# Home

## Our Mission

To advance efficiency and durability of proton exchange membrane fuel cells at a pre-competitive level to enable their commercialization for heavy-duty vehicle applications with an initial focus on long-haul trucks.

# Our Focus

Electrification is a paradigm shift for the transportation sector that provides a promise of clean, renewable means of moving goods and people. For heavy-duty applications that require more power and longer range, green clean hydrogen is a compelling fuel that provides a future fleet of clean, emission-free vehicles. To realize this reality of hydrogen-fueled vehicles in the heavy-duty regime, there is a need to improve the fuel cells that provide the underlying hydrogen to electricity generation on board.

Proton-exchange membrane fuel-cells (PEMFCs) have many benefits over internal combustion engines (ICEs) and pure battery-powered propulsion used in the transportation sector, including higher efficiency and better scalability and refueling, respectively. The fuel-cell technology for heavy-duty vehicles (HDVs), however, requires a paradigm shift in fuel-cell research and development compared to the current state of the technology for light-duty vehicles (LDVs), which has been achieved decades-long research and progress. Instead of a focus on increased power densities and lower cell costs in LDVs, M2FCT will focus on commercialization of fuel-cell trucks demand a greater focus on efficiency and significantly longer lifetimes, and 4 to 5x improvements in durability.

Hydrogen Fuel Cells | Targets

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Interim Target (2030)

Ultimate Target

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Ultimate Target

The change in focus from light-duty (LDV) to heavy-duty vehicles (HDV) exacerbates durability and efficiency challenges for fuel cells, necessitating material and system innovations that enable new classes of hydrogen vehicles that take advantage of the high efficiency, power density and scalability of this technology.
Sources: DOE HFTO Program Record 19006 (2019) | Nature Energy 6, 462–474 (2021)

# Who We Are

Million Mile Fuel Cell Truck (M2FCT) is a Department of Energy (DOE)-funded consortium formed by five primary national labs to overcome durability and efficiency challenges in PEMFCs for heavy-duty applications with an initial focus on long-haul trucks. The consortium coordinates National Laboratory activities related to fuel-cell efficiency and durability, provides technical expertise, and harmonizes activities with industrial developers across the Hydrogen Fuel Cell and Technology Office's HDV PEMFC portfolio, which is located in DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy, thus amplifying their impact.

M2FCT comprises five principle National Laboratories listed below and 3 affiliate laboratories as well as supports various industry- and academia-led projects.

#### National Laboratory Consortia Members:

• Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL)
• Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory(LBNL)
• Argonne National Laboratory (ANL)
• National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
• ​Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)

# What We Do

We envision the M2FCT consortium as a beacon in the community and clearinghouse for data and ideas, while providing proactive leadership and guidance under its umbrella of lab, academic, and industrial projects. We plan to strengthen domestic competitiveness with a focus on HDV requirements.

The M2FCT consortium is focused on achieving an aggressive target for PEMFC HDV membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs) that combines efficiency, durability, power density, and implicitly, cost in a single metric:

2.5 kW/gPGM power (1.07 A/cm2 current density) at 0.7 V after 25,000 hour-equivalent accelerated durability test.

Beyond the 2025 target, the consortium will increase the system efficiency to meet the DOE efficiency targets of 68% (2030) and 72% (ultimate), and durability targets of 30,000 hours (ultimate) for long-haul trucks, as shown below. The durability targets for other HDVs include 35,000 hours for locomotives and 100,000 hours for marine applications.

#### Read more about fuel-cells for trucks and heavy-duty applications: Nature Energy article

Research Spotlight

Read our Nature Energy review on how hydrogen fuel cells could help decarbonizing the heavy-duty vehicles and freight transportation

Hydrogen Offers Promising Future for Long-Haul Trucking

Million-Mile Fuel Cell Truck Consortium and their research on developing the state of hydrogen fuel-cell technology for heavy-duty vehicle applications have been covered in a Press Release

## Latest News

Rajesh Ahluwalia received the University of Chicago Board of Governors Distinguished Performance Award Highlight
February 2022
Chung Hyuk Lee was awarded the NSERC Postdoctoral Fellowship Highlight
January 2022
M2FCT Consortium Awards Hydrogen Funding Announcement
November 2021
In its first-ever round of discretionary funding awards, the Million Mile Fuel Cell Truck (M2FCT) Consortium has granted nearly $1 million to five universities to move forward with innovative hyd... see more In its first-ever round of discretionary funding awards, the Million Mile Fuel Cell Truck (M2FCT) Consortium has granted nearly$1 million to five universities to move forward with innovative hydrogen research projects that can respond to the nation’s need to address the Climate Crisis.

The 2-year awards are as listed below:

• State University of New York Buffalo, $200,000: Integrating Highly Durable Carbon Supports and Intermetallic PtCo Catalysts for Heavy-Duty MEAs • UC Irvine,$175,000: Materials and Design Solutions for PEMFC Durability
• Drexel University, $200,000: Advanced PILBCP Ionomer Composites for Durable Heavy Duty PEMFCs • UC Merced,$150,000: Characterization and Simulation of Interfacial Transport Phenomena in the Membrane-Electrode Assemblies using Rheo-impedance and Imaging Diagnostic Tools
• Florida International University, \$200,000: Real-Time Continuous Monitoring of Ionomer Degradation with Ion-Sensitive Field-Effect Transistor (ISFET) Microsensors

“The funding will be used to augment existing work within the consortium, including new materials and characterization technique development,” Weber said. “It will broaden M2FCT’s impact and move the needle on making fuel cells for long-haul trucking a reality by increasing fuel-cell efficiency and durability.”

The M2FCT Consortium is made up of five national laboratories and various industrial, academic, and other laboratory partnerships. It is co-led by LBNL's (Berkeley Lab’s) Adam Weber and LANL's Rodney Borup. The M2FCT core laboratories also include Argonne National Laboratory, National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Approximately 60 researchers across the national laboratories are involved in M2FCT research.

The purpose of M2FCT is to overcome durability and efficiency challenges in the development of proton-exchange-membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), a type of fuel cell being developed mainly for transport applications, as well as for stationary and portable fuel-cell applications. The consortium is focusing on PEMFCs for heavy-duty applications with an initial focus on long-haul trucks. M2FCT works to support collaborative research related to fuel-cell efficiency and durability provides technical expertise and harmonizes activities with industrial developers across the Hydrogen Fuel Cell and Technology Office's HDV PEMFC portfolio, which is located in DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy.

This is M2FCT’s first round of discretionary funding, and more is expected in the future. Check our website for updates and future announcements.

## Latest Publications

Authors:Yu Haoran, Zachman Michael J., Li Chenzhao, Hu Leiming, Kariuki Nancy N., Mukundan Rangachary, Xie Jian, Neyerlin Kenneth C., Myers Deborah J., Cullen David A..