The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and its partners are overcoming the challenges of incorporating hydrogen into the U.S. energy system. The major categories of DOE-sponsored research and development (R&D) are listed below.
Challenge: Producing hydrogen in ways that make it cost-competitive with conventional fuels and technologies while minimizing the environmental impacts of production.
Challenge: Cost-effectively distributing hydrogen from the point of production to the point of end-use, such as into fuel cell vehicles.
Challenge: Storing enough hydrogen onboard vehicles to enable a driving range of 300 miles or more without taking up excessive space or adding excessive weight.
Challenge: Reducing fuel cell system cost and size and improving the performance and durability of polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell systems for transportation, small stationary, and portable applications. View a Fuel Cell Animation on the Hydrogen, Fuel Cells, and Infrastructure Technologies Program site.
Challenge: Developing technologies that advance state-of-the-art fuel cell systems, subsystems, and components for highway vehicles.
Challenge: Moving from today's components and systems, built using laboratory-scale fabrication technologies, to high-volume commercially manufactured products.
In addition to NREL, many other DOE national laboratories perform research and development on hydrogen and fuel cells.
For information on non-R&D government-sponsored activities, see Hydrogen Infrastructure Development.