Project Examples

POWER AND PROPULSION SYSTEMS

Annual PRoject Highlights

2024 Projects

LH2 Systems Course: Online, on-demand course on the topic of liquid hydrogen systems is now live. Topics include: introduction, safety, fundamentals, tankage, storage, transfer, sensors, modeling, systems, strategy, anthropocene, wrap-up. (posted Dec 12, 2024)
AIAA Advanced Hydrogen Aerospace Technologies And Design: Matt Moran taught hydrogen and cryogenic fundamentals during the first 4 hours of this course co-sponsored by HYSKY. The remainder of the course covers topics on hydrogen fixed wing and eVTOL aircraft, and hydrogen airport compatibility and infrastructure. (posted Oct 10, 2024)
Hydrogen Microgrid: Phase 1 development of the new hydrogen-based secondary microgrid project at the Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam (JBPHH) in Hawaii has been completed. Phase 2 of this 2-year project is focusing on system integration and pre-delivery testing. (posted Oct 1, 2024)
Liquid Hydrogen Systems training: Matt Moran taught a one-day introduction to liquid hydrogen systems to a company developing liquid hydrogen drones and microgrids. (posted Sep, 6, 2024)
NASA Cryogenic Fluid Management: Moran Innovation has been awarded three one-year subcontracts to continue support of cryogenic fluid management modeling and development for the Artemis Human Landing Systems. (posted Apr 30, 2024)
PEARL H2 Microgrid: Providing subcontract support to Global Connective Center (prime) and NEOEx Systems on a DOD-funded project for a new hydrogen-based secondary microgrid at the Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam (JBPHH) in Hawaii. (posted Feb 5, 2024)

2023 Projects

SAE International: Started serving as a member of the Hydrogen Airport Taskgroup (AE-5CH) in October. Also awarded a contract to write an SAE EDGE™ Research Report on liquid hydrogen for mobility industries and applications. (posted Dec 12, 2023)
Flying Hy: Matt Moran taught a short introduction to hydrogen systems and chaired a presentation session on lessons learned from space at this hydrogen aviation event. (posted Oct 13, 2023)
NASA Artemis Human Landing Systems: Moran Innovation has been awarded a six-month renewal of it's subcontract supporting the SpaceX lunar starship development collaboration activity; and a new six-month subcontract to support the Blue Origin team lunar landing system. (posted Sep 29, 2023)
Energy & Mobility Conference: Matt Moran chaired a panel session on hydrogen and sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), co-taught a full day workshop on liquid hydrogen systems, and won the conference best paper award. Slides from the workshop and panel session can be accessed here. (posted Sep 16, 2023)
Liquid Hydrogen for Aviation Course: Matt Moran prepared and taught a custom 8-hour course on LH2 systems development for a European aircraft manufacturing company. Topics addressed included: Introduction, Safety, Fundamentals, Tankage, Thermal, Storage, Transfer, Modeling, and Applications (posted Aug 24, 2023)
LH2 Era™ Library Launch: Videos and slides from the monthly liquid hydrogen webinar series started in April are now available in an online library hosted on the Vimeo platform. Videos from the half-day NASA workshop short course on cryogenic fluid management have also been added as a bonus under the subscription option. (posted Jun 21, 2023)
NASA Contracts Renewed and Extended: Two subcontracts to Moran Innovation in support of NASA have been renewed and a third subcontract has been extended. The contracts support the Artemis Human Landing System (crewed lunar vehicle); cryogenic fluid management modeling and validation; and densified propellants test facility development. (posted Mar 11, 2023)
Hydrogen Microgrid and Aviation Fueling: The kickoff meeting for this two-year $10MM contract with the Army was held with the NCDMM program manager, NEOEx Systems prime, and fellow subcontract partners from Avari Aerospace, AFIT, WPI, OSU, MAGNET, JETS, and MRK Aviation. Moran Innovation will provide expert cryogenic systems consultation throughout the project duration. (posted Mar 10, 2023)
Update to Cryogenic Fluid Management Report: A new version with additional content has been re-published as a paperback on Amazon and is also available online for free. Feedback from readers is requested for the next version to add topics of interest and make it more accessible for non-space applications. (posted Mar 5, 2023)
LH2 Era™ Webinar Series: Moran Innovation is sponsoring a new global liquid hydrogen monthly webinar series beginning in April that will address key topics related to the design, development, and operation of integrated liquid hydrogen systems. Details and registration are available here. A weekly summary of global liquid hydrogen news is also starting in March on the LH2era.com blog. (posted Feb 23, 2023)
Liquid Hydrogen Training: Moran Innovation is developing customized training for organizations that are coming up the learning curve on liquid hydrogen. Aviation, energy, and transportation are the initial target sectors. Video clips from a training session at a NASA workshop can be viewed for free here. (posted Feb 6, 2023)

