• Plans, Implementation, & Results
• Accomplishments
• Vision, Mission, Goals
• Organization Chart & Contacts
• Budget
• Advisory Panels
• Working Groups
• Systems Integration
• International Activities

Accomplishments and Progress

The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) efforts have greatly advanced the state of the art of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies—making significant progress toward overcoming many of the key challenges to widespread commercialization. DOE has also made major advances by demonstrating and validating the technologies under real-world conditions, supporting early markets through Recovery Act deployments, and leveraging domestic and international partnerships to advance the pace of commercialization. See the program's accomplishments fact sheet.

Reducing the Cost and Improving the Durability and Performance of Fuel Cells

DOE-funded efforts have:

• Reduced the cost of automotive fuel cells by more than 30% since 2008 and 80% since 2002 (from $275/kW in 2002 to $49/kW in 2011, based on projections of high-volume manufacturing costs).¹

  These cost-reductions reflect numerous individual advances in key areas, including the development of durable membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs) with low platinum group metal (PGM) content.²

• Demonstrated more than 2,500-hour (75,000 miles) durability of fuel cell systems in vehicles operating under real-world conditions, with less than 10% degradation. This is more than double the maximum durability of 950 hours demonstrated in 2006.

• Improved the performance of stationary fuel cells, including development of a solid-oxide fuel cell for micro-combined heat and power applications with an almost 25% increase in system power density, which has enabled a more than 30% reduction in stack volume and a 15% reduction in stack weight.³

• Developed advanced manufacturing methods and materials that enabled a 50% decrease in the actual cost of gas diffusion layers since 2008.⁴

Improving Technologies for Producing, Delivering, and Storing Hydrogen

DOE-funded efforts have:

• Reduced the projected cost of producing hydrogen...

• ... from natural gas. Projected costs of hydrogen (assuming high-volume production and widespread deployment) have been reduced to $3.00/gallon gasoline equivalent (gge)—a cost that is competitive with gasoline.⁵

• ... from renewable resources. Costs have been reduced for several pathways, including water electrolysis using wind energy, ethanol reforming, and pyrolysis oil.⁶ Key examples of advances include: reducing capital costs for distributed hydrogen production by water electrolysis by more than 60% since 2007^7,8 and improving the photosynthetic conversion of sunlight in hydrogen-producing microalgal cultures from 3% to 25% by minimizing chlorophyll antennae to maximize efficiency.⁹

• Reduced the projected cost of delivering hydrogen to the end-user. Costs have been reduced by 30% for tube-trailer delivery of high-pressure gas, 20% for pipeline delivery of high-pressure gas, and 15% for tanker truck delivery of liquid hydrogen.¹⁰

• Improved the capacity of hydrogen storage systems. A novel "cryo-compressed" tank concept for hydrogen storage and improvements have been made that increased the gravimetric and volumetric capacity of these systems by approximately 50% since 2007.¹¹ DOE's three centers of excellence have developed more than 400 potential materials for hydrogen storage—leveraging the efforts of multiple university, industry, and national lab partners.

• Among the key accomplishments in materials-based hydrogen storage are: the discovery of new materials with more than 50% improvement in capacity since 2004 and the improvement of kinetics for specific metal hydride materials by a factor of more than 60.¹²

Real-World Demonstrations and Technology Validation

Deployed 170 fuel cell electric vehicles and 24 hydrogen fueling stations in learning demonstrations. The vehicles have traveled over 3 million miles, and the fueling stations have produced or dispensed more than 140,000 kg of hydrogen (*not all hydrogen produced was used in learning-demonstration vehicles). These demonstrations have validated the status of several key technologies in integrated systems under real-world operating conditions. Key results include demonstrating fuel cell system efficiency of up to 59% (more than double the efficiency of gasoline internal combustion engines), fuel cell system durability of 2,500 hours (about 75,000 miles), and a driving range of more than 250 miles between refueling. The Program also validated that one vehicle achieved 430 miles on a single fill of hydrogen.

DOE has also collaborated with the Department of Transportation, to collect and analyze data from fuel cell buses, and the Department of Defense, to validate the performance of their fuel cell forklifts and backup power units.

Early Market Deployments through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

DOE awarded $42 million under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to accelerate the commercialization and deployment of fuel cells—these efforts will deploy up to 1,000 fuel cells, primarily in backup power and forklift applications. Success in these early markets will help pave the way for longer term success of fuel cells in larger markets, such as transportation.

• Industry participants provided approximately $54 million in cost-share funding—for a total of nearly $96 million. These funds are helping to deploy fuel cells across several industries, including bringing several high-profile companies into the fuel cell arena, such as Sprint, AT&T, FedEx, Whole Foods, Sysco, Wegmans, and Coca-Cola.

• Successful DOE projects have led industry to plan deployments of more than 3,000 fuel cell forklifts without additional DOE funding. These projects are also supporting fuel cell manufacturers like ReliOn, Plug Power, and Nuvera—helping to create fuel cell jobs, and keep these jobs in the U.S.

• As of September 2011, almost 80% of these funds have been spent resulting in over 830 fuel cells deployed for stationary power, cell tower backup, and fuel cell powered lift trucks.

References and Notes

1. DOE Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Program Record # 11012.

2. Debe, Mark. Advanced Cathode Catalysts and Supports for PEM Fuel Cells, DOE 2011 Annual Merit Review Proceedings.

3. Bessette, Norman. Development of a Low Cost 3-10 kW Tubular SOFC Power System, DOE 2010 Annual Merit Review Proceedings.

4. Morgan, Jason. Reduction in Fabrication Costs of Gas Diffusion Layers, DOE 2011 Annual Merit Review Proceedings.

5. National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Distributed Hydrogen Production from Natural Gas: Independent Review, October 2006.

6. Dillich, Sara. Hydrogen Production and Delivery, DOE 2011 Annual Merit Review Proceedings.

7. Hamdan, Monjid. PEM Electrolyzer Incorporating an Advanced Low Cost Membrane, DOE 2011 Annual Merit Review Proceedings.

8. Ayers, Katherine. High Performance, Low Cost Hydrogen Generation from Renewable Energy, DOE 2011 Annual Merit Review Proceedings.

9. Melis, Tasio. Maximizing Light Utilization Efficiency and Hydrogen Production in Microalgal Cultures, 2010 Annual Progress Report.

10. Dillich, Sara. Hydrogen Production and Delivery, DOE 2011 Annual Merit Review Proceedings.

11. DOE Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Program Record # 9017.

12. DOE Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Program Record # 5037.