BATAVIA, Illinois – Dr. John A. Turner, a principal scientist at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, will explore issues involved in “The Sustainable Hydrogen Economy” on Wednesday, July 6 at 4 p.m. at the Department of Energy’s Fermilab. Turner’s presentation, the third and final installment in the Fermilab Colloquium series on world energy issues, will take place in the One West conference room in the Atrium of Wilson Hall. The talk is free of charge and open to the public, and is geared for general audiences.
Identifying and building a sustainable energy system is perhaps one of the most critical issues that today’s society must address. Replacing our current energy carrier mix with a sustainable fuel is one of the key pieces in that system. Hydrogen as an energy carrier, primarily derived from water, can address issues of sustainability, environmental emissions and energy security. The hydrogen economy then is the production of hydrogen, its distribution and utilization as an energy carrier. A key piece of this hydrogen economy is the fuel cell. A fuel cell converts the chemical energy in a fuel into low-voltage dc electricity and when using hydrogen as the fuel, the only emission is water vapor. While the basic understanding of fuel cell technology has been known since 1839, it has only been recently that fuel cells have shown their potential as an energy conversion device for both transportation and stationary applications.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is the nation’s primary laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency R&D. Established in 1974, NREL began operating in 1977 as the Solar Energy Research Institute. It was designated a national laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in September 1991 and its name was changed. NREL develops renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies and practices, advances related science and engineering, and transfers knowledge and innovations to address the nation’s energy and environmental goals.
The previous talks in the Colloquium series on energy — Dr. Steve Koonin, “A Physicist’s View of the World’s Energy Situation,” April 13; and Dr. Robert Kaufmann, “Oil and the American Way of Life,” June 1 — are available on streaming video at the Colloquium website: http://www-ppd.fnal.gov/EPPOffice-w/colloq/colloq.html.
All Fermilab Colloquium presentations are held on Wednesdays at 4 p.m. in One West, on the first floor of Wilson Hall, and usually last about an hour. Visitors may enter the Fermilab site by car at both the east and west entrances, at Batavia Road and Pine Street respectively. Visitors must present photo identification, such as a driver’s license, and state the purpose of their visit to security officers at the entrances. Site maps will be given to visitors to guide them to Wilson Hall, and roadways that are off limits to the public will be posted with signs.
Fermilab is a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science national laboratory, operated under contract by Universities Research Association, Inc.