Global Centers Track 1: Global Hydrogen Production Technologies (HyPT) Center

二氧化碳净零排放的氢气被称为“绿色”氢气。大规模绿色制氢对于实现《巴黎协定》的气候目标至关重要，同时保持对社会福祉至关重要的经济生产力。绿色氢可以使氨和钢铁生产等能源密集型产业以及交通运输业脱碳。然而，目前绿色氢比化石燃料生产的氢贵好几倍。这阻碍了它的全球采用。全球制氢技术中心（HyPT）拥有一个综合的、多学科的团队，从互补的技术平台上制定低成本大规模绿色制氢的途径。来自美国、澳大利亚、加拿大、英国、埃及和德国19个机构的34名研究人员开发新技术，探索新的政策和经济模式，以建立强大的氢经济。该奖项还为亚利桑那州立大学的研究生以及斯坦福大学和密歇根大学的早期职业科学家提供支持和培训。该中心促进与美国、澳大利亚和加拿大土著人民的联系。其目的是使这些社区参与采用可再生能源技术，并使他们获得该领域的教育和职业机会。全球氢转化技术中心重点关注三大具有重大突破潜力的绿色制氢技术：(1)水电解，包括可再生能源集成和新兴电解槽；（ii）以固体碳为增值副产物的甲烷热解；（三）光催化太阳能裂解水。该中心还应对绿色氢的两大跨领域挑战：(i)建设氢经济的政策、经济和市场；（二）电解、光催化用水及处理。这三种绿色制氢技术共同面临的潜在科学挑战是反应动力学。在材料层面，它需要催化剂的创新，其中材料成本、性能和临界性是主要关注的问题。在装置水平上，反应动力学可以随着质量和热传递的改善而加速。在系统和应用层面，每种技术在工程和社会经济方面都面临着独特的挑战。该中心将来自不同国家的具有不同专业知识的研究人员在这些重点领域相结合，协同工作，实现低成本（1美元/公斤）和大规模（每年十亿吨）绿色氢生产的目标。该奖项由全球中心项目资助，该项目与澳大利亚、加拿大和英国的资助机构建立了创新伙伴关系，共同支持以使用为灵感的研究，应对气候变化和清洁能源方面的全球挑战。与联邦科学与创新研究组织（CSIRO）、加拿大自然科学与工程研究委员会（NSERC）、加拿大社会科学与人文研究委员会（SSHRC）和英国研究与创新（UKRI）合作，利用资源应对比单独一个资助机构可能面临的更大规模的挑战。该中心由NSF、CSIRO、NSERC和UKRI联合支持。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Hydrogen produced with net-zero emissions of carbon dioxide is called "green" hydrogen. Large-scale green hydrogen production is essential to meet the Paris Agreement’s climate goals while maintaining the economic productivity vital to societal wellbeing. Green hydrogen enables the decarbonization of energy-intensive industries such as ammonia and steel production, and transportation. However, green hydrogen is currently several times more expensive than hydrogen produced from fossil fuels. This hinders its global adoption. The Global Hydrogen Production Technologies (HyPT) Center engages a comprehensive, multidisciplinary team to formulate a pathway to low-cost large-scale green hydrogen production from a platform of complementary technologies. The researchers—34 experts from 19 institutions in the U.S., Australia, Canada, UK, Egypt and Germany—develop new technologies and explore novel policies and economical models to build a strong hydrogen economy. This award also provides support and training to graduate students at Arizona State University, as well as to early career scientists at Stanford University and the University of Michigan. The center fosters outreach to indigenous peoples in the U.S., Australia, and Canada. The aim is to engage these communities in adopting renewable energy technologies and give them access to educational and career opportunities in this field. The Global HyPT Center focuses on three major green hydrogen production technologies with strong potential to deliver breakthroughs: (i) water electrolysis including renewable energy integration and emerging electrolyzers; (ii) methane pyrolysis with solid carbon as value-added co-products; and (iii) photocatalytic solar water splitting. The Center also tackles two major cross-cutting challenges for green hydrogen: (i) policies, economics, and markets for building a hydrogen economy; and (ii) water resource and treatment for electrolysis and photocatalysis. The common underlying scientific challenge for all three green hydrogen production technologies is reaction kinetics. At the materials level, it requires innovations in catalysts, where material cost, performance, and criticality are the primary concerns. At the device level, reaction kinetics can be accelerated with improved mass and heat transport. At the system and application levels, each technology faces a unique set of challenges in engineering and socio-economic dimensions. The Center interweaves researchers with diverse expertise from different countries under these thrust areas to work synergistically with the goal of low-cost (US$1/kg) and large-scale (gigatons a year) green hydrogen production. This award is funded by the Global Centers program, an innovative partnership with funding agencies in Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom, to jointly support use-inspired research addressing global challenges in climate change and clean energy. Partnerships with the Commonwealth Science and Innovation Research Organisation (CSIRO), Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) leverage resources to tackle challenges at a larger scale than would be possible for one funding agency alone. This Center is jointly supported by NSF, CSIRO, NSERC, and UKRI.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.