The grant is part of an $85 million initiative by the U.S. Department of Energy to fund research on fuel cells. The research will focus on overcoming technical barriers to introducing these new technologies to the marketplace. These barriers include high component costs, size, weight, infrastructure, storage and startup time.

Fuel cells have potentially wide-ranging uses, including ground vehicles, buses, rail transit, heavy trucks, off-highway vehicles, aerospace ground support equipment, specialized vehicles and small engines.