$750M Released to DOE for Clean Hydrogen Research and Development

$750 million of previously allocated funding is now being made available to the US Department of Energy (DOE) for research, development, and demonstration efforts to drive down the production costs for clean hydrogen.

 

Hydrogen renewable energy production. Image used courtesy of Adobe Stock

Hydrogen is widely viewed as a potential alternative to carbon-based fossil fuels, but the cost of hydrogen production, particularly clean hydrogen, remains a challenge to wider adoption.

The $750 million in funding is the first tranche of $1.5 billion allocated through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) to advance electrolysis and other manufacturing capabilities for clean hydrogen production.

 

Hydrogen as fuel and energy storage. Image used courtesy of US DOE

 

Clean Hydrogen Production

Hydrogen is the most basic element on earth, consisting of a single proton and electron, and is an excellent energy store, with most hydrogen produced using natural gas. For this reason, it is not considered “clean” hydrogen. Most of this hydrogen is used for petroleum refining and ammonia production, but many more potential use cases exist.  

Clean hydrogen is hydrogen fuel produced from non-carbon or carbon-neutral energy sources. 

According to the DOE, there are several viable pathways for the production of clean hydrogen, including water electrolysis using clean electricity from nuclear, wind, solar, or other renewable sources from biomass through biological processes, and even the use of fossil fuels like coal and natural gas, when combined with carbon capture and storage.

 

Clean hydrogen production pathways. Image used courtesy of US DOE

 

Reducing Clean Hydrogen Costs

The biggest challenge to adopting hydrogen fuels is the cost of producing clean hydrogen. DOE’s Office of Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies is looking to address this challenge by facilitating the development of technologies that can drive down these production costs. 

In 2021, the office launched the Hydrogen Energy Earthshot program to reduce the cost of hydrogen to $1 per kilogram within the next decade (by 2031), an 80% cost reduction.

 

Clean hydrogen costs: $1/kg by 2031. Image used courtesy of US DOE

 

The Hydrogen Future

As part of the funding announcement, U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm emphasized how clean hydrogen produced from renewable energy sources is a “powerful” fuel for a range of applications, including construction, manufacturing, energy storage, and transportation platforms, like cars and trucks.

In all use cases, hydrogen is a highly portable fuel storing energy that can be converted to usable electricity through advanced fuel cell technologies. For transportation applications like cars, hydrogen has a particularly interesting value proposition with the potential to replace the expensive battery packs and charging infrastructure required for EVs.  

Last year, GKN Hydrogen and SoCalGas announced they would work with the DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to collaborate on an innovative hydrogen-based, grid-scale, long-duration storage solution. Two hydrogen storage facilities will be connected to an electrolysis system and fuel cells, which will be connected to the power grid. With this setup, excess grid electricity can be converted to hydrogen through electrolysis and stored for later use. When needed, the hydrogen can be converted back to electricity via the fuel cells to support the grid.  

Of the $1.5 billion in total hydrogen funding allocated through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, $1 billion is earmarked for research and development of cost-effective electrolysis production technologies—the remaining $500 million is targeted for improving the manufacturing and recycling of clean hydrogen systems and materials.

 

Long-duration storage using electrolysis and hydrogen fuel cells. Image used courtesy of SoCalGas