Fuel Cell Technologies Office Newsletter: March 2017

The March 2017 issue of the Fuel Cell Technologies Office (FCTO) newsletter includes stories in these categories:

In the News

Five Common Fuel Cell Myths

Fuel cell electric cars are some of the most advanced vehicles on the road today—and they’re here in the United States. Toyota, Hyundai, and Honda all have models commercially available. There is a lot of interest in these cars—and some misconceptions. So, in order to separate fact from fiction, we decided to tackle the top five fuel cell myths. See a recently published EERE blog on Five Common Fuel Cell Myths.

Women’s History Month: Breaking Down Fuel Cell Barriers

FCTO is pleased to recognize Women's History Month and would like to acknowledge the women currently in the office, ranging from long-time federal employees like Donna Ho, Nancy Garland, and Sunita Satyapal, along with several other office members, including Katie Randolph, Erika Gupta, Neha Rustagi, Laura Hill, Adria Wilson, and Shawna McQueen. We'd also like to highlight Kristen Nawoj and Vanessa Trejos, support staff, who engage in communication and outreach—well known by the industry trade association stakeholders. To highlight just one example from one of the newest federal employees in the Office, who served as a congressional staffer after her Ph.D. on fuel cell catalysis, view the blog on Adria Wilson, Women's History Month: Breaking Down Fuel Cell Barriers.

Energy Talks: Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Revolution

Sunita Satyapal, Director of FCTO, spoke about the future of fuel cell technologies in this U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Energy Talks presentation on January 10, 2017. View the recorded presentation on the Energy Talks video series page.

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Webinars and Workshops

Upcoming Webinar April 25: Grid Modernization Laboratory Consortium (GMLC) Research Efforts Related to Electrolyzers for Grid Services

FCTO will present a live webinar titled "Grid Modernization Laboratory Consortium (GMLC) Research Efforts Related to Electrolyzers for Grid Services" on Tuesday, April 25, from 12 to 1 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. Idaho National Lab (INL) will introduce DOE's scope and technical approach related to electrolyzers as a controllable load. This webinar will provide you the context for this project, outline its scope, goals and objectives, and introduce the methods being proposed for demonstrating electrolyzers' advanced smart grid-enabling abilities to provide grid services. INL will also introduce a showcase of hydrogen refueling station and grid infrastructure with a reference case of the Bay Area in California. There will be a live Q&A session at the end of the presentation. Register for this webinar.

Webinar March 16: DOE-FCTO H-Prize Competition Drives Innovation with SimpleFuel

FCTO recently announced the winner of its 2014–2016 H2 Refuel H-Prize competition. FCTO presented a webinar titled "DOE-FCTO H-Prize Competition Drives Innovation with SimpleFuel" on Thursday, March 16. During the webinar, attendees heard from Ivys Energy Solutions as they described the role of competition-based innovation in the launch of the award-winning SimpleFuel Hydrogen Refueling Appliance. SimpleFuel is a compact, cost-effective and readily deployable refueling solution for home-based/fleet applications. See slides of this webinar (recording coming soon).

Visit our website to see webinar archives or workshop presentations.

Studies, Reports, and Publications

Storage and Safety, Codes, and Standards Fact Sheets

FCTO recently published updated fact sheets about the Storage program and the Safety, Codes, and Standards program. See all of our education fact sheets and increase your H2IQ!

DOE Publishes Hydrogen Production Cost from Fermentation Record

DOE Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Program Record 16016: Hydrogen Production Cost from Fermentation provides information about projected costs to produce hydrogen from dark fermentation of biomass (corn stover).

Visit our website to access technical information about hydrogen and fuel cells. This information is provided in documents such as technical and project reports, conference proceedings and journal articles, technical presentations, and links to other websites.

National Laboratory and Principal Investigator Achievements

NREL PEC Article in Nature Energy

National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) researchers recently published an article in Nature Energy about their world record photoelectrochemical (PEC) work. Read more about direct solar-to-hydrogen conversion via inverted metamorphic multi-junction semiconductor architectures.