7/13/2001—The US Department of Energy has announced $85.7 million in research awards to be given to eighteen organizations and five universities to perform research and development on energy efficiency and clean energy science and technology. More than two-thirds of the awards will be cost-shared, with industry or outside organizations providing a share of the total project costs.
Many of the projects will support development of technologies for use in vehicles and buildings, hydrogen production, purification and storage for transportation, as well as for engine technologies. Other awards will support research for distributed power generation, industrial and building systems, transportation, and stationary power applications.
The fuel cell research will be primarily focused on overcoming technical barriers to introducing these new technologies to the public. These barriers include high component costs, size, weight, and start-up time. The hydrogen projects will address on-board hydride storage systems, off-board reforming and storage, and hydrogen enrichment. The engine technology research will focus on gasoline-fueled Homogeneous-Charge, Compression-Ignition engines, a promising technology that can approach the efficiency of diesel engines, but with the potential for extremely low oxides of nitrogen emissions and lower cost.
For more information, including a list of award recipients, contact DOE at 202/586-4940 or 202/586-5806.
