The US Department of Energy, DOE on December 21, 2022, referring to its $750 mln budget from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to reduce the cost of clean-hydrogen, presented on December 16, 2022, published a notice of intent for potential funding to accelerate the research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) of affordable clean-hydrogen technologies. This potential funding is set to advance the Hydrogen Shot goal of reducing the cost of clean hydrogen to $1 per 1 kilogram in 1 decade (“1 1 1”), that was introduced in the draft Clean Hydrogen Strategy and Roadmap presented last September. It will also support the Biden Administration’s broader climate goals of achieving carbon-free electricity by 2035 and net-zero carbon emissions across the entire economy by 2050. DOE’s Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office (HFTO) will administer the potential funding, which is anticipated to focus on RD&D of key hydrogen delivery and storage technologies as well as affordable and durable fuel cell technologies. Fuel cell RD&D efforts will focus particularly on applications for heavy duty trucks, to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and eliminate tailpipe emissions that are harmful to local air quality.
Potential topic areas include:
- Hydrogen Carrier Development, to develop novel hydrogen carriers and/or catalysts that offer cost and performance advantages over conventional compressed gas or liquid hydrogen (LH2) systems
- Onboard Storage Systems for Liquid Hydrogen, to develop liquid hydrogen storage vessels and balance-of-plant hardware to enable low-cost, energy dense-LH2 storage on medium- and heavy-duty (MD/HD) on-road vehicles
- Liquid Hydrogen Transfer/Fueling Components and Systems, to develop liquid hydrogen transfer and vehicular fueling technologies and processes to enable high-flow liquid hydrogen transfers and/or liquid hydrogen fueling of MD and HD vehicles
- M2FCT: High Performing, Durable Membrane Electrode Assemblies with Innovative Low–Platinum Group Metal Catalysts for MD/HD Applications, which will develop membrane electrode assemblies that will reduce the cost and enhance the durability and performance of proton-exchange membrane fuel cell stacks for MD/HD applications.
Photo: Courtesy DOE, willingness of different sectors to pay for clean hydrogen.