04-08-2012, 10:26 AM
Hydrogen, Fuel Cells & Infrastructure Technologies Program
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Executive Summary
President Bush launched the Hydrogen Fuel Initiative to ensure
our nation’s long-term energy security and a clean environment.
Using hydrogen to fuel our economy can reduce U.S. dependence
on imported petroleum, diversify domestic energy sources, and
reduce pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Fuel cells are an
important enabling technology for a future hydrogen economy
and have the potential to revolutionize the way we power our
nation, offering cleaner, more efficient alternatives to today’s
technology.
Energy Security:
The U.S. uses about 20 million barrels of
oil per day (60% of which is imported), at a cost of about $6
billion a week (assumes a cost of $45 per barrel of oil). Much
of this oil is used to power highway vehicles. Over 97% of our
transportation energy is from petroleum. Because hydrogen
can be derived from a variety of domestically-available primary
sources (hydrogen itself is not a primary resource), including
fossil fuels, renewable resources, and nuclear power, its use
would allow us to diversify our transportation energy supply and
make us less reliant upon foreign energy sources.
Path Forward: Addressing Barriers to a Hydrogen Economy
The transition of our current energy infrastructure to a clean and
secure energy infrastructure based on hydrogen will take decades.
The technology, economic and institutional barriers pose difficult
challenges. The “critical path” barriers to a hydrogen economy are:
Technology Barriers
• Hydrogen storage systems for vehicles are inadequate to meet
customer driving range expectations (>300 miles) without
intrusion into vehicle cargo or passenger space.
• Hydrogen is currently three to four times as expensive as
gasoline.
• Fuel cells are about five times more expensive than internal
combustion engines and do not maintain performance over the
full useful life of the vehicle.
Economic and Institutional Barriers
• Investment risk of developing a hydrogen delivery
infrastructure is too great given technology status and current
hydrogen vehicle demand.
• Uniform model codes and standards to ensure safety,
insurability and fair global competition are lacking.
• Local code officials, policy makers and the general public lack
education on hydrogen benefits and on safe handling and use.
Defining Success and Measuring Progress
Success for the Hydrogen, Fuel Cells & Infrastructure
Technologies Program is defined as validation, by 2015, of
technology for:
• Hydrogen storage systems enabling greater than 300-mile
vehicle range while meeting identified packaging, cost and
performance requirements
• Hydrogen production from diverse pathways to safely and
efficiently deliver hydrogen to consumers at competitive costs
with gasoline without adverse environmental impacts
• Fuel cells to enable engine costs of less than $50/kW (in
high volume production) and stationary power production
at $400-700/kW while meeting performance and durability
requirements
Hydrogen Production
• Reduce the cost of distributed production of hydrogen from
natural gas to $1.50/gge1 (delivered, untaxed) at the pump
(without carbon sequestration) by 2010 and reduce the cost
of distributed hydrogen production from biomass-derived
renewable liquids to $2.50/gge (delivered, untaxed) at the
pump by 2015.
• Verify grid-connected distributed water electrolysis at a
projected delivered hydrogen cost of $2.85/gge by 2010, and
by 2015, verify central hydrogen production from renewable
energy sources at a projected cost of $2.75/gge delivered.
• Reduce the cost of hydrogen produced from biomass to
$1.60/gge at the plant gate ($2.60 delivered) by 2015.
• Develop advanced renewable photoelectrochemical and
biological hydrogen generation technologies. By 2015, verify
the feasibility of these technologies to be cost-competitive in
the long term.
• Research and develop high-temperature thermochemical cycles
driven by concentrated solar power processes to produce
hydrogen with a projected cost of $3.00/gge at the plant gate
($4.00 delivered) by 2015.