The budget for the areas relating to hydrogen production, delivery, and dispensing is given in Table 4-1 (DOE, 2007a). In reviewing the hydrogen production, delivery, and dispensing areas, the committee considered whether it is appropriate for the federal government to be involved and, without exception, concluded that these activities are appropriate for federal involvement.

As will be shown in this chapter, DOE through its HFCIT program has made substantial progress on hydrogen production, ensuring that hydrogen can be made available to meet the needs of fuel-cell-powered vehicles as they emerge. However, success in work still under way is needed to minimize cost and to make feasible the production of this hydrogen without increasing carbon dioxide emissions or natural gas imports.

The hydrogen fuel/vehicle pathway integration effort is charged with looking across the full hydrogen supply chain from well (source) to tank. Specifically, the goals of this integration effort are to (1) analyze issues associated with complete hydrogen production, distribution, and dispensing pathways, (2) provide input to the Partnership on goals for individual components, (3) provide input to the Partnership on needs and gaps in the hydrogen analysis program, and (4) foster full transparency in all analyses. This involves source to vehicle tank analysis, including costs, energy use, safety, and carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions.

Accomplishment of these goals is overseen by the fuel pathways integration technical team (FPITT) with representation from DOE, the five energy companies, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). FPITT’s expertise sup-