The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced the 2017 Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR) Phase I Release 1 Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA), including two subtopics focused on hydrogen and fuel cell technologies. The fuel cell subtopic includes novel, durable supports for low-platinum group metal (PGM) catalysts for polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cells. The hydrogen delivery subtopic focuses on metal hydride materials for compression.

Specific topics are:

• Novel, Durable Supports for Low- PGM Catalysts for PEM Fuel Cells: This subtopic seeks approaches that address support performance and chemical and structural stability by development of novel carbon-based or non-carbon support compositions and/or structures. The focus of this subtopic is novel catalyst support research with the potential to improve catalyst performance and durability, especially under transient operating conditions, while decreasing cost. DOE is specifically seeking research and development on novel supports for low-PGM catalysts.
• Metal Hydride Materials for Compression: This subtopic seeks approaches to develop a technique that will enable high throughput discovery of metal hydrides for high-pressure hydrogen compression. This includes both high throughput combinatorial synthesis and high throughput characterization. High throughput characterization techniques should be capable of predicting or evaluating materials’ pressure-composition-temperature curves, and support the development of predictive models.

The letter of intent is due September 6, 2016, by 5 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) and the application is due October 17, 2016, by 11:59 p.m. EDT.

There will be an FY17 Phase I Release 1 FOA webinar on August 23, 2016, from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. EDT.

Learn more about the Energy Department's broader efforts to develop affordable, efficient fuel cell and hydrogen technologies on EERE's Hydrogen and Fuel Cells page.