America’s Department of Energy (DOE) has unveiled around US$15.8m for 30 new projects aimed at discovery and development of low-cost materials necessary for hydrogen production, as well as storage and for fuel cells onboard light-duty vehicles.
Selected projects will leverage national lab consortia launched in the guise of the DOE’s Energy Materials Network (EMN), in support of the Department’s materials research and advanced manufacturing priorities.
Selections were made by the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s Fuel Cell Technologies Office (FCTO) annual funding opportunity announcement (FOA) this year.
The 2017 FOA solicited early-stage materials research to advance the Department’s goals of enabling economic and efficient transportation via fuel cell electric vehicles, which use hydrogen fuel produced from diverse domestic resources.
More than 2,000 fuel cell vehicles have been sold or leased in the US since 2015. These consume 95% less petrol per mile than conventional internal combustion engine vehicles, have no tailpipe emissions and offer quiet operation.
