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Introduction to the U.S. 

Department of Energy’s 

Controlled Hydrogen Fleet and 

Infrastructure Demonstration 

and Validation Project 

K. Wipke, C. Welch, S. Gronich, J. Garbak, and 

D. Hooker 

Presented at EVS-21 (Electric Vehicle Symposium) 

www.evs21.org 

Monte Carlo, Monaco 

April 2–6, 2005 

Conference Paper 

NREL/CP-560-39979 

May 2006 
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Introduction to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Controlled 

Hydrogen Fleet and Infrastructure Demonstration and Validation 

Project 

Keith Wipke, Cory Welch, Sigmund Gronich, John Garbak, Doug Hooker 

Abstract 

Early in 2003, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) initiated the “Controlled Hydrogen Fleet and 

Infrastructure Demonstration and Validation Project” solicitation. The purpose of this project is to 

examine the impact and performance of fuel cell vehicles and the requisite hydrogen infrastructure in realworld applications. The integrated nature of the project enables DOE to work with industry to test, 

demonstrate, and validate optimal system solutions. Information learned from the vehicles and 

infrastructure will be fed back into DOE’s R&D program to guide and refocus future research as needed, 

making this project truly a “learning demonstration.” 

The first of the Cooperative Agreements between DOE and the industry teams was signed in the fall of 

2004, and vehicles are now being introduced at the same time as hydrogen refueling stations are being 

installed. Estimated government investment in this activity will be around $190 million, coupled with 

significant cost share from industry for a planned total of around $400 million. This paper describes the 

teams involved in the project, the general geographic locations of the hydrogen refueling infrastructure to 

be installed, and the makeup of the initial fleets to be put into operation for data collection. The type of 

data to be collected from the infrastructure and vehicles is explained, and the nature of the analyses made 

possible from the data is explored in a generic way. 

These collaborative projects with industry will continue for five years, over which multiple generations of 

technology will be tested as lessons are learned from the initial fleet. Technical performance from this 

project (at its conclusion and intermediate steps along the way) will ultimately be compared against 

DOE’s 2009 technical targets such as a 250-mile range, 2000-hour fuel cell stack durability per vehicle, 

and a hydrogen production cost of $3.00 per gallon of gasoline equivalent (gge) untaxed, when produced 

in quantity. 

Keywords: demonstration, fuel cell, hydrogen, infrastructure, passenger car. 

1
1 Introduction 

Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are currently being researched as an approach to introduce a commerciallyviable zero-tailpipe emission vehicle into the marketplace. Using hydrogen as the fuel provides a key 

benefit to the United States in terms of fuel feedstock diversity. The hydrogen could come from a mixture 

of renewables, natural gas, biomass, coal, and nuclear energy, allowing the United States to decrease its 

dependence on foreign oil. The vehicles would have all the benefits of being entirely electric-drive, 

including high efficiency, regenerative braking, and low noise. There are numerous technical challenges 

remaining before the hydrogen fuel cell vehicle will enter the commercial automotive market, but there is 

also significant effort underway to make this happen. 

The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is working with industry to remove the technical barriers 

to allow commercialization of these technologies through its Hydrogen, Fuel Cells & Infrastructure 

Technologies (HFCIT) Program. This multi-faceted program simultaneously focuses on hydrogen 

production, storage, delivery, conversion (fuel cells), technology validation, education, safety, and codes 

and standards. While many of the current key technical barriers have already been identified and are 

being addressed, such as hydrogen storage and fuel cell durability, additional technical challenges may 

need to be solved that have not yet been identified because the vehicles and infrastructure have not been 

fully developed. To date, fleets of fuel cell vehicles have been small and focused in several locations in 

California, limiting the geographic diversity of the data collected and the lessons learned. To 

simultaneously evaluate and learn from experience gained with both the vehicles and the refueling 

infrastructure, DOE has taken a unique approach to performing a large-scale “learning demonstration” 

involving automotive manufacturers and energy (fuel) providers. This learning demonstration, entitled the 

“Controlled Hydrogen Fleet and Infrastructure Demonstration and Validation Project,” is the second phase 

of the HFCIT Program’s Technology Validation effort (see Figure 1). 

Figure 1. Transportation and infrastructure timeline. 

