The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Fuel Cell Technologies Office (FCTO) has issued a request for information (RFI) on priority areas that will advance the deployment of hydrogen fueling stations and delivery infrastructure and also on barriers and activities to pursue in both the near and longer term.
According to the DOE, its FCTO funds activities that address the barriers hydrogen fueling stations currently face, including renewable hydrogen fuel cost, station and equipment cost, station reliability and performance, codes and standards development, manufacturing needs, and outreach and training needs.
The FCTO states that the hydrogen market in the U.S. is now in the early commercial phases for hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs), hydrogen fueling stations and delivery infrastructure, and renewable production technologies. The DOE office has been obtaining information to identify key areas for research and development through independent data from over 6 million miles of driving FCEVs and over 163,000 kg of hydrogen dispensed.
In the recent past, the 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.
The FCTO says that some of the barriers to be addressed through this RFI include the following:
- 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, and responses must be submitted electronically no later than 5:00 p.m. ET on Aug. 26.
