June 12, 2017 – The Department of Energy awarded a contract to Skyhaven Principals to develop an emergency refueler for fuel cell powered vehicles. Operators of fuel cell powered vehicles can experience range anxiety lessening the appeal of these vehicles due to sparse hydrogen filling stations at present. To overcome this shortfall, there is interest in developing emergency hydrogen refuelers that can be stored in the vehicle trunk and used by the consumer to refill the vehicle if they run out of hydrogen fuel away from a hydrogen fueling station. To meet this market need, Skyhaven Principals are developing a hydrogen gas refueler using LiH as the hydrogen source that is activated with water. This refueler will provide 0.75 kg (1.7 lb) of hydrogen fuel refilling the vehicle within 5 minutes. With this capacity, the average fuel cell vehicle will have a 50 mile range enabling the operator to reach a hydrogen refueling station. Performance metrics for this refueler include a total mass of 10 kg (22.8 lb) that includes the activating water, a compact space of 11 liters (0.4 ft³), a reliable system with no moving parts, and a material cost budget of $391 in low production volumes. With these competitive metrics, fuel cell vehicle owners can economically store this refueler in the car trunk being assured that they will not be stranded if they run out of hydrogen gas far removed from a fueling station.