2022 Projects

Densified Propellant Testing: Moran Innovation has been awarded a subcontract to provide subject matter expertise for densified propellant capabilities development at White Sands Test Facility. (posted Dec 20, 2022)
Short course, invited panelist, and presentation: Matt Moran taught a short course and was a panelist and presenter on the topic of cryogenic systems at NASA's 2022 Thermal and Fluids Analysis Workshop. (posted Sep 8, 2022)
NASA Cryogenic Systems Modeling: Moran Innovation is supporting additional new contract work for NASA related to validation of high fidelity modeling tools with experimental tests of liquid hydrogen, methane, oxygen, and other cryogens. (posted Jun 27, 2022)
Heavy-Lift Aircraft: Moran Innovation completed support of a design cycle for the liquid hydrogen propulsion and power system of a private sector heavy-lift cargo aircraft. (posted May 1, 2022)
NASA Support Contract Extensions: Moran Innovation has been awarded two contract extensions of 6 months and 18 months, respectively, related to the NASA Human Landing System program. (posted April 4, 2022)
Cryogenic Fluid Management: Part 1 of this report series has been published and is available online. In-house training based on the material is also available (see Training). (posted Mar 13, 2022)

2021 Projects

Long Term Liquid Hydrogen Storage: Moran Innovation is supporting NASA under subcontract to HX5 for the Lockheed Martin Tipping Point testing of more than a dozen cryogenic fluid management technologies, positioning them for infusion into future space systems. (posted Dec 29, 2021)
Orbital Cryogenic Propellant Transfer: Moran Innovation is supporting NASA under subcontract to HX5 for the SpaceX Tipping Point large-scale flight demonstration to transfer cryogenic propellant between tanks on a Starship vehicle. (posted Dec 20, 2021)
CHS Conference (update): Matt Moran presented "Densified Liquid Hydrogen and No-Loss (Zero Boil-off) Systems" at the Center for Hydrogen Safety (CHS) Asia-Pacific Conference held virtually Nov 30 - Dec 2. It builds upon last year's liquid hydrogen presentation (see: www.LH2era.com for slides and video). (posted Dec 3, 2021)
Cryogenic Systems Expertise Support: Moran Innovation has been awarded a 6-month subcontract extension to provide cryogenic systems expertise to NASA in support of the Artemis Program to return humans to the moon. (posted Sep 15, 2021)
Hydrogen Drones and Microgrid Energy Storage (update): Moran Innovation is supporting development of extended duration drones and integrated hydrogen energy storage for base operations under subcontract to NEOEx Systems. This effort has been selected for a follow on 15-month Phase II award from the USAF culminating in flight demonstrations. (posted Jul 27, 2021)
Liquid Hydrogen Fueling Systems: The new US federal defense appropriation budget includes $10 million for R&D related to liquid hydrogen refueling systems. Moran Innovation has been asked to support this effort. (posted Jul 15, 2021)

2020 Projects

Falcon 9 first-stage booster: Matt Moran standing in front of the first orbital-class rocket to perform a successful return to launch site and vertical landing (SpaceX headquarters, Hawthorne, CA) (Jan 16, 2020)

Hydrogen Safety U.S. Conference: Matt Moran made a presentation on liquid hydrogen safety considerations at this conference. The presentation slides and videos can be accessed here. (posted Sep 16, 2020)
Propulsion Trade Studies: Moran Innovation recently completed a liquid hydrogen propulsion system assessment for a heavy lift aircraft application; and is currently supporting a set of space vehicle engine trades. (posted Sep 10, 2020)
AIAA Propulsion and Energy Forum: Matt Moran was an invited panelist on the topic of "Sustaining Mission Possibilities Through Enabling Technologies". See a video clip of his opening remarks here. (posted: Aug 26, 2020)
NASA Human Landing System: Moran Innovation has been awarded a 14-month subcontract to provide cryogenic systems expertise to NASA in support of the next human moon mission. Liquid hydrogen, oxygen and methane propulsion systems are being developed by the selected companies: Blue Origin, Dynetics and SpaceX. (posted July 27, 2020)
Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS): Moran Innovation has been retained by one of the CLPS provider teams to support systems engineering, launch services selection, and mission design review. (posted: Jun 1, 2020)
Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicle: Moran Innovation has completed business and technology development support for a car company that started with a visit to their California facility in January. The scope of the consulting effort focused on hydrogen-based transportation systems. (posted: May 20, 2020)
SpaceX Cryogenic Propellant System Support: Matt Moran presented analysis and design trade results for the NASA-funded lunar lander vehicle study at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, CA. (posted: Jan 20, 2020)

2019 Projects

Cryogenic Fluid Management: Moran Innovation has been awarded a subcontract to provide cryogenic fluid management expertise to NASA in support of their Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships (NextSTEP) program. (posted: Sep 25, 2019)
The Energy Storage Building Efficiency Conference: Matt Moran was a panelist on the topic of fuel cells, hydrogen energy storage and microgrids at this event. (posted: Sep 24, 2019)
NASA Technology Transfer: Moran Innovation is supporting a review of technology disclosures, patents and licensing to provide recommendations to NASA for improvement. (posted: Aug 20, 2019)
Hydrogen Energy and Renewables Architecture (HyERA)™ : This system software has been updated for a proposed community scale hydrogen-based power and mobility project. (posted: Jul 1, 2019)

Isotherm Energy Examples

Largest Liquid Hydrogen Dewar Zero Boil-off and Densification

Description: Design of the largest liquid hydrogen dewar tank in history that will hold 1.4 million gallons of liquid hydrogen. System eliminates boil-off and provides densification capability with an integrated cryogenic refrigeration unit and internal heat exchanger. Storage capacity is 50% greater than the current record holder that supported space shuttle launches for over 39 years. Performed under subcontract to Sierra Lobo and BRPH.

