Filed under: Emerging Technologies, Hydrogen
The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Fuel Cell Technologies (FCT) Program will award up to $12 million to groups working to advance hydrogen storage technologies. This time around, the FCT Program wants to fund hydrogen storage technologies focused on reducing the costs associated with hydrogen tanks and developing advanced materials that can withstand high pressure, but that don’t cost an arm and a leg.
The DOE hopes that by funding research and development of hydrogen storage tanks, costs for 350- to 700-bar storage vessels can be reduced by at least 50 percent. The FCT program seeks proposals in these two areas:
- Research and development that will facilitate cost reduction from novel tank designs and concepts; reduction of carbon fiber requirement; and advanced manufacturing technologies such as fiber placement or high speed winding.
- Development of low-cost, high-strength fibers. Proposed approaches may include use of less expensive precursors, using low-cost manufacturing processes or developing alternative materials to carbon such as glass or polymers.
Perhaps this sort of research and development will lead more automakers to commit to launching sub-$50,000 hydrogen-fueled vehicles. Perhaps.
[Source: Department of Energy]
Continue reading DOE to award $12M for development of low-cost hydrogen storage tanks
DOE to award $12M for development of low-cost hydrogen storage tanks originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Mon, 21 Mar 2011 10:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.