The Cool Fuel School: Development of a Hands-on Liquid Hydrogen Safety Training Program for Early-Stage Research

Access to cryogenic hydrogen training facilities has been historically limited and remains a severe impediment to Research and Development efforts. The US Inflation Recovery Act of 2022 is resulting in unprecedented investment in hydrogen technologies and exacerbating this training deficiency. To address this need, the Hydrogen Properties for Energy Research (HYPER) Center at Washington State University developed the Cool Fuel School cryogenic hydrogen safety program in the fall of 2023 with support from Airbus. This new approach teaches safety plan development integrated with the engineering design process while guiding participants through the clean-sheet design, development, and testing of their very own liquid hydrogen flow manifold. This presentation discusses the design of the Cool Fuel School, including pre-requisite education on cryogenic hydrogen theory, hands-on workshops, and lessons learned from preliminary participants.