DOE-FCTO: Accelerating Hydrogen Infrastructure Innovation

FCTO is a key component of the DOE’s Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) portfolio. EERE seeks to provide clean, affordable, and reliable energy from diverse domestic resources, along with benefits of increased energy security, reduced criteria pollutants, and reduced greenhouse gas emissions; hydrogen and fuel cells are an important part of EERE’s portfolio. FCTO funds activities addressing the barriers hydrogen fueling stations face today, including renewable hydrogen fuel cost, station and equipment cost, station reliability and performance, codes and standards development, manufacturing needs, and outreach and training needs.

This is a critical time for the hydrogen market in the United States, as we are in the early commercial phases for hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs), hydrogen fueling stations and delivery infrastructure, and renewable production technologies. With independent data from over 6 million miles of driving FCEVs and over 163,000 kg of hydrogen dispensed, FCTO is obtaining important information to help identify key areas for further research and development and has identified specific challenges facing hydrogen infrastructure and fueling station components.

FCTO is committed to enabling successful initial commercial deployment of hydrogen fueling stations. In the recent past, FCTO has focused on increasing public-private partnerships to address immediate technical challenges, an effort that will continue through the Hydrogen Fueling Infrastructure Research and Station Technology (H2FIRST) project. H2FIRST leverages capabilities at the national laboratories to address the technology challenges related to hydrogen fueling stations. Outside of infrastructure projects funded through H2FIRST, FCTO is looking to identify other strategic research, development, and demonstration pathways to lower station costs and increase the overall utilization of hydrogen in the market.

FCTO wants to address some of the barriers facing hydrogen infrastructure research, development, and deployment in the near and longer-term, listed below. Note that the following list does not include all of the barriers, but it does include many identified by both FCTO and stakeholders during an Annual Merit Review Session. Barriers to be addressed through this RFI include:
• Station and equipment cost
• Station footprint
• Station reliability and performance
• Station availability
• Lack of a domestic supply chain for equipment parts, and
• Lack of real-world business cases for FCEVs and hydrogen stations.

The purpose of this RFI is to solicit feedback from industry, academia, research laboratories, government agencies, and other stakeholders on the research, development, and demonstration topics.

The full Request for Information (RFI) is posted on the EERE eXCHANGE website at https://eere-exchange.energy.gov.

This is a Request for Information (RFI) only. EERE will not pay for information provided under this RFI and no project will be supported as a result of this RFI. This RFI is not accepting applications for financial assistance or financial incentives. EERE may or may not issue a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) based on consideration of the input received from this RFI.