Hydrogen Production R&D Activities
An important advantage to using hydrogen as an energy carrier is that it can be produced from a variety of abundant and domestic resources. DOE is evaluating and supporting the development of multiple production pathways that result in zero or near-zero greenhouse gas emissions. To meet initial lower volume needs with the least capital investment for the transition to a hydrogen economy, near-term research is focused on distributed production from natural gas or renewable liquid fuel reforming and small-scale water electrolysis. Other production pathways, such as photolytic and high-temperature thermochemical technologies, for example, require long-term research.
The following resources provide details about DOE-funded hydrogen production research. Some of these documents are available as Adobe Acrobat PDFs. Download Adobe Reader.
- Annual Merit Review
- Annual Merit Review and Peer Evaluation Report
- Annual Progress Report
- Research Plans —
- Hydrogen, Fuel Cells, and Infrastructure Technologies Multi-Year RD&D Plan — Production Chapter (PDF 924 KB)
- Office of Fossil Energy Hydrogen from Coal RD&D Plan (PDF 1.8 MB)
- Office of Nuclear Energy, Science, and Technology Nuclear Hydrogen R&D Plan (PDF 1.82 MB)
For more information about DOE hydrogen production activities, please see: