U.S. Unveils Seven Regional Hydrogen Hubs, Awards $7B to Kickstart National Hydrogen Network
Seven regional hydrogen hubs spanning Appalachia, California, the Midwest, the Gulf Coast, the American heartland, the Mid-Atlantic, and the Pacific Northwest are poised to receive $7 billion in Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) funding under the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs Program (H2Hubs).
The selections, unveiled by the Biden administration on Oct. 13, are now expected to enter into award negotiations with the DOE’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED). OCED on Friday noted that selection for award negotiations “is not a commitment by DOE to issue an award or provide funding.” Before awards are issued, the DOE and its applicants “will undergo a negotiation process, and DOE may cancel negotiations and rescind the selection for any reason during that time,” it said.
The DOE said the seven hubs vying for the lucrative billion-dollar opportunity first introduced in September 2022, were selected for their technical merit, financial and market viability, proposed speed of deployment, project management, and community benefits.
The hubs are expected to form the foundation of a national clean hydrogen “network” that could demonstrate the production, processing, delivery, storage, and end-use of hydrogen. The White House on Friday said that combined, the seven hubs could produce more than 3 million metric tons of “clean hydrogen” per year, achieving nearly a third of the U.S.’s 2030 clean hydrogen production goal.
A logical next step is to blend hydrogen into natural gas. That results in a direct reduction in carbon emissions. But also steel pipelines for hydrogen have the problem of hydrogen embrittlement. It must be possible to blend in hydrogen to avoid this problem up to some limit.
Hydrogen is a small molecule. Monsanto developed Prism filters to recover hydrogen from mixed streams. That should allow use of natural gas pipelines for distribution of hydrogen. You then can separate hydrogen from the natural gas whenever you want it.
Siemens-Led Group Completes Test of 100% Renewable Hydrogen in Gas Turbine
Siemens-Led Group Completes Test of 100% Renewable Hydrogen in Gas Turbine
A consortium that includes power industry giants Siemens Energy and ENGIE said it completed what the group called the world’s first operational test of a gas turbine fueled with 100% renewable hydrogen.
Siemens Energy on Oct. 13 said the HYFLEXPOWER consortium conducted the test using a gas turbine at Smurfit Kappa, a paper packaging company in Saillat-sur-Vienne, France. The consortium also includes Centrax, a UK-based gas turbine manufacturer; Arttic, a French consultancy; the German Aerospace Center, known as DLR; and four Europe-based universities.
The project in France involves producing and storing renewable hydrogen at the Smurfit Kappa site. Smurfit Kappa is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland. The company produces corrugated packaging, containerboard, and other paper packaging products.
Pursuing a Hydrogen-Fueled Turbine Fleet
“The knowledge and experience gained from the HYFLEXPOWER project where we installed the first gas turbine to run on 100% hydrogen will help us to continue develop our entire gas turbine fleet for a hydrogen-based future,” said Karim Amin, member of the executive board of Siemens Energy. “The interaction between electrolysis, storage, and hydrogen conversion at one site has been impressively demonstrated, and now it’s a matter of scaling the results.”
The hydrogen at the French manufacturing facility is produced by a 1-MW electrolyzer at the site. It is then stored in what Siemens called “an almost one-ton tank and used to power a Siemens Energy SGT-400 industrial gas turbine.” Siemens said the project “demonstrates that hydrogen can be used as a flexible energy storage medium, and that it’s also possible to convert an existing gas-fired power turbine to operate using renewable hydrogen.”
The staff cuts and organizational changes come after Sawan, who took the helm in January, vowed to revamp Shell’s energy transition strategy to focus on the most profitable renewables and low-carbon business, steady oil production and grow gas output…
The LCS [low carbon solutions] operations include the hydrogen and other businesses looking at decarbonizing the transport and industry sectors, but does not include the renewable power business.
Short term companies like Linde and Air Products are the only ones with hydrogen available. They are probably making money while supplying developing markets but at high prices.
Once the uses are established and volumes justify i think you expect energy companies to participate. But probably not profitable for them yet.