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Advancement of Experimental and Modeling Approaches for Development of Hydrogen Energy Systems

A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "A5: Hydrogen Energy".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 10 November 2025 | Viewed by 2981

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Hydrogen Properties for Energy Research (HYPER) Center, School of Mechanical and Material Engineering, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164, USA
Interests: liquid hydrogen storage and transfer; cryogenic thermoacoustics; multiphase flows; computational fluid dynamics; reduced-order modeling

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Hydrogen is a promising clean energy carrier for the future environmentally friendly economy, as hydrogen can be produced by renewable energy sources and used as a fuel by releasing energy when reacting with oxygen without emitting harmful pollutants. However, there are technical and economic issues that must be addressed to make hydrogen energy systems viable for broad applications. Hydrogen is usually extracted from other compounds, such as water and natural gas. Then, it needs to be stored and transported in a compact form with sufficient energy density. Hydrogen must be transferred between different storage media at sufficiently fast rates, and finally, it needs to react with oxygen in a controllable way to safely release useful energy. These processes require the utilization of various devices, such as electrolyzers, storage tanks, pumps, metering systems, fuel cells, and others. Their efficiencies must be improved for hydrogen to compete with the currently available fossil fuels.

In addition, for use as a transportation fuel, hydrogen needs to be stored in a liquid form to ensure adequate energy density and to enable long-range hydrogen-fuelled vehicles for various domains, including trucks and airplanes. Liquid hydrogen exists only at very low temperatures, below 30 K, requiring efficient liquefiers, cryogenic vessels, transfer lines, pumps, and other components. 

While hydrogen is already used as a fuel for niche applications, including space rockets and warehouse forklifts, its broader utilization depends on the development of efficient hydrogen-capable hardware. In this Special Issue, researchers working on hydrogen energy systems will present contemporary and novel modelling approaches and experimental techniques that will help advance the elements of hydrogen energy systems. The scope of such methods and test systems is very broad. Some examples include novel and improved liquefaction cycles and associated hardware, the storage of liquid hydrogen and highly compressed gaseous hydrogen, fuel cells, hydrogen combustors, correlations for heat transfer and pressure drop in two-phase hydrogen flow, cryogenic pumps and metering devices, instabilities in hydrogen systems, hydrogen safety, materials for hydrogen, ortho-parahydrogen conversion, technoeconomic analysis, and other topics relevant to hydrogen energy systems.

Prof. Dr. Konstantin Matveev
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • hydrogen fuel
  • electrolyzers
  • fuel cells
  • hydrogen liquefiers
  • computational fluid dynamics
  • cryogenics
  • two-phase flow
  • system instabilities
  • techno-economic analysis

