US DOE Plans $750MM in Grants to Advance Clean Hydrogen Solutions

The United States Department of Energy (DOE) has provisionally allotted $750 million for 52 projects across 24 states to advance electrolysis technologies and grow the domestic supply chain for clean hydrogen production.

“The projects are expected to enable U.S. manufacturing capacity to produce 14 gigawatts of fuel cells per year, enough to power 15 percent of medium- and heavy-duty trucks sold each year, and 10 gigawatts of electrolyzers per year, enough to produce an additional 1.3 million tons of clean hydrogen per year”, the DOE said in a news release.

“Clean hydrogen is set to play a vital role in reducing emissions from our most energy-intensive and polluting sectors”, it added. “These sectors include key economic engines that are essential to the modern American economy and quality of life, such as heavy-duty transportation and industrial and chemical processes like steelmaking and fertilizer production.

“Clean hydrogen can also support the expansion of clean electricity by providing a means for long-duration energy storage and offering flexibility and multiple revenue streams for all types of clean power generation—including renewables, advanced nuclear, and other innovative technologies”. 

Low-cost, high-throughput electrolyzer manufacturing has the highest total allocation—$316 million for eight projects—among the funding opportunity’s six topic areas. “Selected projects will conduct RD&D [research, development and demonstration] to enable greater economies of scale through electrolyzer manufacturing innovations, including automated manufacturing processes; design for processability and scale-up; advanced quality control methods; reduced critical mineral loadings; and design for end-of-life recovery and recyclability”, the DOE said.

Five projects involving advanced manufacturing of fuel cell assemblies and stacks have been earmarked a total of $150 million.

Fuel cell supply chain development, the third-biggest topic area in terms of potential funding, has been allotted $82 million for 10 projects. “Selected projects will conduct R&D to address critical deficiencies in the domestic supply chain for fuel cell materials and components and develop advanced technologies that reduce or eliminate the need for “forever chemicals”, the DOE said.

This grant offer is separate from the $7 billion the DOE announced October 13 to support the building of clean hydrogen production centers across the country. The amount will go to seven regional projects that are expected to produce a combined 3.0 million metric tons per annum (MMtpa) of clean hydrogen, “reaching nearly a third of the 2030 U.S. production target and lowering emissions from hard-to-decarbonize industrial sectors that represent 30 percent of total US carbon emissions”, the DOE said in a press release at the time.

The U.S. has set targets of reaching clean hydrogen production of 10 MMtpa by 2030, 20 MMtpa by 2040 and 50 MMtpa by 2050, as specified in the U.S. National Clean hydrogen Strategy Roadmap published November 15, 2021.

The DOE press release added, “Together with the Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs, tax incentives in the President’s historic Inflation Reduction Act, and ongoing research, development, and demonstration in the DOE Hydrogen Program, these investments will help DOE achieve its ambitious Hydrogen Shot™ goal of reducing the cost of producing clean hydrogen to $1 per kilogram”.

The DOE and the recipients now go through “a negotiation process” before the allotments can be finalized, the department said.

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