The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has granted about $34 million to 19 industry and university-led research projects to develop innovative technology solutions and make clean hydrogen a more available and affordable fuel for electricity generation, industrial decarbonization, and transportation. This will help the Biden-Harris Administration achieve its goal of a zero-carbon American power sector by 2035 and a net-zero emissions economy by 2050.
“Clean hydrogen is one of our most versatile tools to slash emissions and forge a carbon-free pathway for a sustainable clean energy future,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy, Jennifer M. Granholm. “With today’s announcements, DOE is supporting the continued advancement of clean hydrogen technology making it cheaper to produce and easier to deploy, all while creating good-paying jobs in the process.”
Since more than 95% of the roughly 10 million metric tons of hydrogen produced in the U.S. comes from natural gas without the capture and geologic storage of carbon dioxide, resulting in emissions, producing clean hydrogen is crucial.
The DOE’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), under the purview of the DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM), will manage the selected projects, which will focus on:
- Developing technologies to help produce clean hydrogen at lower cost and with less energy.
- Exploring ways to produce hydrogen using biomass, effluent waters from oil and natural gas development and production, and other wastes.
- Expanding options for safe and efficient hydrogen transport and storage across the nation.
The projects support the DOE’s Hydrogen Shot initiative, which aims to reduce the cost of clean hydrogen by 80% to $1 per 1 kg in one decade. According to estimates, America’s growing hydrogen economy has the potential to add 100,000 net new direct and indirect jobs by 2030.
Since January 2021, FECM has invested more than $122 million in 72 projects to explore new, clean methods to produce hydrogen and to improve the performance of hydrogen-fueled turbines.