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 15944 KiB  
Article
Impact of Models of Thermodynamic Properties and Liquid–Gas Mass Transfer on CFD Simulation of Liquid Hydrogen Release
by Chenyu Lu, Jianfei Yang, Jian Yuan, Luoyi Feng, Wenbo Li, Cunman Zhang, Liming Cai and Jing Cao
Energies 2025, 18(12), 3052; https://doi.org/10.3390/en18123052 - 9 Jun 2025
Viewed by 296
Abstract
The safety performance of liquid hydrogen storage has a significant influence on its large-scale commercial application. Due to the complexity and costs of experimental investigation, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations have been extensively applied to investigate the dynamic behaviors of liquid hydrogen release. [...] Read more.
The safety performance of liquid hydrogen storage has a significant influence on its large-scale commercial application. Due to the complexity and costs of experimental investigation, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations have been extensively applied to investigate the dynamic behaviors of liquid hydrogen release. The involved physical and chemical models, such as models of species thermodynamic properties and liquid–gas mass transfer, play a major role for the entire CFD model performance. However, comprehensive investigations into their impacts remain insufficient. In this study, CFD models of liquid hydrogen release were developed by using two widely used commercial simulation tools, Fluent and FLACS, and validated against experimental data available in the literature. Comparisons of the model results reveal strong discrepancies in the prediction accuracy of temperature and hydrogen volume fraction between the two models. The impact of the models of thermodynamic properties and liquid–gas mass transfer on the prediction results was subsequently explored by incorporating the FLACS sub-models to Fluent and evaluating the resulting prediction differences in temperatures and hydrogen volume fractions. The results show that the models of thermodynamic properties and liquid–gas mass transfer used in FLACS underestimate the vertical rise height and the highest hydrogen volume fraction of the cloud. Sensitivity analyses on the parameters in these sub-models indicate that the specific heats of hydrogen and nitrogen, in conjunction with the mass flow rate and outflow density of the mass transfer model, have a significant influence on model prediction of temperature. Full article
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28 pages, 9864 KiB  
Article
Guarded Hot Cylinder Apparatus for Characterization of Thermal Insulation Systems and Materials at Liquid Hydrogen Temperatures
by Adam Swanger, David Creech, Casimir Van Doorne and Andrew Kelly
Energies 2025, 18(10), 2547; https://doi.org/10.3390/en18102547 - 14 May 2025
Viewed by 431
Abstract
As interest in liquid hydrogen (LH2) continues to grow within the energy and mobility sectors, so does the demand for testing capabilities at deep cryogenics temperatures. However, cost-, complexity-, and safety-related challenges associated with handling LH2 effectively limit the landscape [...] Read more.
As interest in liquid hydrogen (LH2) continues to grow within the energy and mobility sectors, so does the demand for testing capabilities at deep cryogenics temperatures. However, cost-, complexity-, and safety-related challenges associated with handling LH2 effectively limit the landscape of possible options. As an alternative, LH2 temperatures can be accessed via a helium-based cryogenic refrigerator, or “cryocooler”. Recently, NASA and its partners CB&I and Shell began the development of a cryocooler-based calorimeter to characterize the thermal performance of insulations and other materials down to 20 K. Deemed the Guarded Hot Cylinder (GHC), the apparatus utilizes a small vacuum chamber in conjunction with a GM cryocooler and trim heater to control the cold boundary temperature. A sealed, cylindrical copper cup bolts to the cryocooler and houses the material specimen, with an internal, cylindrical test heater assembly to maintain the warm boundary. The steady-state heat load, traveling radially through the specimen, is measured via the electrical input power to the test heater and then used to evaluate the material’s absolute thermal performance. Initial checkout and validation of the GHC using a common bulk-fill insulation material showed close agreement with published data from standardized LN2 boiloff calorimetry testing. The instrument is now considered a lab standard, with the goal of incorporating it into the ASTM C1774 standard in the future, and it is in continuous use, examining insulation materials for next-generation LH2 applications. Full article
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13 pages, 2280 KiB  
Article
Thermoacoustic Modeling of Cryogenic Hydrogen
by Konstantin I. Matveev and Jacob W. Leachman
Energies 2024, 17(12), 2884; https://doi.org/10.3390/en17122884 - 12 Jun 2024
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1618
Abstract
Future thermoacoustic cryocoolers employing hydrogen as a working fluid can reduce reliance on helium and improve hydrogen liquefaction processes. Traditional thermoacoustic modeling methods often assume ideal-gas thermophysical properties and neglect finite-amplitude effects. However, these assumptions are no longer valid for hydrogen near saturated [...] Read more.
Future thermoacoustic cryocoolers employing hydrogen as a working fluid can reduce reliance on helium and improve hydrogen liquefaction processes. Traditional thermoacoustic modeling methods often assume ideal-gas thermophysical properties and neglect finite-amplitude effects. However, these assumptions are no longer valid for hydrogen near saturated states. In this study, a comparison between the results of computational fluid dynamics simulations using actual hydrogen properties and a low-amplitude, ideal-gas thermoacoustic theory was carried out in a canonical plate-based stack configuration at a mean pressure of 5 bar. It was found that the simplified analytical theory significantly underpredicts the cooling power of hydrogen-filled thermoacoustic setups, especially at lower temperatures in high-amplitude, traveling-wave arrangements. In addition, a thermoacoustic prime mover was modeled at higher temperatures, demonstrating very close agreement with the ideal-gas-based theory. The CFD approach is recommended for the design of future hydrogen-based cryocoolers at temperatures below 80 K. Full article
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