U.S. Department of Energy Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Tech-to-Market Activities and National Laboratory Impact Initiatives
Authors: Satyapal Sunita , Ainscough Chris , Weber Adam Z , Malhotra Sanjiv , Papageorgopoulos Dimitrios C , Farmer Rick 
Published: February 2020

Hydrogen and fuel-cell technologies offer the potential to reduce emissions and petroleum dependency dramatically across transportation, stationary, and portable power sectors of the economy.  Global revenues for fuel cells surpassed $1.3 billion in 2013, with market estimates of more than $100 billion within two decades.  Thousands are already being adopted for material handling equipment by household names such as WalMart, Coca-Cola, BMW, FedEx, Sysco among many others and for mission-critical applications such as telecom towers by leading global entities including Sprint.  Increased emphasis on hydrogen and fuel cells is anticipated as major automakers roll out fuel-cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) with Toyota releasing their first (named Mirai − which means ‘future’ in Japanese) for commercial sale, Hyundai already leasing theirs, and Honda, GM and others close behind.

With recent increased activity in hydrogen and fuel-cell technologies, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is amplifying its efforts to engage the U.S. DOE national laboratory enterprise in accelerating progress.  In this talk, we will discuss FCTO’s strategy and implementation opportunities for increasing the engagement and effectiveness of national labs with U.S. industry, including increasing and enhancing lab-private sector relationships, streamlining access to national-lab capabilities, and demonstrating the value of lab-developed science and technology. 

This presentation will also provide an overview of progress to date and additional needs, with a focus on stakeholder feedback to continue to improve DOE FCTO programs.   FCTO funding has already led to over 500 patents, forty commercial hydrogen and fuel-cell technologies in the market and sixty-five emerging technologies anticipated to be commercial in the next 3 to 5 years.  National labs have received more than 200 patents related to hydrogen and fuel cells and are working closely with companies and universities to continue addressing key challenges.

Finally, this presentation will provide an overview of technical capabilities at various national labs, examples of mechanisms to engage with national labs and examples that ‘demystify’ the process of working with national labs. Both fundamental electrochemistry related capabilities as well as modeling, analysis, and testing capabilities will be summarized.  In addition, mechanisms such as FCTO’s successful use of the Technology Transfer Opportunity (TTO) through the Small Business Innovation and Research (SBIR) program will be discussed as well as the emerging Small-Business Voucher (SBV) program.  FCTO will present its strategy of using lab-led consortia in key areas and including universities and industry as project partners.  Future plans including engagement of the investor community and accelerating technology to market in key areas across hydrogen production, delivery, storage and fuel cells will be covered.