2
In April 2003, DOE initiated a competitive solicitation for proposals for this project. Proposals were due 

in October 2003, and selections from this competitive process were announced in April 2004. The first of 

the Cooperative Agreements between DOE and industry teams was signed in the fall of 2004, and vehicles 

are now being introduced and hydrogen refueling stations are being installed. Estimated government 

investment in this activity will be around $190 million with significant cost share from industry for a total 

of approximately $400 million. This paper describes the teams involved in the project, the general 

geographic locations of the hydrogen refueling infrastructure to be installed, and the initial fleets to be put 

into use for data collection. The type of data to be collected from the infrastructure and vehicles is 

explained, and the nature of the analyses made possible from the data is explored in a generic way. These 

five-year collaborative projects with industry will span multiple generations of technology as experience is 

gained from the initial fleet. 

2 Project Objectives 

One of the HFCIT Program’s key strategies is to conduct learning demonstrations of hydrogen 

infrastructure in parallel with hydrogen fuel cell-powered vehicles to facilitate an industry 

commercialization decision by the year 2015. Specifically, the project will test, demonstrate, and validate 

complete system solutions. The quantity, quality, and depth of data being collected are such that they will 

actually allow (1) DOE’s detailed technical program targets to be evaluated and benchmarked, and (2) 

research to be refocused based on these data. The refocusing of R&D as a result of a demonstration and 

validation project is part of what makes this project unique. 

This project has specific performance targets for the year 2009 that will be used to verify program 

progress toward the 2015 targets, which will feed the industry commercialization decision. These targets, 

which are listed in Table 1, have been chosen because they represent the key barriers to successful market 

entry. Fuel cell durability is key because it represents current automotive customer expectations in terms 

of product life. If the stack life is shorter than 5,000 hours, representing 100,000 miles of driving, then the 

cost of ownership of a fuel cell vehicle would be too high. Driving range is also an important consumer 

expectation. For example, driving range, along with cost, caused the pure electric vehicle in California to 

fail commercially when forced into the marketplace by regulation. Finally, the hydrogen production cost 

is key because it could reflect a major cost of ownership for consumers (along with insurance and 

financing) and cannot be much higher than equivalent gasoline cost for success in the market. The values 

for these metrics in 2015, as presented in Table 1, reflect estimated performance parity with conventional 

gasoline technologies. 

Table 1: Project Performance Targets for 2009 and 2015 

Performance Measure 2009* 2015** 

Fuel Cell Stack Durability 2000 hours 5000 hours 

Vehicle Range 250+ miles 300+ miles 

Hydrogen Cost at Station $3.00/gge $1.50/gge 

* To verify progress toward 2015 

** Subsequent projects to validate 2015 target

3
3 Project Participants 

After the solicitation awards were announced in April 2004, DOE negotiated with the winning teams, 

resulting in a number of signed Cooperative Agreements. This section describes the four teams now 

beginning their five-year projects. The solicitation required that the prime recipient of each team had to 

be either an automotive original equipment manufacturer (OEM) or an energy provider, with both required 

to be part of each team. Three of the four teams have the automotive OEM as the prime recipient, and one 

has the energy provider as the prime. Representative examples of fuel cell vehicles developed by the 

participating companies for previous demonstrations are shown in Figure 2. 

GM/Shell

Ford/BP

DaimlerChrysler/BP

ChevronTexaco/Hyundai

Figure 2. Previously demonstrated vehicles from the four industry teams. These vehicles do not 

necessarily represent the vehicles to be used as part of this demonstration and validation project. 

3.1 ChevronTexaco and Hyundai Motor Company 

ChevronTexaco teamed with Hyundai, and included UTC Fuel Cells as the fuel cell provider. Their fleet 

will include roughly 32 fuel cell vehicles that will likely be sport utility vehicles (SUVs). During the fiveyear project, there will also be two different generations of fuel cell systems from UTCFC that will be 

tested. The fleet will be serviced by roughly six refueling stations in northern and southern California. 

3.2 DaimlerChrysler and BP 

The second team consists of DaimlerChrysler and BP, with Ballard as the fuel cell provider. Their fleet 

will include roughly 36 fuel cell vehicles that will include primarily F-Cell vehicles (small minivans) as 

well as Sprinter delivery vans. A goal is to try to get more than one generation of fuel cells rotated into 

service during the project to include improvements learned from ongoing research. The fleet will be 

serviced by roughly eight refueling stations in northern California, southern California, and the Detroit, 

Michigan area. 

3.3 Ford Motor Company and BP 

Ford Motor Company has also teamed with BP as the fuel provider and Ballard as the fuel cell supplier. 

