H-Prize: Hydrogen Shot Incubator

The updated Rules Document has voucher guidance on page 30 allowing teams to utilize their voucher up to 18 months after the team is able to begin work on the CRADA. Rules are posted under the Resources Tab on HeroX. 

Today, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office announced the second phase winners of the H-Prize: Hydrogen Shot Incubator, a competition to develop innovative concepts for producing clean hydrogen.

In this final phase (Prove!), four winning teams will each receive $300,000 in vouchers to spend at national laboratories to further develop their concepts and $100,000 in cash to support their preparation for a future Pitch Day event. 

The winners of the Prove! phase, and their proposed concepts, are:

• Electro-Active Hydrogen (Knoxville, TN)—a system that integrates solar energy with algal hydrothermal liquefaction and microbial electrolysis to generate clean hydrogen, leveraging the chemical energy from organic matter
• Biomass Super Gasifier (Indianapolis, IN)—an indirectly-heated pyrolytic gasification process to convert carbon-based feedstocks into syngas from which hydrogen can be extracted—with the remaining syngas used in a solid oxide fuel cell to generate power to run the system
• NX Fuels Inc. (Ann Arbor, MI)—a technology that harnesses sunlight to produce hydrogen from seawater using a photoelectrochemical process
• PAX H2(O) (Richmond, CA)—a technology that could reduce the capital and operating expenses of an electrolysis system by producing clean water using waste heat from the electrolyzer

The H-Prize: Hydrogen Shot Incubator is administered by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and is jointly funded by the DOE Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office and the Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management. 

Join our November H2IQ Hour webinar on November 3, 2022, at 12 p.m. EDT for an overview and demonstration of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s (NREL)Hydrogen Analysis Lite Production (H2A-Lite) model and Hydrogen Financial Analysis Scenario Tool (H2FAST). The demonstration will be conducted by Michael (Misho) Penev, senior analyst for infrastructure and energy storage analysis at NREL, currently on detail to DOE.

H2A-Lite is a user-friendly model that provides a high-level techno-economic view of different hydrogen production technologies, including breakdowns of hydrogen cost as well as expected emissions of greenhouse gases and criteria pollutants. H2FAST provides convenient, in-depth financial analysis of hydrogen systems, including annual projections of income statements, cash flow statements, and balance sheets. Both H2A-Lite and H2FAST are based on prior NREL models that have been used by thousands of stakeholders around the world.

The H2IQ Hour will include 45 minutes of presentation and demonstration followed by 15 minutes of Q&A. A recording of the H2IQ Hour will be available on the website after the event. Register today.
 

Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced the winners of the first phase of the H-Prize: Hydrogen Shot Incubator, a $2.6 million competition to foster innovative concepts for producing clean hydrogen. With these awards, nine winning teams will each receive $10,000 in cash and $50,000 in vouchers for teams to spend at national laboratories to further develop their concepts. 

The winners of the first phase, and their proposed concepts, are:

• BoMax Hydrogen (Sanford, FL)—a system that integrates light-activated nanoparticles with an enzyme to produce clean hydrogen from sunlight
• Gold Hydrogen Team (Houston, TX)—a process using dark fermentation to biologically produce hydrogen in spent oil wells 
• Electro-Active Hydrogen (Knoxville, TN)—a system that integrates solar energy with algal hydrothermal liquefaction and microbial electrolysis to generate clean hydrogen, leveraging the chemical energy from organic matter
• Evolve Hydrogen Inc. (East Northport, NY)—a novel electrolyzer system design that can use seawater as a feedstock without the need for precious metal materials 
• H3 (Palo Alto, CA)—a system that integrates high-temperature solid oxide electrolyzers with thermal energy storage to enable continuous hydrogen production even when using intermittent renewable resources
• Biomass Super Gasifier (Indianapolis, IN)—an indirectly-heated pyrolytic gasification process to convert carbon-based feedstocks into syngas from which hydrogen can be extracted—with the remaining syngas used in a solid oxide fuel cell to generate power to run the system
• NX Fuels Inc. (Ann Arbor, MI)—a technology that harnesses sunlight to produce hydrogen from seawater using a photoelectrochemical process
• PAX H2(O) (Richmond, CA)—a technology that could reduce the capital and operating expenses of an electrolysis system by producing clean water using waste heat from the electrolyzer
• The Hope Group (Lubbock, TX)—in-situ microwave-assisted catalytic heating to crack methane_­ and generate hydrogen directly from depleted natural gas reservoirs

The H-Prize: Hydrogen Shot Incubator is administered by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and is jointly funded by the DOE Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office and the Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management. This prize is one of the American-Made Prizes, a continually growing portfolio of prize programs, from 16 DOE offices, with more than $110 million in committed prizes supporting a wide range of clean energy technology innovations.

The Phase 1 winners of the Hydrogen Shot Incubator Prize will be announced the week of October 10 as part of the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Week activities! Please keep an eye out on the HeroX updates tab as well as on the EERE website to catch the announcement. Winners will also receive an email from hydrogenshotprize@nrel.gov.

To help teams prepare for the next phase of the prize, we have provided a Voucher Digest and Capabilities Menu on the HeroX Resources tab. Please feel free to review this information to learn more about the voucher process.

Thank you!