Breunig Named Co-Director of HyMARC

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) research scientist Hanna Breunig was named co-director of the Hydrogen Materials Advanced Research Consortium (HyMARC). Breunig serves as Deputy-Head of the Sustainable Energy and Environmental Systems Department within the Energy Analysis and Environmental Impacts (EAEI) Division of Berkeley Lab.

HyMARC was formed to address the scientific gaps blocking the advancement of solid-state hydrogen storage materials – a joint effort between Berkeley Lab, Sandia National Laboratories, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Hydrogen storage research and development plays a key role in two of the six Energy EarthshotsTM announced by the Department of Energy: the Hydrogen ShotTM and the Long Duration Storage ShotTM. Berkeley Lab's leadership in hydrogen and fuel cell consortia continues to expand and now includes four deputy director or higher positions with the Million Mile Fuel Cell Truck consortium, HydroGen, H2NEW, and HyMARC. 

To her new role, Breunig brings extensive scientific leadership in techno-economic and environmental life-cycle analysis of hydrogen storage and hydrogen end uses. Her expertise will help identify barriers and opportunities to scaling hydrogen storage solutions, from discovery to deployment.

“Numerous materials and liquid carriers for hydrogen storage and transportation exist, and I am excited to help HyMARC set the gold standard for material and system validation,” said Breunig. “In this new phase of HyMARC, we will be moving away from trial-and-error approaches for matching materials with select hydrogen end uses. Instead, we’ll prioritize developing and applying high-throughput approaches for reverse engineering what the material property and operating condition solution space has to be for success."

Breunig will serve alongside co-directors Mark Allendorf of Sandia National Laboratories and Tom Gennett of National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

“I’m extremely proud of Hanna’s leadership in this consortium. Berkeley Lab and the Berkeley Lab Energy Storage Center have a key role to play in accelerating the pace of innovation to achieve the breakthroughs needed for clean hydrogen at scale,” said Thomas Kirchstetter, director of Berkeley Lab’s EAEI division.