31 years. He's been a co-founder in seven technology startups; and provided R&D and engineering support to many organizations. Matt has three patents and more than 50 publications including the Cryogenic Fluid Management series. He also leads the monthly LH2 Era™ Webinar.

Friday, March 24, 2023

LH2 Era™ Liquid Hydrogen Weekly News Summary (2023-Mar-24)

Photo by United Launch Alliance


(curated from Google)


Matt Moran is the Managing Member at Moran Innovation LLC, and previous Managing Partner at Isotherm Energy. He's been developing power and propulsion systems for more than 40 years; and break-through liquid, slush, and gaseous hydrogen systems since the mid-1980s. Matt was also the Sector Manager for Energy & Materials in his last position at NASA where he worked for 31 years. He's been a co-founder in seven technology startups; and provided R&D and engineering support to many organizations. Matt has three patents and more than 50 publications including the Cryogenic Fluid Management series. He also leads the monthly LH2 Era™ Webinar.

Sunday, March 19, 2023

Pre-Test Results for April 2023 LH2 Era™ Webinar Session 1: Introduction to Hydrogen

 

LinkedIn Poll Results and Correct Answers

Below are the pre-test questions for April's session along with the LinkedIn poll results and correct answers. Follow me on LinkedIn if you'd like to test your hydrogen knowledge and see how others vote in real time.


Questions 1 and 2:

Answer:

Gaseous hydrogen was the first fuel used for the pioneering work in jet engine research in the 1930's. The first successful liquid hydrogen fueled jet aircraft flights were done in the 1950's. A liquid hydrogen fueled jet engine with an afterburner was also successfully developed and ground tested in the 1950's. More details can be found here: https://blog.matthewemoran.com/2021/10/hydrogen-systems-development-past.html

In the 1960's, liquid hydrogen made it's operational rocket debut in the Centaur upper stage and subsequently became the workhorse propellant for many launch vehicles (including the space shuttle). Modern operational launch systems using liquid hydrogen besides Centaur and other upper stages include: NASA's new Space Launch System, the Ariane 5 (and soon 6), the JAXA H3, and several variants and stages of the Long March rocket family.

As a result, the space industry has evolved the requisite technology and operations required for large scale liquid hydrogen systems over the past six decades. Meanwhile, aviation is returning to its (sometimes forgotten) roots to decarbonize air travel and improve performance using hydrogen.


Questions 3:

Answer:

Liquid hydrogen (LH2) at 1 bar saturated conditions has a density of 71 kg/m^3. Compressed hydrogen gas (GH2) at 700 bar and ambient temperature (27 C) has density of 39 kg/m^3. So LH2 has nearly double the density of compressed GH2 at these conditions. More information can be found here: https://blog.matthewemoran.com/2016/03/storing-energy-in-form-of-hydrogen.html.

Extra credit for the beer at any bar votes...


Question 4:

Answer:

Only a couple of years ago the correct answer would have been the large spherical liquid hydrogen dewar tank used for the NASA shuttle launches for decades which is ~3200 cubic meters. And hopefully in the not distant future the answer will be the newly designed (but not yet operational) large shipping dewar tanks of ~20000 cubic meters.

But as of now, the correct answer is the recently commissioned dewar tank at NASA KSC supporting the Artemis program (~4700 cubic meters). This link has some information on it and the role I played in it's design: https://blog.matthewemoran.com/2018/05/no-loss-liquid-hydrogen-and-lng-systems.html

And thank you for the dad joke votes...

Question 5:

Answer:

Any answer is arguably correct on this question (see: https://blog.matthewemoran.com/2016/02/a-hydrogen-system-architecture-for.html). Generating hydrogen by water electrolysis produces oxygen as a "byproduct" which can be released to ambient air, used locally, or stored for later use or sale.

When hydrogen is used in a fuel cell or combusted, significant quantities of water are produced. With proper material selection and handling, the water can be used for drinking, agriculture, and many other purposes.

Waterworld was a post-apocalyptic 1995 movie premised on the melting of the polar regions due to global warming. This future (hopefully) fictional world is completely covered by oceans, and Kevin Costner's character has gills. Basically, Mad Max with boats instead of all-terrain vehicles....


Question 6:

Answer:

Any answer is correct on this question, but "all of the above" is the most correct (see: https://blog.matthewemoran.com/2016/03/previous-posts-introduced-isotherms.html). The wisdom of the crowd prevails this time.

Most people already know that electrolysis of water produces hydrogen. In addition to fresh water, it is feasible to use seawater, waste water, and even urine (animal or human) with the appropriate processing and design. Waste biomass from agriculture, livestock, and other sources can also be processed to extract hydrogen.

Likewise with methane (the primary constituent in natural gas), coal, and other hydrocarbons, although carbon capture is a key consideration. Cows and other ruminant animals are prodigious producers of methane (from both ends). As a soymilk drinking vegan most of the time, I say free all the cows but harvest their emissions! A win-win for both species.


Question 7:


Answer:

The correct answer to this question hinges on the interpretation of "at scale". It was intended to mean commercially available at a physical equipment scale that is competitive with legacy options, and has already been deployed in operational systems. Based on that meaning of at scale, both fuel cells and hydrogen turbines for power generation are correct.

A system architecture take on it can be found here: https://blog.matthewemoran.com/2016/03/power-generation-and-outputs-from.html

For those who interpreted at scale to mean fully adopted as the dominant solution, that hasn't occurred yet in most industry sectors. Accelerating that transition is paramount to addressing the existential threat of continued fossil fuel usage.

(According to the "Back to the Future" movies, Dr. Emmett Brown's flux capacitor runs on various fuels including garbage. Perhaps hydrogen will be in the mix too. Guess we will have to wait until the future arrives to find out...)


Question 8:

Answer:

My answer to this question is none. Below is the reason why, and more can be found here: https://blog.matthewemoran.com/2022/04/hydrogen-myth-busting-episode-1.html. It would be interesting to hear others' thoughts in the comments about which specific technology gaps they believe exist.

NASA, where I spent most of my career, defines a technology gap as the difference between a capability needed to *enable* a future mission and the current state-of-the-art. In contrast, an *enhancing* technology improves some aspect of a mission but is not required for it to be fulfilled. 

Based on that mental model, there are no existing technology gaps for the use of liquid hydrogen as a replacement for fossil fuels. That said, there are certainly a plethora of enhancing technologies that could improve the performance and economics (e.g., new materials, better cryocoolers, improved insulation, etc.).

However, all the technology necessary to implement liquid hydrogen systems to replace fossil fuels already exists. Capital investments, domain knowledge, and good engineering are what's needed. Favorable public policy and regulations also helps to accelerate the transition.


Homework and Upcoming Session


If you didn't get a chance to do the reading assignment, it can be accessed here: The Infinity Fuel for a Sustainable Future. And the viewing assignment is available here: Online Resources for the LH2 Era™ Webinar Series

To participate in next month's pre-test poll, follow my posts on LinkedIn. And to get details and register for the next LH2 Era™ webinar visit HERE.


Matt Moran is the Managing Member at Moran Innovation LLC, and previous Managing Partner at Isotherm Energy. He's been developing power and propulsion systems for more than 40 years; and first-of-a-kind liquid, slush and gaseous hydrogen systems since the mid-1980s. Matt was also the Sector Manager for Energy & Materials in his last position at NASA where he worked for 31 years. He's been a cofounder in seven technology based start-ups; and provided R&D and engineering support to hundreds of organizations. Matt has three patents and more than 50 publications including the Cryogenic Fluid Management report series. He also leads the LH2 Era™ Webinar Series. More about Matt can be found on his LinkedIn page.