Below is the text version for the "October H2IQ Hour: Hydrogen Business Case Prize Competition" video, recorded October 8, 2021.
Eric Parker, Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office: Hello, everyone, and happy Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Day. This H2IQ hour today is part of our weeklong celebration of National Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Day and we're highlighting some of the exciting things going on in the hydrogen and fuel cell community, as well as research and development activities funded by the US Department of Energy's Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology Office, or HFTO, within the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.
My name is Eric Parker and I am the HFTO webinar lead. If you go to the next slide, this WebEx call is being recorded and will be posted on the DOE's website and used internally. All attendees will be on mute. Please submit your questions via the Q&A box you can see right there on the WebEx panel – not the chat box. Please use the Q&A box and we'll do our best to cover what questions we can at the end of today's presentation. So, we have a quicker presentation than normal today, so I want to get right into it and select our DOE host, Neha Rustagi, to tee up today's special topic and speaker. Thanks, Neha.
Neha Rustagi, Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office: Thanks, Eric. So, it's Mariya Koleva. Mariya is on detail to the Hydrogen Office from NREL. Here she is supporting our analysis team and she's been the lead on our exciting new Hydrogen Business Case Prize. At NREL she's supported the hydrogen production and power groups as well as the energy system modeling groups, where she worked on technologies ranging from electrolysis to battery energy storage. Without further ado I will turn it over to Mariya.
Mariya Koleva, National Renewable Energy Laboratory: Thank you so much, Neha. And thank you to Eric as well. Thank you for the kind words and the nice introduction. And hello to everyone. Thank you for tuning in.
For those of you who follow us on social media you must have seen the Hydrogen Business Case Prize Competition announcement on Tuesday. And for those of you who don't follow us on social media and who haven't seen this announcement, not to fret, because at today's H2IQ hour we will talk about the nitty-gritty of this extremely exciting opportunity across the hydrogen and fuel cell technology sector.
And without further ado let me introduce you to the Hydrogen Business Case Prize. Here we were supposed to have a video which is going to be actually available on Monday, so please stay tuned. And it's a fantastic video about this challenge. The Hydrogen Business Case Prize is part of the American-Made Challenges. It's our latest challenge that you can join at americanmadechallenges.org/h2businesscase. You – don't worry, you're going to remember by heart this link by the end of this presentation.
So, in the competition we are asking for user-friendly computational tools that characterize the value proposition of hydrogen in multiple applications, which I'm going to discuss a little bit later. These applications should co-locate supply and demand. Such a competition has two major purposes, namely: the first one, create educational opportunities for emerging talents in the hydrogen and fuel cell technology space; and the second, to inform stakeholders about investment opportunities for hydrogen technologies specific for the US.
Who can join the competition? Well, these emerging talents that I mentioned can be students – and here looking at graduate students as well. It can be as well emerging professionals. It can be individuals who would like a career change. This can also be anyone with an interest in hydrogen technologies or development of computation al tools. We support and encourage diversity in this competition. The only requirement here on our side is that all participants must be US citizens or permanent US residents.
So, how can you participate? As a competitor you can enter the prize by forming a team of up to five people and appointing a captain to the team. Having said that, one person can also be considered the team. In my country we say, "Even the warrior on his own is still a warrior." And don't worry, even sin the middle of the competition team members can still be changed as long as the captain remains the same. So, then, keep your eyes peeled for deadlines the competition has. Once you have formed the team the first deadline for submission to register is the 29th of this month, October. For more information, for details on the rules of the competition, or for any dates, regularly check the American-Made Challenges at americanmadechallenges.org/h2businesscase.
Education is a central piece in this challenge. And as such, we are looking for mentors, experts in the field who can spare no more than one hour a week for answering questions to the teams which will help them with their deliverables. As a mentor you will not only motivate, guide, and advise teams but also you will create an invaluable experience and new network for those emerging talents, for our participants. It will surely enrich your own and your organization's experience as well.
We are also looking for reviewers who will evaluate the quality of the work and the final presentations of the teams at the demonstration date. DOE will also sponsor internships for the top two teams of the competition, and we are looking for organizations that are interested in hosting those interns. This is an incredible way your company can acquire emerging talents. So, to get involved please contact H2BusinessCase@NREL.gov. We are waiting for you.
