Buildout of Clean Hydrogen Hubs, Power Generation Still a Way Off

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Written by Paul Wiseman for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--With the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) allocating $8 billion to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to invest in four clean hydrogen hubs, many are asking if this means the hydrogen economy is a sure thing sometime in the future. The plain answer to this concerning any of the four main hydrogen options--transportation, electric generation, industry and heating/cooling of buildings--is, not any time soon.

Hydrogen currently is only responsible for about 1% of power generation and just 5% of that 1% is considered a form of green energy. Most now comes from natural gas or other fossil fuels that are high in hydrogen content but also contain copious amounts of carbon.

It might be helpful first to define "clean hydrogen hub." According to the DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), it is "a network of hydrogen producers and consumers, and the connective infrastructure located in close proximity."

The purpose is to "produce clean hydrogen from multiple energy resources; demonstrate diverse end uses; create training/employment opportunities; and cover different regions of the United States."

In recent years, several power utilities have put forth plans to convert combined-cycle power plants to run on a mixture of hydrogen and natural gas. In 2020, Hannibal, Ohio-based Long Ridge Energy Terminal announced plans to partner with New Fortress Energy (New York, New York) and General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) (Boston, Massachusetts) to do just that at the 485-megawatt facility. In August 2021, the startup phase began, using a GE H-class gas turbine.

In March 2022, in what the company calls a world first, it began mixing 5% hydrogen into the Utica Shale gas feed. The press release said, "The plant is now using and continuing to experiment with up to 20% hydrogen as part of the mix it burns through next year."

Out west, Intermountain Power Agency (South Jordan, Utah) announced plans to convert a coal plant in Delta, Utah, to a combined-cycle gas plant that will first use 100% natural gas. Using a $200,000 DOE grant, they in March of 2021 engaged Siemens Energy AG (Munich, Germany) to do a feasibility study on integrating a hydrogen energy storage system into an advanced class combined-cycle power plant. According to Siemens, "The goal of this study is to analyze the overall efficiency and reliability of CO2-free power supply involving large-scale production and storage of hydrogen."

The transition from coal to natural gas is expected to be completed in 2025, at which time the company plans to integrate 30% hydrogen into the gas mix. By 2045 the plan is to use 100% hydrogen. To ensure that the hydrogen itself is green, the project will use electrolyzers powered by wind and solar to produce the hydrogen. Electrolyzers use a base source, often water, to break apart the hydrogen from H2O. Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Power Industry project and plant databases can click here for the project report and click here for the plant profile.

Environmental Concerns
While the actual burning of hydrogen emits zero carbon, many environmentalists point out that it does put out what many consider to be dangerously high levels of nitrogen oxide (NOx). According to two studies from Europe, the burning of hydrogen-enriched natural gas can create six times as much NOx as that of methane, the main ingredient in natural gas.

This is why many environmentalists believe the best way to use hydrogen for power generation is in fuel cells, which give off mostly water.

Ironies in Green Hydrogen
Using wind and solar power to create hydrogen in order to burn it in a combined-cycle gas plant to make--electricity! To many, this seems circuitous and inefficient. Why not just use the wind and solar power directly on the grid? The fact that there is energy loss in any system like this (it takes energy to make energy) means that there is less energy at the end of the process than at the start.

Generating hydrogen does also remove some of the availability of the wind and solar from the grid in real time--at least until it resurfaces in a natural gas mix later.

One answer is that hydrogen can be stored and used as a baseline fuel--one that is available day and night, wind or no wind. So there are parallels between hydrogen generation and battery storage.

Reports say that as many as 20 or 30 other hydrogen generation projects are in the works across the U.S. All would be years or decades away from being fully operational on hydrogen.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking over 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 Trillion (USD).