The US Department of Energy (DoE) has just announced a pot of money for hydrogen car development.

According to the release there will be, “10 cost-shared hydrogen storage research and development projects, which will receive up to $15.3m over five years (see below), subject to annual appropriations.” Which isn’t bad.

These projects are part of Hydrogen Fuel Initiative that committed $1.2bn on research and development (R&D) for hydrogen-powered fuel cells and aims to faze out dependence on foreign energy sources.

Speaking at the Washington DC stop of the 13-day Hydrogen Road Tour, Under Secretary Albright has stated:

“With continued investment, hydrogen holds the potential to help fundamentally change the way we power our vehicles and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”

The selected projects seek to develop hydrogen storage technologies and remove the distance problem of fuel cells. The projects include development of novel hydrogen storage materials, efficient methods for regeneration of hydrogen storage materials, and approaches to increase hydrogen binding energies for room temperature storage.

More from the release:

DoE’s hydrogen storage activities for vehicles focus primarily on enabling a driving range of greater than 300 miles, within packaging and cost constraints.

DoE will negotiate the terms of 10 cost-shared projects currently planned for a total of approximately $18m, with up to $15.3m total government share, subject to annual appropriations, and $3m applicant cost share. The organisations selected for negotiation of awards are:

Los Alamos National Laboratory – Up to $2.3m for novel concept using an electric field to increase the hydrogen binding energy in hydrogen adsorbents.

Northwestern University – Up to $2.2m to design novel multi-component metal hydride-based mixtures for hydrogen storage.

Northwestern University – Up to $1.3m for novel hydrogen adsorbent materials with increased hydrogen binding energy through metal doping.

Ohio State University – Up to $1.1m for development of high capacity, reversible hydrogen storage materials using boron-based metal hydrides.

Pennsylvania State University – Up to $1.5m for development of novel nanoporous materials for use as hydrogen adsorbents.

U.S. Borax Inc – Up to $600,000 for development of a high-efficiency process for the regeneration of spent chemical hydrogen carriers.

University of Missouri – Up to $1.9m for development of boron-substituted, high-surface area carbon materials made from corncobs for use as hydrogen adsorbents.

University of Oregon – Up to $640,000 for novel boron and nitrogen substituted cyclic compounds for use as liquid hydrogen carriers.

University of California at Los Angeles – Up to $1.7m for novel hydrogen adsorbent materials based on light metal impregnation for increasing hydrogen binding energies.

Sandia National Laboratories – Up to $2m for development of materials with tunable thermodynamics through the stabilisation of nanosized particles.

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