HYDROGEN, FUEL CELLS & INFRASTRUCTURE TECHNOLOGIES (HFCIT) PROGRAM Pathways to Commercial Success: Technologies and Products Supported by the Hydrogen, Fuel Cells & Infrastructure Technologies Program August 2009 Prepared by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory for the U.S. Department of Energy Hydrogen, Fuel Cells & Infrastructure Technologies Program Table of Contents Summary .................................................................................................................................................................................................................. v 1.0 Introduction.......................................................................................................................................................................................................1-1 1.1 A Brief History of HFCIT........................................................................................................................................................................1-1 1.2 Organization of the HFCIT Program....................................................................................................................................................1-2 1.3 Contents of this Report............................................................................................................................................................................1-4 2.0 Approach...........................................................................................................................................................................................................2-1 2.1 Patent Search and Analysis.....................................................................................................................................................................2-1 2.2 Technology Tracking to Identify and Describe Commercial and Emerging Technologies........................................................2-3 3.0 Results ..............................................................................................................................................................................................................3-1 3.1 Patent Search and Analysis.....................................................................................................................................................................3-1 3.2 Commercial and Emerging Technology Identification and Tracking Results...............................................................................3-3 Appendix A: Technology Tracking List..............................................................................................................................................................................................A-1 Appendix B: Technology Tracking Data Collection Template.......................................................................................................................................................B-1 Appendix C: Patent Status List.............................................................................................................................................................................................................C-1 Appendix D: Commercial Technology Descriptions.......................................................................................................................................................................D-1 Appendix E: Emerging Technology Descriptions............................................................................................................................................................................E-1 iii Summary The Hydrogen, Fuel Cells & Infrastructure Technologies (HFCIT) Program integrates activities in hydrogen production, delivery, and storage with transportation and stationary fuel cell activities, in addition to crosscutting efforts in technology validation; safety, codes, and standards; education; manufacturing research and development; and market transformation. The Program office consolidated efforts within the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) in the 2002 time frame. The HFCIT Program and the predecessor programs that were consolidated have been conducting a wide range of hydrogen and fuel cell research and development projects, some of which have resulted in products and technologies now available in the commercial marketplace. The purpose of the project described in this report was to identify and document the commercial and near-commercial (emerging) hydrogen and fuel cell technologies and products that benefited from EERE support. To do this, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) undertook two efforts simultaneously. The first effort was a patent search and analysis to identify hydrogen- and fuel-cell-related patents that are associated with HFCIT-funded projects (or projects conducted by DOE-EERE predecessor programs) and to ascertain the patents’ current status, as well as any commercial products that may have used the technology documented in the patent. This patent analysis identified 144 patents associated with research supported by HFCIT, out of approximately 360 potential HFCIT patents, dating back to 1977, that were found in the original patent search. The 144 HFCIT patents include: 74 fuel cell patents, 49 production/delivery patents, and 21 storage patents. More than 70 of these patents were issued after 2002. Three types of organizations received the patents: national laboratories (69 patents), private companies (56 patents), and universities (19 patents). The national laboratories had patent awards for fuel cell and production/ delivery technologies that were almost equal to those awarded to private companies in these two areas. The national laboratories had 62% of the awards in the storage area. While the universities received fewer total patent awards, they had 74% of their patents in the production/delivery area. The national laboratories and private companies both received more than half of their patents in the fuel cell area. The patent award status by use indicated that 3 patents are currently used in commercial products and 18 are part of research now taking place on emerging technologies. In addition, 51 awarded patents are still being used in research that is more than 3 years from a commercial product and the status of one patent is still unverified. Of the patents reviewed, 50% are no longer being used in research. This was particularly true in the fuel cell area, where 44 of the 73 patents (60%) are no longer being used in research. However, this is not true in the storage or production/delivery area, where most of the patents are still being used in research. The second effort was a series of interviews with current and past HFCIT personnel, a review of Hydrogen Program annual reports, and an examination of hydrogen- and fuel-cell-related grants made under the Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer Programs, and within the HFCIT portfolio. This effort identified 22 commercial technologies including three using patents identified in the first effort. From 2000 – 2006, one to three commercial technologies entered the market per year. In 2007, five technologies entered the market, and in 2008, six technologies did so. This effort identified 47 emerging technologies. An almost equal number of emerging technologies occurred between the fuel cell and production/delivery areas, with the storage area having far fewer emerging technologies. This report documents the details of this study including the specific patents as well as commercial and emerging technologies that resulted from the HFCIT Program. v 1.0 Introduction This report documents the results of an effort to identify and characterize commercial and near-commercial (emerging)1 technologies and products that benefited from the support of the Hydrogen, Fuel Cells & Infrastructure Technologies (HFCIT) Program and its predecessor programs within the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE). The effort was undertaken to meet the following primary objective: To identify and characterize commercial and near-commercial (emerging) technologies that benefited from support of the HFCIT Program and its predecessor programs within DOE’s EERE. Commercialization of technologies that were cultivated in a government research and development (R&D) program is generally viewed as a measure of success. However, in addition to developing this indicator of the general success of the HFCIT’s R&D program, by studying the commercial successes documented in this report, the reader may gain insight into pathways for more widespread introduction of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies. With the tracking of commercialization successes, HFCIT is likely to more effectively manage its R&D programs, repeat successful approaches to commercialization, and learn from unsuccessful pathways. PNNL has been conducting similar technology tracking activity for the EERE Industrial Technologies Program (and its predecessors) for over two decades and agreed to develop a similar methodology and undertake the commercial technology tracking project for hydrogen and fuel cells. The results presented in this report represent the findings from the first stage of the PNNL effort. The information presented on commercial and emerging technologies fulfills the primary objective – to assess the commercialization status of EERE-developed hydrogen