U.S. Energy Department Invests $64M to Advance Hydrogen Production, Utilization

The U.S. Energy Department on July 20 announced an investment of approximately $64 million in 2020 for 18 projects to support hydrogen research and development under the “H2@Scale” initiative. The program is focused on wide-scale hydrogen production and utilization across multiple energy sectors to support resilience in power generation and transmission.

The funding will focus on hydrogen production, storage, distribution, and use. The projects will support the next round of activities under the multi-year initiative to realize the benefits of hydrogen. In August 2019, the department announced about $40 million for 29 projects aimed to support hydrogen storage and infrastructure technologies and examine novel concepts for production and utilization including grid resiliency.

The selected projects focus on three topics – electrolyzer manufacturing R&D, advanced carbon fiber for compressed hydrogen and natural gas storage tanks, and fuel cell R&D for heavy-duty applications. Organizations from both academia and the industry at large, including 3M Company and the University of Virginia will share the funding together.

The projects will be funded through the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office, with contribution from the Advanced Manufacturing Office and Vehicle Technologies Office.

About ten million metric tons of hydrogen are produced in the country every year, of which 95 percent is produced from centralized reforming of natural gas. Currently, the primary applications of hydrogen are in the oil-refining and ammonia industry. Other emerging uses include fuel cell vehicles, metal refining, heating, and synthetic fuels. The investment will also help build a comprehensive training program to cultivate talents in hydrogen and fuel cells in the country.