U.S. helps fund hydrogen storage projects

WASHINGTON, Aug. 14 (UPI) -- The U.S. Department of Energy says it has selected 10 cost-shared hydrogen storage research projects that will receive up to $15.3 million.

Department Undersecretary Clarence Albright Jr. announced the selections of the hydrogen storage research and development projects during a Thursday stop in Washington of the Hydrogen Road Tour. The 13-day, 31-stop, 18-state government-sponsored cross-country trip involves demonstration hydrogen vehicles from nine manufactures.

"Researching and improving the use of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies in our vehicles is a long-term priority for the U.S.," said Albright. "With continued investment, hydrogen holds the potential to help fundamentally change the way we power our vehicles and reduce greenhouse gas emissions."

The selected projects will seek to develop hydrogen storage technologies to enable fuel cell vehicles to meet driving range and performance goals, the department said.

The Energy Department said it will negotiate the terms of the projects. The organizations selected for negotiation of awards are the Energy Department's Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories, Northwestern University (two projects), Ohio State University, Pennsylvania State University, U.S. Borax Inc., the University of Missouri, the University of Oregon and the University of California-Los Angeles.