DOE Announces Up to $15.3M for Long-Term Hydrogen Vehicle Development
August 19, 2008 // Published as a news service by IHS
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced the selection of 10 cost-shared hydrogen storage R&D projects, which will receive up to $15.3 million over five years, subject to annual appropriations.
These projects are part of the U.S. federal government's Hydrogen Fuel Initiative that committed $1.2 billion on research and R&D for hydrogen-powered fuel cells.
The projects also support the U.S. federal government's Advanced Energy Initiative to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign energy sources.
The DOE Hydrogen, Fuel Cell and Infrastructure Technologies program is helping enable the long-term maturation of hydrogen technologies, said DOE. The selected projects seek to develop hydrogen storage technologies to enable fuel cell vehicles to meet customer expectations for longer driving range and performance.
The projects include development of novel hydrogen storage materials and efficient methods for regeneration of hydrogen storage materials, as well as approaches to increase hydrogen binding energies to enable room temperature hydrogen storage.
These projects are part of the DOE National Hydrogen Storage Project. The DOE hydrogen storage activities for vehicles focus primarily on enabling a driving range of greater than 300 miles, within packaging and cost constraints.
DOE will negotiate the terms of 10 cost-shared projects currently planned for a total of approximately $18 million with up to $15.3 million total government share, subject to annual appropriations, and $3 million applicant cost share. The organizations selected for negotiation of awards are:
- Los Alamos National Laboratory (Los Alamos, N.M.) - Up to $2.3 million for novel concept using an electric field to increase the hydrogen binding energy in hydrogen adsorbents.
- Northwestern University (Evanston, Ill.) - Up to $2.2 million to design novel multi-component, metal hydride based mixtures for hydrogen storage.
- Northwestern University - Up to $1.3 million for novel hydrogen adsorbent materials with increased hydrogen binding energy through metal doping.
- Ohio State University (Columbus, Ohio) - Up to $1.1 million for development of high capacity, reversible hydrogen storage materials using boron-based metal hydrides.
- Pennsylvania State University (University Park, Pa.) - Up to $1.5 million for development of novel nanoporous materials for use as hydrogen adsorbents.
- U.S. Borax Inc. (Greenwood Village, Colo.) - Up to $600,000 for development of a high-efficiency process for the regeneration of spent chemical hydrogen carriers.
- University of Missouri (Columbia, Mo.) - Up to $1.9 million for development of boron-substituted, high-surface area carbon materials made from corncobs used as hydrogen adsorbents.
- University of Oregon (Eugene, Ore.) - Up to $640,000 for novel boron and nitrogen substituted cyclic compounds used as liquid hydrogen carriers.
- University of California at Los Angeles (Los Angeles, Calif.) - Up to $1.7 million for novel hydrogen adsorbent materials based on light metal impregnation for increasing hydrogen binding energies.
- Sandia National Laboratories (Livermore, Calif.) - Up to $2.0 million for development of materials with tunable thermodynamics through the stabilization of nanosized particles.
"Researching and improving the use of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies in our vehicles is a long-term priority for the U.S.," said DOE Undersecretary Clarence H. 'Bud' Albright, Jr. "With continued investment, hydrogen holds the potential to help fundamentally change the way we power our vehicles and reduce greenhouse gas emissions."
More information about the DOE Hydrogen Program and the National Hydrogen Storage Project is available on the DOE Hydrogen Program web site.
Source: U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).