Currently, hydrogen delivery systems exist only for the small merchant hydrogen market in the chemical and refining industries. This limited system lacks the scope or scale to deliver hydrogen outside geographically limited areas. It is insufficient by orders of magnitude from being capable of supplying the hydrogen fuel needs of the Hydrogen Initiative announced in 2003 by President Bush.

Hydrogen has physical properties that may cause embrittlement of some high-strength steel piping materials and components such as compressors and valves that are commonly used today to transport natural gas. Even if these problems could be overcome, today's natural gas pipelines may not be available or capable of handling the additional volumes of hydrogen projected. Therefore, it is likely that significant capital investments in a dedicated hydrogen delivery infrastructure will be required before a hydrogen economy is practicable.

To begin studying possible hydrogen delivery alternatives, DOE will use computational techniques and analyses to determine the most attractive "carriers" of hydrogen. These studies could include investigations of new chemical process routes and reaction catalysts. Trade-offs will be studied between the massive capital investments in new delivery systems associated with central location hydrogen plants and the use of today's liquid and natural gas transportation systems to deliver fuels from which hydrogen can be extracted at end-use locations. Concepts for small-scale, on-site reforming will be evaluated against the large capital costs of a dedicated hydrogen infrastructure.