US DoE announces $42 mn funding for 22 clean hydrogen projects

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced nearly $42 million in funding for 22 projects in 14 states to advance critical technologies for producing, storing, and deploying clean hydrogen. These projects will develop technologies for solar fuels, created by harvesting sunlight, and will be managed by DOE's Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office (HFTO). 

In addition, the projects will demonstrate higher-density and lower-pressure hydrogen storage technologies, lower the costs of hydrogen fuel cells for medium- and heavy-duty transportation applications, and improve hydrogen-emissions detection and monitoring. 

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In particular, the projects selected to improve hydrogen emissions detection will supplement DOE's work on hydrogen leakage, thereby addressing community concerns about hydrogen emissions and safety, and advance the broader field of leakage detection and monitoring technologies, claims the US energy department. 

"Today's investments are a bold step in addressing some of our hardest to decarbonize sectors — heavy transportation and industry — by working directly with states and tribes to make hydrogen an available clean energy source," said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. 

"Thanks to President Biden's Investing in America agenda, these bold investments are ensuring the U.S. leads the way in hydrogen technology and other clean energy solutions", she noted. 

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DOE considers that by advancing the performance and cost of clean-hydrogen technologies, US can make strident progress towards its goal of meeting net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. The projects selected for funding support the department's 'H2@Scale' initiative, which aims to augment the affordable production, transport, storage, and utilization of clean hydrogen.

Further, the projects also advance DOE's Hydrogen Shot goal of reducing the cost of clean hydrogen to 1 dollar per 1 kilogram in 1 decade ("1-1-1").