The US Department of Energy (DOE) has announced plans to provide $160 million (£118m) in funding to develop technologies for the production, transport, storage and utilisation of fossil-based hydrogen.

The DOE suggests fossil fuels currently provide the lowest cost pathway for producing hydrogen.

When coupled with carbon capture and storage, it adds low cost hydrogen sourced from fossil energy feedstocks and processes will significantly reduce the carbon footprint of these processes and enable progress towards hydrogen production with net zero carbon emissions.

Projects include advancing gasification technologies capable of improved performance, reliability and flexibility to produce net zero or negative carbon hydrogen and completing the initial design of a commercial-scale carbon capture, storage and utilisation (CCUS) system that separates and stores more than 100,000 tonnes per year.