The announcement came on the heels of a new report that shows the fuel cell industry is continuing to grow at a rapid rate, totaling more than $2.2 billion in sales last year.
The DoE’s investment will go toward 10 projects that will advance fuel cell and hydrogen technologies, and enable early adoption of fuel cell applications such as light-duty fuel cell electric vehicles.
The goal of investing in the projects is to accelerate U.S. innovation in clean energy technologies by supporting research and development advancements. That will in turn reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign oil and cut down on the harmful carbon emissions that drive climate change.
“These projects announced today will continue to make advances in our rapidly-expanding portfolio of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies,” David Danielson of the DoE said. “Energy Department-supported projects have helped reduce the modeled cost of transportation fuel cells by 50 percent since 2006, and more than double durability and reduce the amount of platinum necessary by a factor of five."
To further advance these clean energy technologies, the DoE selected seven projects to address the hydrogen and fuel cells research and development area. That includes hydrogen production via microbial biomass conversion, low platinum group metal catalyst development for fuel cell applications, development of integrated intelligent hydrogen dispensers and hydrogen delivery pipeline manufacturing.
Three more projects were selected for funding with the aim of addressing early market and demonstration needs. One project is a demonstration of mobile hydrogen refueling technology as an answer to the lack of widespread hydrogen fueling stations. The other two cover fuel cell-powered range extenders for light-duty hybrid electric vehicles.
The DOE is a Cabinet-level department of the government concerned with the United States' policies regarding energy and safety in handling nuclear material.
Alerts Sign-up