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Across the country, states are inking agreements with neighbors or striking out on their own to pursue billions in federal funding to set up 鈥渉ydrogen hubs,鈥� clustered centers for production, storage and use of the gas that many see as a crucial piece of the puzzle for decarbonizing the U.S. economy.
How broad a role it should play, however, is a matter of debate.
The U.S. Department of Energy is looking to dole out $7 billion from last year鈥檚 bipartisan infrastructure law that could fund聽regional clean hydrogen hubs, defined as 鈥渁 network of clean hydrogen producers, potential clean hydrogen consumers and connective infrastructure located in close proximity鈥� to be sited across the country.
鈥淭he H2Hubs will be a central driver in helping communities across the country benefit from clean energy investments, good-paying jobs and improved energy security 鈥斅燼ll while supporting President Biden鈥檚 goal of a net-zero carbon economy by 2050,鈥� the department said in聽, calling the federal cash infusion one of the largest in the DOE鈥檚 history.
That pool of money joins provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act 鈥斅爓hich created a clean聽聽tax credit and enacted big changes in聽聽鈥� that could also boost hydrogen.
鈥淪ome states are going to be motivated by climate goals. Hydrogen is an important tool for achieving those climate goals,鈥� said Bryan Willson, a professor of mechanical engineering and executive director of the Energy Institute at Colorado State University. 鈥淥thers are really motivated by economic development and hydrogen represents a tremendous new business opportunity.鈥�
Willson is also the director of the聽, which is made up of universities and national labs from four western states that are providing technical support to the effort to create the Western Interstate Hydrogen Hub,听聽between Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming, two red states and two blue ones.
Matt Fry, a senior policy manager focusing on carbon management at the nonprofit聽聽and a former adviser to ex-Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead (R), said even conservative states have come around on the need to capture carbon and the obvious effects of a changing climate.
鈥淲e know that this is what we鈥檙e going to have to do,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e鈥檒l utilize hydrogen as we bridge from a more fossil-fuel-based economy to a more electrified economy.鈥�
Similar hub agreements have been made between聽;听听补苍诲听. Minnesota and Wisconsin also have a separate聽聽with Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan and Ohio aimed at 鈥渁ccelerating and improving鈥� clean hydrogen production. And聽聽are also collaborating to create a Pacific Northwest hub.
Other states, like聽听补苍诲听, have launched efforts to create hubs on their own.
鈥淭he hubs are trying to focus on areas where you have resources to produce it, resources to use it and resources to balance that supply and demand,鈥� said Jeffery Preece, director of research and development at the Electric Power Research Institute.
鈥淲e鈥檙e still working on where and how to deploy hydrogen in a decarbonized future. It鈥檚 important to bring stakeholders together 鈥� to figure this out. Getting it focused in hubs helps to really find those ways where we鈥檙e challenged with limitations on infrastructure today.鈥�
Why hydrogen?
There鈥檚 a consensus that hydrogen, which releases聽聽when burned, could be a major part of addressing hard-to-decarbonize portions of the economy in which electrification isn鈥檛 feasible, including聽,听, heavy ground transportation聽聽and industry, such as聽聽and cement.
Hydrogen fuel cells can聽聽like long-haul tractor-trailers which need greater range than batteries can currently provide or hydrogen聽聽to produce fuels compatible with existing internal combustion engines.
It can also be blended 鈥斅犅燾urrently 鈥斅爓ith natural gas to burn in gas turbines for electric generation. In what it called the largest test of its kind, Georgia Power聽聽that it was able to burn a 20% hydrogen blend in one of the turbines at its Plant McDonough-Atkinson natural gas power plant outside Atlanta, achieving a 7% reduction in CO2 emissions.
And of Colorado, Willson said: 鈥淲e are probably the most aggressive state in terms of decarbonization. Along with that we have increasing needs for storage and hydrogen basically gives the ability to fill in the gaps when the wind doesn鈥檛 blow and the sun doesn鈥檛 shine.鈥�
But how clean hydrogen is depends on how it鈥檚 produced.
Right now聽聽in the U.S. is produced using steam-methane reforming via natural gas, so-called 鈥�.
鈥淕reen鈥� hydrogen is produced by an electrolysis process with clean energy.
鈥淏lue鈥� hydrogen is fossil-fuel derived but coupled with, in which CO2 that would normally go up a smokestack or flue is filtered out of emissions and聽, though there are increasingly more efforts to find聽for that carbon.
There鈥檚 precious little green or blue hydrogen being produced at the moment, but Willson said the money for hydrogen hubs, production tax credits and the Department of Energy鈥檚 鈥�,鈥� an initiative to reduce the cost of hydrogen produced from renewable energy from the current cost of about $5 per kilogram to $1 per kilogram over the next decade, could change that.
鈥淩ight now there鈥檚 no question that hydrogen from fossil resources is cheaper,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut as the cost of renewables continues to drop and the cost of hydrogen continues to come down, the case for green hydrogen becomes pretty compelling.鈥�
Given that dynamic though, environmental groups worry that pushing to use hydrogen in scenarios in which renewable power and electrification (such as for聽聽and appliances like stoves) make more sense could wind up prolonging the life of fossil fuels, particularly natural gas.
鈥淚n general when it comes to hydrogen we feel that there are some good opportunities there and there are also some very bad possibilities depending on how this is implemented,鈥� said Patrick Drupp, the Sierra Club鈥檚 deputy legislative director for climate and clean air.
Drupp noted that the political wrangling over the infrastructure bill produced some constraints for the Department of Energy as it evaluates hydrogen hub proposals.
鈥淐ertain things were mandated in the legislation that we don鈥檛 agree with,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he DOE should focus on things where hydrogen has the best possible outcomes.鈥�
For example,听聽hub must demonstrate the production of hydrogen from fossil fuels (with carbon capture), one must be from nuclear and one must be from renewable energy. They must also be located in different regions of the U.S. 鈥渁nd shall use energy resources that are abundant in that region, including at least two H2Hubs in regions with abundant natural gas resources,鈥� DOE documents state.
Building out a large hydrogen economy, with its unique storage and transportation requirements, Drupp noted, will require expensive infrastructure like new pipelines to handle high concentrations of hydrogen being blended into the natural gas system.
As of March, natural gas and electric utilities had proposed more than two dozen pilot projects related to producing and distributing hydrogen for electric generation, heating buildings or other uses, according to a聽by Energy Innovation, Policy & Technology, a nonpartisan energy and climate policy think tank.
Blending hydrogen with natural gas for those purposes would do little to curb greenhouse gas emissions and might 鈥渢hwart more viable decarbonization pathways while increasing consumer costs, exacerbating air pollution and imposing safety risks,鈥� the report warned.
鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot of money out there,鈥� Drupp said. 鈥淭he gas industry sees the writing on the wall and sees this as an opportunity to prolong their industry.鈥�
