DOE Issues Call for Hydrogen Fuel Cell Commercialization Partners to Support the Launch of L’Innovator 2.0

Wedoany.com Report-Nov 19,  The US Department of Energy (DOE), in partnership with Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), announced a call for commercialization partners to accelerate market-facing research, development, and deployment of hydrogen fuel cell technologies.

The objective of this call is to leverage DOE’s Lab Innovator 2.0 Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (L’Innovator 2.0) to transfer breakthrough innovations developed at LANL—with foundational support through DOE’s Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office (HFTO)—from the laboratory environment to the commercial marketplace.

L’Innovator 2.0 is an updated version of the L’Innovator concept developed by HFTO and launched through a pilot program in 2017, which resulted in $160 million of private sector investment in commercial fuel cell manufacturing. L’Innovator 2.0 includes further advances in hydrogen fuel cell innovation, including an intellectual property portfolio related to catalyst and electrode structure technology.

LANL seeks prospective partners with requisite experience, manufacturing capabilities, commitment, and investment potential to facilitate commercialization and deployment. While multiple end uses are possible, L’Innovator 2.0 is most relevant to medium- and heavy-duty transportation—including trucks, buses, rail, port operations, and offroad equipment—as well as stationary fuel cell applications, particularly for critical loads such as data centers.

This call directly supports HFTO’s focus on research, development, and demonstration of hydrogen end uses that can help to accelerate the growth of the clean hydrogen economy, as outlined in the US National Clean Hydrogen Strategy and Roadmap.

The letter of interest submission deadline is 15 January 2025.