Transport

The US Department of Energy has announced funding of up to $15.3 million over three years for 10 projects focusing on hydrogen storage research and development to enable fuel cell vehicles to improve their driving range and performance.

The projects are part of President Bush’s Hydrogen Fuel Initiative that has earmarked $1.2 billion to research and development of hydrogen-powered fuel cells.

The selected projects are:

• Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico – Up to $2.3 million to develop a concept using an electric field to increase the hydrogen binding energy in hydrogen adsorbents;
• North Western University, Illinois – Up to $2.2 million to design novel multi-component metal-hydride based mixtures for hydrogen storage; and up to a further $1.3 million to develop new hydrogen adsorbent materials with increased hydrogen binding energy through metal doping;
• Ohio State University, Ohio – Up to £1.1 million to develop high-capacity, reversible hydrogen storage materials using boron-based metal hydrides;
• Pennsylvania State University, Pennsylvania – Up to £1.5 million to develop a new nano-porous material for use as hydrogen adsorbents;
• US Borax Inc, Colorado – Up to $0.6 million to develop a high-efficiency process for regenerating spend chemical hydrogen carriers;
• University of Missouri, Missouri – Up to $1.9 million to develop boron-substituted, high surface area carbon materials made from corn cobs as hydrogen adsorbents;
• University of Oregon, Oregon – Up to $0.64 million for new boron- and nitrogen-substituted cyclic compounds for use as hydrogen carriers;
• University of California at Los Angeles, California – Up to $1.7 million for new hydrogen adsorbent materials based on light metal impregnation;
• Sandia National Laboratories, California – Up to $2.0 million to develop materials with tunable thermo-dynamics through the stabilization of nano-sized particles.

The DOE will negotiate cost-sharing terms with the selected organisations, with a further £3million in funding being provided by the project recipients.

The funding was announced by DOE Under Secretary Clarence Albright at the Washington DC stop of the Hydrogen Road Tour, a two-week cross-country tour of 18 states by a fleet of hydrogen-powered vehicles.

Nine car manufacturers, the DOE, California Fuel Cell Partnership, National Hydrogen Association and the US Department of Transport are sponsoring the tour to show that hydrogen vehicles and fuelling technologies are approaching commercial availability.

For further information:
www.doe.gov/news/6480.htm