New hydrogen sensors equipped to detect hydrogen gas in nuclear reactor chambers and power plants were developed by a University of Iowa research team in an effort to facilitate safer practices.

Andrew Collings, executive director of the Mid-Iowa Planning Alliance, the host agency for Iowa Clean Cities Coalition, said hydrogen could serve as a bridge between Iowa’s growing wind and nuclear resources for industrial or transportation use.

Iowa is a national leader in wind energy, generating roughly 63 percent of the state’s electricity from wind in 2024, the highest share in the U.S., according to the Energy Information Administration. 

According to the Iowa Utilities Commission, Iowa has about 12,979 megawatts of installed wind capacity, with utilities planning up to 1,000 megawatts of additional wind projects.

Meanwhile, the Duane Arnold Energy Center near Cedar Rapids, Iowa’s only commercial nuclear plant, is being revived. 

According to NextEra Energy and Google, the energy center signed a 25‑year power purchase agreement on Oct. 27 to restart the Duane Arnold Energy Center. 

The reopening is projected to add 1,600 jobs across Iowa and more than $340 million in annual economic output from nuclear operations, according to the NextEra agreement announcement. 

The sensor developed by UI researchers makes reactor chambers and power plants safer, potentially paving the way for hydrogen-powered vehicles or industrial processes in the state, according to Thomas Folland, an assistant professor of the physics and astronomy department and the lead author of the study who developed the sensors. 

Hydrogen is explosive and highly flammable, and can ignite from hydrogen concentrations in the air anywhere from 4 percent to 74 percent, according to the Department of Energy. 

An analysis published by the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy observed patterns of hydrogen accidents around the world from the 1940s to present.

The analysis found 75 percent of all 706 accidents worldwide were initiated by hydrogen systems, with 79 percent of those involved ignition and 48 percent leading to explosions. 

The new sensors built by UI researchers could thwart such accidents, according to a study published by the American Chemical Society. 

The sensors use the rare element of palladium, which is more commonly used to control vehicle emissions, to detect tiny amounts of hydrogen gas. By shining infrared light on a palladium-based sensor, the researchers were able to see a shift in how much light was absorbed or reflected. 

Folland said the team acquiring palladium was a crucial step to the precision of the sensors.

Folland said the sensors could be placed in reactor chambers, improving safety by allowing operators to observe the gases from a distance, making the design less manually operated and error prone.

Typically, hydrogen is measured with wires or electricity running through a reactor, increasing the risks of sparks which could ignite any hydrogen gas present. 

Maryam Vaghefi Esfidani, a UI graduate research assistant and a co-author of the study, said the sensor’s self calibration feature would not only improve safety but minimize cost and time.

“The nice thing about our sensor, as mentioned, is that it’s self calibrated, so we don’t need to do the calibration, or even if we have to, it’s going to be every two years to three years,” she said. “Most customers suffer from that, and they have to pay a lot for a [manual] calibration.”

The UI sensors can eliminate the risk of sparks in the chamber, detecting leaks early and safely to prevent dangerous hydrogen buildup, Folland said. This is a concern in nuclear plants, highlighted by the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi Accident, where hydrogen explosions caused major structural damage.

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Folland and his team are now aiming to repurpose the sensor to detect other chemically harmful gases like ammonia and nitrous sulfates along with hydrogen.

Folland’s research team is also aiming to make a demonstrative model for commercial use, using less expensive equipment not found in a laboratory. He said the sensors could be widely implemented in factories in the next couple of years. 

Folland said the team is hoping to put the sensor through the U.S. National Science Foundation Innovation Corps program, an entrepreneurial training program that assists scientists with the transformation from invention to commercialization to eventually set a fair price for the sensor.

Folland’s team is aiming for a competitive price range of $500 to $2,500. If the team is successfully able to modify the sensor to detect multiple gases, Folland said the price would be extremely attractive to buyers. 

Collings said the sensors would be extremely helpful for the hydrogen industry.

Collings said hydrogen energy can be a viable pathway for Iowa if it is created through renewable energy sources. He said the Duane Arnold nuclear plant reopening and Iowa’s place as the state with the second greatest capacity for wind energy production give the state a good starting place for hydrogen production. 

“Wind turbines are certainly an important part of that, because that goes hand in hand with hydrogen,” he said. “You would be utilizing that form of energy to make another form of energy that can be used in different parts of our society. I don’t look at them as competitive as more so complementary.”

Collings said even with Iowa’s advantageous position, implementing hydrogen energy could be expensive due to the state’s lack of proper hydrogen infrastructure, such as hydrogen refueling stations. 

“We have not seen that same push in other states and Iowa as well, they have not seen that push,” Collings said. 

Esfidani said the sensor’s operational temperature range will be especially beneficial in Iowa, drawing more people to this design.

“If you go out, especially in Iowa, the temperature goes down to minus 20,” she said. “So it’s really hard for [operators] to use most sensors because it’s not going to be efficient. But our sensor can operate at that temperature.”

Esfidani said the new sensors’ use of nanotechnology and light-based sensing in the infrared will make hydrogen detection faster and more precise.

“We are working [on] the nano scale instead of going with very old techniques like resistance and [electrical] current,” she said. “These types of physics tools, I would say, will change the world.”