Hydrogen Fuel Initiative
Contents
Introduction
The United States imports 55% percent of it's oil consumption and is expected to grow to 68% by the year 2025. A substitution for petroleum needs to happen to help fix this growing problem. So in 2003 the Bush Administration started this Hydrogen Fuel initiative. 1.2 Billion dollars was spent in the first five years for better hydrogen technologies. The goal is for there to be commercialization decisions made by 2015 and for hydrogen vehicles to being mass-produced and on the road with hydrogen filling stations by the year 2020.
Cost
The cost of hydrogen fuel is supposed to be gasoline gallon equivalent (gge) of between two and three dollars.
Hydrogen Production Strategy
The plan is for hydrogen to be produced from renewable, coal and nuclear with technologies that will yield almost zero green gas house emissions.
Coal
- Only using Carbon Capture Technology and sequestration
- The Gasification process will produce hydrogen directly
Natural Gas
- Only a temporary source of hydrogen because there are too many demands for it in other sectors of energy use.
Nuclear
- Electrolysis
- Gasification of Biomass
- Reforming of renewable liquids
- Photoelectrochemical
- Photobiological
- Thermochemical (solar and nuclear)
Objectives
- Obtain detailed data, under real world conditions, that will refocus the United States Department of Energy's hydrogen and fuel cell component and materials research.
- Validate the technology against time-phase, performance-based targets.
Manufacturing Challenges
- Developing low cost, high volume fabrication methods
- Meet customer requirements for hydrogen fuel systems
- Adhere to the diversity and size of industries in both manufacturing and energy sectors.