(7a) Goals and Achievements of the US National Program On Hydrogen Storage Applied R&D

The US Department of Energy Fuel Cell Technologies Program's mission is to reduce oil use and carbon emissions by enabling clean, reliable fuel cell technologies for stationary, auxiliary, and portable power as well as transportation applications.

The requirements for hydrogen storage continue to be some of the most technically challenging barriers to the widespread commercialization of hydrogen and fuel cell products. The DOE-EERE hydrogen storage activities primarily focus on applied research and development of materials and engineering to provide low-pressure storage options that meet packaging, cost, safety and performance requirements to allow fuel cell systems to be competitive with current technologies.

This presentation summarizes the program goals, current status, recent accomplishments and current performance gaps of hydrogen storage technologies for fuel cell applications. Material R&D projects are focused in three main areas: metal hydrides; chemical hydrogen storage materials and hydrogen sorbents. New efforts under the Hydrogen Storage Engineering Center of Excellence will provide a coordinated approach to engineering research and development of hydrogen storage systems.