A hydrogen filling station in Richmond, California

One of the challenges in the transition to a hydrogen-based economy is the development of safe and efficient hydrogen fuel delivery technologies and a reliable supporting infrastructure. This infrastructure will be responsible for getting hydrogen from the point of production to the point of use in vehicles or stationary power units.

While a limited hydrogen infrastructure currently exists to service the manufacturing and chemical industries, it is insufficient to support a mass market for hydrogen. Additional research is necessary to enable the introduction and long-term viability of hydrogen as an energy carrier for transportation and stationary power.

Sandia National Laboratories supports the Department of Energy's efforts to develop a cost-effective and energy-efficient delivery infrastructure. Sandia's work in this area consists primarily of modeling and simulation efforts such as:

• Hydrogen Futures Simulation Model - a high-level dynamic simulation model that analyzes the levelized cost of alternative options for a hydrogen future, including hydrogen production, distribution, storage, and end-use utilization
• Power Parks System Simulation - a flexible system model to simulate distributed generation in "power parks" that use hydrogen as an energy carrier