Their fleet will include roughly 26 fuel cell vehicles that will be serviced by roughly seven refueling 

stations in northern California, the Detroit area, and central Florida. 

4
3.4 GM and Shell 

General Motors’ (GM) fuel provider for this project will be Shell, and GM will be providing its own fuel 

cell stacks to power its vehicle fleet. Their fleet will include roughly 40 fuel cell vehicles that will likely 

be based on the Opel Zafira minivan. The fleet will be serviced by roughly seven refueling stations in 

northern and southern California, along with stations in a northeast corridor of the U.S. 

4 Fleet Geographic Locations 

As shown Figure 3, there are five distinct geographic regions that will be investigated as part of this 

project, representing most of the climatic conditions experienced in the United States. 

Figure 3: Location of hydrogen fueling stations for DOE’s learning demonstration project.

Table 2 outlines the major types of climatic conditions represented by these five regions. These four 

climates are important for evaluating fuel cell technology because each presents different technical 

challenges. Cold climates introduce the possibility of extended freeze, which is a known problem for 

current generation fuel cells that use and produce water during operation. Hot arid and hot humid 

environments will investigate challenges regarding the vehicles’ heat rejection systems, which for a fuel 

cell vehicle are at a lower temperature than a typical internal conventional vehicle’s cooling system. All 

of the regions include moderate conditions at some point in the year, allowing some comparison of the 

vehicles at different sites under similar thermal conditions. 

Table 2: Four Climatic Conditions Represented by Learning Demonstration Site Geographies

Climate Station/Vehicle Location Cold Moderate Hot Arid Hot Humid 

Northern CA X X 

Southern CA X X 

Detroit, MI X X 

Washington D.C./NYC X X X 

Orlando, FL X X 

5
5 Data Reporting and Analysis 

A significant amount of data will be collected and analyzed over the course of the learning demonstration. 

Due to the large monetary investment that all the automotive OEMs have made in fuel cell research 

(billions of dollars by each company), the detailed data provided by each team will not be shared among 

the companies or with the public. A Hydrogen Secure Data Center (HSDC) was established at NREL to 

house, protect and analyze the data. The only data products to leave the HSDC are those classified as 

“composite data products.” A list of around 25 such composite data products has been developed and 

agreed to by all of the industry and government partners (see Table 3). 

Table 3. Composite Data Products for the Controlled Hydrogen Fleet and Infrastructure 

Demonstration and Validation Project 

Critical Program Metrics 

1. Fuel Cell Durability, Actual vs. DOE Targets, All OEM’s 

2. Vehicle Ranges, Actual vs. DOE Targets, All OEM’s 

3. Hydrogen Production Cost, Actuals/Projections vs. DOE Targets 

Composite Performance Tracking 

Vehicles 

4. Reliability (FC System & Powertrain, MTBF) 

5. Start Times vs. DOE Target 

6. Fuel Economy: Dyno, On-Road 

7. Normalized Vehicle Fuel Economy 

8. Fuel Cell System Efficiency 

9. Safety Incidents - Vehicle Operation 

10. Weight % Hydrogen Stored 

11. Energy Density of Hydrogen Storage 

12. Vehicle Hydrogen Tank Cycle Life 

Hydrogen Infrastructure 

13. Hydrogen Production Efficiency vs. Process 

14. Combined Heat and Power (CHP) Efficiencies 

15. Hydrogen Production Cost vs. Process 

16. Hydrogen Purity vs. Production Process 

17. Hydrogen Impurities - Range for Production Process A 

18. Histogram: Refueling Rate 

19. Average Maintenance Hours - Scheduled and Unscheduled 

High Level Program Progress 

Vehicles 

20. Range of Actual Ambient Temperatures During Vehicle 

Operation - All Vehicle Teams 

21. Histogram: # Vehicles vs. Operating Hours to Date 

22. Histogram: # Vehicles vs. Miles Traveled to Date 

23. Cumulative Vehicle Miles Traveled - All Teams 

24. Progression of Low to High Pressure On-board H2 Storage 

Hydrogen Infrastructure 

25. Cumulative Hydrogen Production - All Teams 

The composite data products allow the government to report progress toward targets and publish any midcourse program changes needed without compromising any company’s data or competitive advantage. 

6
The data are used to identify trends and consistent problem areas for the technologies that current research 

does not seem to be adequately addressing. Figures 4 and 5 show two examples of the high-level 

composite data products (using fictitious data for now) that will be published at as they become available. 

