U.S. Energy Department Offers $28 Million in Funding for Clean Hydrogen Development

The U.S. Energy Department on Feb. 7 announced that it is making $28 million available to fund the development of clean hydrogen. The agency’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM) said that the funding is for research and development and front-end engineering design (FEED) projects that will utilize clean hydrogen for transportation, electricity production, and industrial uses. Natural gas is traditionally used to make hydrogen in the U.S. without carbon capture, so it is not emission-free.

The funding prospect will leverage advanced methods to make clean hydrogen at lesser costs from supplies that include community solid waste, legacy coal discard, scrap plastics, and biomass with carbon capture and storage. The department expects innovative hydrogen technologies to play an important role in decarbonizing the country’s economy and progressing the Biden administration’s target of net-zero emissions by 2050.

The Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management intends to make clean energy sources inexpensive through key initiatives such as the Hydrogen Shot, which aims to lessen the price of clean hydrogen by 80 percent to $1 per 1 kilogram within this decade. This initiative was launched on June 7, 2021. Also, the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act offers grants to demonstrate scalable clean hydrogen production to achieve the goal. The initiative will leverage prior experience and funding to establish a sound groundwork for innovative technology that will deliver clean hydrogen.

Five areas of interest for funding:

• Clean hydrogen price drops for Hydrogen Shot
• Clean Hydrogen from abundantly discard resources and biomass
• Sensors and controls for co-gasification of discard plastics in making of hydrogen along with carbon capture
• FEED analysis for carbon capture set up at domestic steam methane reforming units making H2 from natural gas
• FEED analysis for carbon capture set up at domestic autothermal reforming facilities making H2 from natural gas

Responses are due by March 23, 2022.