Neutron Imaging Facility (NIF)

Neutron Imaging, an Essential Tool for the Hydrogen Economy

The problem that the NIST Neutron Imaging Facility (NIF) can address that directly impacts the progress of the Hydrogen Economy is the issue of flooding and water management in hydrogen fuel cells. The development of robust and efficient fuel cell designs requires a non-destructive tool that can probe and evaluate the production of water in hydrogen powered fuel cells. Here at the NIST Center for Neutron Research a new, advanced fuel cell imaging facility has been built to do just this. This facility provides the necessary infrastructure for fuel cell manufacturers and university users to perform fuel cell experiments on both commercial grade and smaller research grade fuel cells and stacks. This facility allows visualization of water production and removal in operating fuel cells in conditions simulating the real world artic freeze/thaw and desert heat environments. The current NIF is a second generation of neutron imaging facilities built here at NIST. This capability has recently received independent credit for the impact it is providing to fuel cell developers from the National Academies report, which states that: "The NIST effort ... is a considerable achievement and one of the most significant analytical advances in the membrane fuel cell realm in decades. The NIST facility offers the entire fuel cell community unique research opportunities that previously eluded them."

Most recently this capability at NIST has been highlighted in this excerpt from the President's American Competitiveness Initiative.

Additional Content:

• Facility Features
• Neutron Camera
• Hydrogen Systems
• Hydrogen Economy and Storage
• PEM Fuel Cells
• Radiography
• Tomography
• Apply for beam time