42 U.S.C. § 12405 — Technology transfer program

(a) Program. The Secretary must run a program to speed up wider use of hydrogen production, storage, use, and other technologies that are close to ready, based on aerospace experience and other research progress, by transferring critical technologies to the private sector. The Secretary directs this program with advice from the Hydrogen Technical Advisory Panel (created under section 12407), aiming to get private industry more involved in near-commercial demonstrations through cooperative research, joint ventures, or similar arrangements. (b) Information. In running this program, the Secretary must: (1) inventory and assess hydrogen technologies and their commercial potential for producing, storing, or using hydrogen in aerospace, transportation, electric utilities, petrochemical, chemical, merchant hydrogen, and other industrial sectors; and (2) build an information exchange program among NASA, the Department of Energy, and industry to improve technology transfer, covering how industry can apply aerospace experience, how industry and aerospace can apply research progress, how aerospace can apply industry's commercial capability, and how industry can tell researchers what it needs. This exchange program can include workshops, publications, conferences, and a public and private database. The Secretary must also help share general, non-proprietary information and technology developed under this chapter among industry, universities, and the federal government, to help the U.S. economy benefit from it.