Now, let's talk about the computational tool a little bit more. So, we are essentially asking teams to develop a user-friendly, robust, and readable by Microsoft Excel computational tool. Here you can see some example pathways for – that you can include in the evaluation of the tool. But these are illustrative and so are the arrows. So, it's also known and super structured in the field of modeling and optimization. The team is free to select anything as long as it's within the competition guidelines. We would really like to see participants' creativity shine as long as they can justify it.
To put suggestions in perspective, the two should be temporal. Here what I mean by this is there should be a time frame for the evaluation of the certain applications – say, 10, 20, or 30 years. And the granularity can be the time granularity selected by the team itself. Then the tool should be also location-specific, whether that is a site or neighborhood or county, state, or nationwide. As long as it is represented accurately in the tool that is perfectly fine.
Earlier, I mentioned about the multiple applications, and the tool should focus on one to two primary applications. And here some examples include steel, iron, and cement; ammonia, chemicals, refineries; heat and combustion; class production; transportation under future policy scenarios; and so on. The tool should also include two to three additional applications that are going to bring additional revenue. These are the secondary applications. And here some examples include gas grid injection, grid services, power generation, energy storage and backup power.
Now, you must know that DOE has sponsored a lot of national laboratory tools that currently exist. You can use them as guidelines and as a sort of inspiration, but please by any don't means duplicate them.
So, the computational tool should be able to handle inputs which can be default parameters, user-defined parameters, or parameters that are going to be evaluated within the tool. Some examples include energy prices, such as electricity or natural gas prices; capital and operating costs of the hydrogen equipment – these can be production technologies or infrastructure technologies; price points for hydrogen at the end uses, or the so-called willingness to pay; and as well regional policies and sustainability drivers for the particular region that the team is going to look at.
Outputs are mainly related to the business case – these are the techno-economic outputs – and sustainability metrics, such as environmental and justice potential outputs. So, for example, here we have system cost, return on investment, payback time, greenhouse gas emissions reduction. For environmental justice we suggest the creation of jobs in clean energy and reduction in emissions of criteria pollutants. However, we would like the teams to come up with a suggestion for environmental justice criteria.
One thing that you should keep in mind is an evaluation criterion is the breadth of scope, which besides applications can also – can be realized through diversity of the metrics that the teams include in their tool. So, just keep this in mind.
The competition is structured in two phases, plus a registration. And here it's important to mention, please, please form your team and register for the competition by the 29th of October. The registration process is extremely easy and not time-consuming at all. All you need to do is to have a nice cover page with the team members, their names, their CVs, the name of the team, the captain, and a rough scope of the tool that can be changed to phase one, for example – in phase one.
So, the phase one, this is the concept development phase of the competition, where at the end of it we ask for a cover page with the team name, the team members if they have changed, and up to a 500-word abstract with the tool scope that has changed or hasn't changed for that method. We'd also like – we would like to see an up-to-ten-page report with background or so-called literature review with inputs, outputs, and the methodology that you are planning to use in your tool. We as well would like a slide summarizing the report content that is going to be used for internal DOE use.
The deliverables for phase two, or the tool development phase, are three major deliverables. The first one is an up-to-20-page final report with cover page, background methodology, case studies, and the results presented and discussed in that page limit; a final tool that is going to be readable by Microsoft Excel; and a final presentation in the form of a PowerPoint that is going to be used for the Demonstration Day, which is going to mark the end of the competition, and which is going to be reviewed by experts, stakeholders, and DOE.
So, important dates to keep in mind are – you should know this by now – register to enter the submission – enter your submission package by 3:00 PM October 29th. Then the second deadline to remember is the submission for phase one, which is by 3:00 PM on the 21st of January next year. Shortly after that the winners from phase one are going to be announced, and then the next deadline after that is for the 6th of May, which is the submission for the phase two package, which is, again, by 3:00 PM Mountain Time. The Demonstration Day will take place a week after the final deadline. And phase two winners and internships will be announced by May 20, 2022. We kept in mind that the AMR next year is going to be early June.
