The Department of Energy sets goals for all new technologies. Through R&D and technology validation programs, DOE gathers and reports progress towards the goals. At the Annual Merit Review, labs, universities and businesses that have DOE funding report the progress they made toward in the last year. The following information is from the May 2010 Merit Review (presented in May 2010) and includes data from 144 vehicles that operated for 106,000 hours, traveling more than 2.5 million miles. It also includes 23 hydrogen stations that produced or dispensed about 150,000 kg of hydrogen, including 5,500 fills at 70MPa.
56-59% efficiency from four test teams in the technology validation program
Second generation FCVs recorded just above 2,500 operating hours in 2009, surpassing the goal. (Most automakers are currently operating third-generation vehicles which they expect will come very close to the 5,000-hour target.)
"Window-sticker" fuel economy range of 43 to 58 miles/kg hydrogen from test teams in the DOE technology validation program
Second and third-generation vehicles demonstrated 250-300-mile range. Two third-generation vehicles demonstrated 400-mile range.
The median fueling time is .77 kg/minute, which includes data from 70MPa fueling for the first time. DOE concluded that hydrogen refueling rates are close to being acceptable.
Projected high volume fuel cell stack cost has been reduced 70% from $275/kW in 2002 to $61/kW in 2009. Just in the last two years, costs have decreased by more than 35%. DOE expects that continued research in manufacturing methods will enable fuel cells to meet the 2010 target.
Reduced from $5/gge in 2003 to a projected $3/gge, assuming high-volume production of 500 units at 1,500 kg of hydrogen per day.
Catalyst improvements and increased feedstock control have reduced the cost of production by a factor of roughly 10 since 2005. Hydrogen production from bio-derived liquids is now approaching the goal.
Hydrogen from natural gas is $7.70-$10.30/kg. Hydrogen from electrolysis is $10.00-$12.90/kg. DOE is revising the target cost from $3.00 to $6.00 in 2020 to account for the following changes:
- The current $3.00 target is based on $1.30/gallon gasoline. The Energy Information Office projects that the 2020 cost of gasoline will be $4.50/gallon before tax.
- The current target is based on 2005 dollars.
- The current target compares gge to a baseline internal combustion vehicle. The new target’s baseline will be a gasoline-electric hybrid.