Fuel Cell Durability

Actual vs. DOE Targets

All OEM's, All Fuel Cell Stacks .

6000

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

2000 2005 2010 2015

Durability (Operating Hours)

Median Target 90% Prediction

Interval

.

6000

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

2000 2005 2010 2015

Durability (Operating Hours)

Median Target 90% Prediction

Interval

Figure 4: An example of the many composite data products that will result from this project. Note 

that the targets in this graph are real, but the data are fictitious and for illustrative purposes only.

Vehicle Range (1)

Actual Ranges vs. DOE Targets

All OEM's

100

150

200

250

300

350

2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016

Range (miles) 

Target

Max

Min

Median

(1) Calculated from dyno results and useable fuel on board

100

150

200

250

300

350

2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016

Range (miles) 

Target

Max

Min

Median

(1) Calculated from dyno results and useable fuel on board

Figure 5: A second example of the type of composite data products resulting from this project. 

7
6 Status 

Currently, most of the negotiations on both contractual and technical issues have been completed. Initial 

data has begun to be been delivered to the HSDC, and the first complete set of analyses should be 

completed in the summer of 2005. The infrastructure data sets will increase as the number of refueling 

stations increases, and the number of vehicle data sets will increase as more vehicles are put into service. 

Composite data products will not be published until a sufficient number of data sets from different 

companies have been received, in order to establish the ranges necessary to protect all proprietary data. 

The project will continue until 2009, at which time the project may be extended to validate the 2015 

targets that will be used in the industry commercialization decision. 

7 Conclusion 

Early in 2003, DOE solicited proposals for the “Controlled Hydrogen Fleet and Infrastructure 

Demonstration and Validation Project.” The purpose of this integrated field validation project is to 

examine the impact and performance of fuel cell vehicles and the requisite hydrogen infrastructure 

simultaneously. The integrated project structure enables DOE to test, demonstrate, and validate optimal 

system solutions. Information learned from both the vehicles and infrastructure is then fed back into 

DOE’s R&D program to guide and refocus future research, making this truly a “learning demonstration.” 

This paper described the teams involved in the project, the general geographic locations of the hydrogen 

refueling infrastructure to be installed, and the makeup of the initial fleets to be put into use for data 

collection. The type of data to be collected from the infrastructure and vehicles was explained, and the 

nature of the analyses made possible from the data was explored in a generic way. 

These collaborative projects with industry will continue for five years, over which several generations of 

technology will be tested as lessons are learned from the initial fleets. Technical performance from this 

project will ultimately be compared against DOE’s 2009 technical targets such as a 250-mile range, 2000 

hour fuel cell stack durability per vehicle, and a hydrogen production cost of $3 per kg untaxed, when 

produced in quantity. Composite data products will be presented to the public in the future to show the 

progress of the project, while the more detailed data will be used to help guide and refocus DOE’s R&D 

activities as necessary. 

Author 

 Keith Wipke, Senior Engineer 

National Renewable Energy Laboratory 

1617 Cole Blvd 

Golden, CO 80401 

303.275.4451, FAX 303.275.2905, keith_wipke@nrel.gov

Mr. Wipke has worked at NREL in the area of advanced vehicles for 12 years. The 

majority of that time has been spent researching hybrid electric vehicles through data 

collection and analysis and computer modeling using NREL’s advanced vehicle simulator 

ADVISOR. In 2003, ADVISOR was licensed to AVL for commercialization and Mr. 

Wipke moved to the hydrogen group at NREL to work on the Controlled Hydrogen Fleet 

and Infrastructure Demonstration and Validation Project. 

8
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Introduction to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Controlled 

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14. ABSTRACT (Maximum 200 Words)

Early in 2003, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) initiated the “Controlled Hydrogen Fleet and Infrastructure 

Demonstration and Validation Project” solicitation. The purpose of this project is to examine the impact and 

performance of fuel cell vehicles and the requisite hydrogen infrastructure in real-world applications. The integrated 

nature of the project enables DOE to work with industry to test, demonstrate, and validate optimal system solutions. 

Information learned from the vehicles and infrastructure will be fed back into DOE’s R&D program to guide and 

refocus future research as needed, making this project truly a “learning demonstration.” 

15. SUBJECT TERMS

technology validation; hydrogen fleet; hydrogen infrastructure; controlled hydrogen fleet and infrastructure 

demonstration and validation project 

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