So, for all the efforts of the competing teams they will be well rewarded, starting from cash prizes of $10,000.00 for each team and for up to ten teams – this is for phase one. And for those who continue to phase two, they will receive even more. For the winning team at first place, they'll receive a $50,000.00 cash prize and potential internships for each of the members. For the second place, the team will receive a $30,000.00 cash prize and potential internships for each of the members. The third, fourth, and fifth place will receive $30,000.00, $20,000.00, and $10,000.00 cash prizes. Up to ten teams will be sponsored for participation at the DOE Hydrogen Program 2022 Annual Merit Review on June 6th to 9th. And that's not all. All of the teams are going to receive public recognition for all the winning teams. So, this is a great reward for the effort.
So, decisions on the winning teams will be made by the prize judge following the reviews from an expert panel. The reviews will be based on a scoring criteria from 1 to 6, and in phase one these criteria are the breadth of scope the team is planning for their tool, including the number of applications, the time frame spent, the number and diversity of the metrics included, and so on. The methodology is also going to be evaluated – the methodology that the teams are proposing for their tool. And this would include as well any equations that is going to be – that are going to be included in the tool.
For phase two the criteria refer to the breadth of scope of the tool; to its user-friendliness – for example how easy it is for a user to enter inputs, to read outputs, and so on. Robustness as well is another important criterion, which essentially means how well the tool is going to be able to handle sensitivity in inputs. And the presentation at the Demonstration Day is also going to be evaluated based on the visuals and the delivery of the presentation and the demonstration of the tool.
So, to learn more enter and follow updates at american-madechallenges.org/H2businesscase. To support the prize by becoming a mentor, reviewer, or intern host, as well as to ask any questions related to the prize, e-mail us at H2BusinessCase@NREL.gov. This is an e-mail for both competitors and stakeholders, so please don't hesitate to contact us. We are waiting for you to enter this challenge.
With this, good luck.
Neha Rustagi: Thanks so much, Neha. And folks can definitely feel free to keep putting questions into the question and answer box. So, the first question we got was how national labs can get involved as mentors.
Mariya Koleva: National labs can be involved as mentors. Please do become involved. But they cannot become involved as competitors.
Neha Rustagi: Thank you. And to do that just contact the same e-mail address that was shown on the last slide?
[Crosstalk]
Mariya Koleva: Yes, please. Do contact that – oh.
Neha Rustagi: There it is.
Mariya Koleva: Do contact H2BusinessCase@NREL.gov. Please.
Neha Rustagi: All right. The next question was whether or not a team of one is acceptable, which I think you answered, but do you want to go ahead and…?
Mariya Koleva: Yes, a team of one is acceptable as long as this is a person who is a US citizen or a permanent US resident.
Neha Rustagi: The next question was around the internship process. Are companies required to hire interns after they express their interest?
Mariya Koleva: So, they – first of all, a company should express that they are interested in offering internships. And in the process – at the end of the competition we will be sending the CVs to those – the CVs of the winning team members to those companies and there is going to be a process of selection. So, it – the companies would know essentially who they are going to be hiring and they can still make the decision if they would like to offer an internship or if they would not.
Neha Rustagi: Thank you.
Mariya Koleva: I hope that this answers the question.
Neha Rustagi: Yeah. It's completely nonbinding at this stage and also nonbinding at the point that we have our winning teams.
Mariya Koleva: Correct. Thanks, Neha.
Neha Rustagi: Our next question: Are undergraduates invited to compete as well?
Mariya Koleva: Please. By any means.
Neha Rustagi: Next question: Does everyone from phase one advance into phase two?
Mariya Koleva: Okay, that's a good question. So, only ten teams – up to ten teams are going to advance from phase one to phase two.
Neha Rustagi: All right. Let's see… these were repeat questions. So… Can you speak again to the matching process of how students wind up selecting their intern hosts?
Mariya Koleva: So, if I remember correctly each student is going to score the potential internship hosts. And then, based on their scoring the prize judge is going to match what company – and also, the company is going to have a similar thing. They are going to score the willingness to host certain candidates. So, based on that DOE is going to do matching of the scoring and they are going to match a winning team member with an internship host. In this way we hope that we are going to end up with the best matching pair. I hope this answers the question.
Neha Rustagi: Yep. Basically, a standard matching process at the end. All right. Next question: Are there any requirements for companies that want to host interns? I think the question is around do they have to be in a specific sector or is anyone eligible?