Customer: NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC)

Status: Design completed and accepted by NASA. Construction started in 2019.

Legacy Liquid Hydrogen Dewar Tank at NASA KSC (credts: NASA/Kim Shiflett)

New NASA KSC 24-meter outer diameter liquid hydrogen dewar under construction in 2020 (left) and internal design (right) (courtesy NASA)

Hydrogen Energy and Renewables Architecture (HyERA)™

Description: Provides energy storage, potable water, and hydrogen fuel production for the emerging hydrogen era. Addresses the variability of wind and solar energy sources and associated challenges for meeting electrical load requirements.

Customers: (multiple)

Status: Proprietary software tools and models created to analyze, design, simulate, and optimize custom systems.

Video demonstration

Energy System Software Design Tools

Description: Software design tools for thermal, fluid, and energy systems. Verified and validated models that enable rapid assessment of engineering trades for optimizing a baseline design. Capability to drop in existing components and subsystems to model integrated performance. Flexibility to integrate new technologies to explore impact on overall system.

Customers: (multiple)

Status: Under continuous development

Energy Architecture Design Options Example

Multilayer Insulation (MLI) Modeling and Calorimeter

Description: Developed MLI software and testing tools capable of up to 300 layers for use with liquid hydrogen and other cryogenic systems. Performed under subcontract to Sierra Lobo.

Customer: US Air Force (USAF)

Status: Created an MLI analysis and design software tool that was subsequently used for many years by USAF. Designed a liquid hydrogen calorimeter for performance testing of thick MLI systems that was successfully built and tested (patented and operational) .

MLI Analysis & Design Tool (left) and Liquid Hydrogen Calorimeter Test Rig (right; courtesy Sierra Lobo)

Initial Prototype (courtesy Sierra Lobo)

Lunar Lander Cryogenic Propellant System

Description: Analysis and design trades for lunar Starship vehicle, concept of operation and architecture options.

Customers: NASA and SpaceX

Status: Study phase completed and results presented to customers

Xenon Systems for Electric Propulsion

Description: Systems engineering and trade studies of xenon refueling concepts, flow control and tankage configurations.

Client: Peerless Technologies Corporation

Status: Initial phase and follow on work completed.

Depiction of Lunar Gateway Concept (courtesy NASA)

Solar Orbit Transfer Vehicle Hydrogen Propulsion & Cryo Storage

Description: Developed a solar orbit transfer vehicle system concept that stored liquid hydrogen propellant and made use of a solar concentrator for both propulsion and to drive a thermoacoustic Stirling heat engine (TASHE). Performed under subcontract to Sierra Lobo.

Customer: US Air Force (USAF)

Status: System design completed and modeling tool created to predict performance as a function of launch vehicle, operational parameters and design trade variables.

System Model for Solar Orbit Transfer Vehicle Concept

Space Based Laser Cryogenic System Design Tool

Description: Developed reactants system design for a space based laser platform to destroy ballistic missiles in flight. Performed under subcontract to Sierra Lobo.

Customer: Missile Defense Agency (MDA)

Status: Created cryogenic systems design tool that has been modified and used for numerous other projects.

Cryogenic System Design Tool

LH2 & LOx System for PEM or SOFC Fuel Cells

Description: Fuel cell power system for an unmanned underwater vehicle with significantly improved performance compared to current battery systems. Performed under subcontract to Sierra Lobo.

Customer: Office of Naval Research (ONR)

Status: Created system modeling tools used to build several prototypes culminating in successful sea trial.

UUV Fuel Cell System Model (top) and prototype system (bottom; courtesy Sierra Lobo)

Avionics Stirling Microcooler (Advanced Cooling Module)

Description: Co-Principal Investigator on a three year R&D program to develop avionics active cooling technology based on previous patents. Partners included Carnegie Mellon University and Advanced Cooling Technologies.

Customer: Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)

Status: Completed prototype assemblies and performance modeling.

Stirling Microcooler Conceptual Design (courtesy Carnegie Mellon University)

Energy Harvesting Microsystems/MEMS

Description: Microsystem technologies for converting low grade waste heat into usable electricity. Intellectual property includes one patent and several trade secrets.

Organizations: (multiple)

Status: Lab scale demonstrations completed

Microscale Regenerative Heat Exchanger (courtesy Polar Thermal Technologies)

Power Cycle Analysis (Stirling, Brayton & Others)

Description: Cycle analysis tools for Stirling engines, Brayton heat exchangers, and other cycle systems & components.