New "H-Prize" Offers $1 Million for Improved Hydrogen Storage

DOE has launched the H-Prize competition, offering a $1 million award to an individual or team that creates the most advanced materials for hydrogen storage in vehicles. Hydrogen storage is a critical barrier to widespread market penetration of hydrogen-fueled vehicles, including fuel cell vehicles. Authorized under the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, the H-Prize is managed by DOE's Hydrogen, Fuel Cells & Infrastructure Technologies Program and administered by the Hydrogen Education Foundation. Future prizes will address other technical barriers to fuel cell vehicles, including hydrogen production and distribution. To qualify for the prize, a hydrogen storage material must store more than 70 grams per liter of volume, must be able to store more than 7.5% of its weight in hydrogen, must release hydrogen at a rate of 0.00002 grams of hydrogen per gram of material, must store hydrogen at a rate of 0.0004 grams of hydrogen per second per gram of material, and must be also to cycle between less than 5% capacity to greater than 95% of capacity at least 100 times, after which is must still be able to store more than 7.1% of its weight in hydrogen. For example, a tank of material storing 10 kilograms of hydrogen (the energy equivalent of about 10 gallons of gasoline), or about 22 pounds of hydrogen, could be at most 142.8 liters in volume (about 38 gallons) and could weigh at most 133 kilograms (293 pounds) when empty. A device at the upper weight limit would need to release at least 2.7 grams of hydrogen per second while the vehicle is running at full throttle and store at least 53.2 grams of hydrogen per second during fueling. That would be a refueling time of slightly more than 3 minutes. And after going from holding less than half a kilogram to more than 9.5 kilograms at least 100 times, the storage device would still need to be capable of holding 9.44 kilograms of hydrogen. If more than one participant meets these criteria, the participant with the material able to hold the most hydrogen per weight will win the prize; a tie will be won by the material that stands up best to repeated charge and discharge cycles. Participants must submit material samples by mid-November 2010, and the prize should be awarded in February 2011. The H Prize is open to U.S. companies, U.S. citizens, and legal U.S. residents, with certain restrictions, and participants must register on the H-Prize Web site by February 15, 2010. Registration is not yet open, but interested parties can sign up on the Web site for an e-mail notification when registration becomes available.