Mariya Koleva: I guess anybody is eligible as long as, I guess, it's connected to the sector, to the hydrogen and fuel cell technologies sector. Even if not, I guess if the potential intern is interested they can still host them, as long as the intern is also – the potential intern is also interested.
Neha Rustagi: The next question is around what – is there a deadline to become a reviewer?
Mariya Koleva: We hope – so, the reviewers are going to be involved in phase two of the competition as well as the Demonstration Day. So, we don't have a hard deadline on becoming a reviewer, but the sooner the better. I would say it would be great to have the finalized list of reviewers before the second phase has started. So, that is around February of next year.
Neha Rustagi: Okay. Next question – I can take this one because this one has some nuance to it. So, may OEMs partner with universities to become a team? So, the answer is yes. We've been encouraging universities, but anyone is eligible to participate as long as the members are US citizens or residents. So, OEMs can partner with a university or they can even compete on their own. So, either way is acceptable. It's just that if you are competing then your organization can't be part of the review process.
Similar question: Team members can't be hydrogen professionals or professors? So, they can be. We've just been encouraging students, but anybody, again, is eligible to participate, including those that are established in the field.
Next one: Do mentors have to come from the same organization as the internship host?
Mariya Koleva: It's not necessarily. Initially we were envisioning that internship hosts will appoint one mentor that can spare at most one hour per week for teams. But it can be – they can be decoupled as well.
Neha Rustagi: Great. What type of software is recommended for the tool?
Mariya Koleva: Pardon, Neha? What?
Neha Rustagi: What type of software is recommended for the tool?
Mariya Koleva: So, for safety purposes, so to say, we recommend only Microsoft Excel. If you can manage somehow to import and export various applications but at the end submit everything with the Microsoft Excel that would be great. But other than that, Microsoft Excel would suffice.
Neha Rustagi: Thank you. Who owns the intellectual property? So, this is owned by the prize team.
When will team captains be announced? And how do you become a team member?
Mariya Koleva: So, the team captains are announced when essentially you submit the registration package, and this is something that you should coordinate with your team members. So, if there is a general agreement for somebody to become a team captain, that's great. And the time when the team captain becomes known is – actually officially known is at the registration by the 29th of October. And the team captain cannot be changed afterwards but the team members can. So, I guess the 29th of October is when the team captain is known really. I guess this – I hope this answers the question. And there was a second part to it?
Neha Rustagi: I think you answered it. How do you become a team member?
Mariya Koleva: Yeah.
Neha Rustagi: Yeah. So, this is a self-assembled team and then the team decides on their captain. Yeah.
Mariya Koleva: Thank you.
Neha Rustagi: There's another question: Is this related to the FOA that was just announced? So, these are two separate solicitations. So, the FOA is a – the notice of intent that was announced for a FOA was independent of this.
Let's see… So, the next question: Is the abstract submitted through the registration package binding? Can we deviate from that when we submit our final deliverable?
Mariya Koleva: So, the abstract can be deviated from registration to the phase one package. I do believe even if you want to make any changes to the phase two package it's still possible.
Neha Rustagi: Great. Thank you. All right. So, we are getting near the end of our hour, so I definitely want to encourage you all, anybody that wants to compete, like Mariya said, please check out the website and make sure you're registered by October 29th. And we've had lots of interested from folks wanting to participate as mentors or internship hosts, so please check out the – please contact the e-mail address shown on this screen to express your interest. And with that, thank you very much, Mariya, for the presentation and I will turn it back to Eric.
Mariya Koleva: Thank you.
Eric Parker: Thanks, Neha. Thanks, Mariya, for that awesome presentation. That does conclude today's Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Day H2IQ hour. So, thanks again, everyone, for joining. As a reminder – I saw a few of you asking – we'll definitely be posting the slides and recording online within the next week or so, so please check back soon. And a reminder that the video that Mariya mentioned will be going up on Monday as well, so please be sure to check out the cool video we've got for this. And so, I also encourage everyone to check out EERE's social media today with some exciting tweets and other posts for National Hydrogen and Fuel Cell day that just came out. And I think with that I'll wish everyone a great weekend. And have a great rest of your day. Thanks.
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