Hydrogen is expected to be one of the fastest-growing pieces of the global energy puzzle through 2050 but remain a small fraction of the overall energy mix, according to McKinsey’s recently published Global Energy Perspective 2026.
The Texas Railroad Commission (RRC) has approved the state’s first new carbon-capture project since it assumed primacy for Class VI injection wells in December 2025. ExxonMobil’s Rose CCS project southwest of Beaumont in Jefferson County was approved by a 2-1 vote of the RRC on September 16. The project’s three wells would permanently store about 4 million MT per year of carbon dioxide (CO2) over 13 years, or about 52 million MT overall.
Hydrogen is taking on a broader strategic role in the global energy system, with energy security and industrial growth increasingly joining decarbonization as drivers of investment, according to the Hydrogen Council’s recently published report, Global Hydrogen Compass 2026.
Construction is underway at Blue Point One (#32 in map below), a low-carbon ammonia plant in Modeste, LA, billed by the joint venture’s partners — CF Industries (40%), JERA (35%) and Mitsui (25%) — as the world’s biggest of its kind. The plant will have an annual capacity of 1.4 million MT and is expected to begin production in 2029.
Steelmaker Cleveland-Cliffs will spend $1 billion to modernize the blast furnace at its Middletown, OH, facility, a total that includes a $500 million Department of Energy (DOE) grant originally intended to support a hydrogen-focused decarbonization project, the company said August 21. The revised project will reline and upgrade the blast furnace while installing a cogeneration plant for the Middletown site.
Production at Woodside Energy’s Beaumont New Ammonia facility was constrained to about 69% of nameplate capacity in Q2 2026 due to third-party feedstock availability, the company said during its quarterly earnings call July 28. Interim feedstock arrangements are expected to remain in place into 2027, pending progress on long-term third-party feedstock infrastructure.
Air Products has signed a marketing and distribution agreement with global fertilizer giant Yara for the renewable ammonia to be produced at the NEOM Green Hydrogen Company in Saudi Arabia, Air Products CEO Eduardo Menezes said during the company’s quarterly earnings call on July 30.
The Department of Energy terminated funding for California’s hydrogen hub and more than 280 other clean-energy projects approved during the Biden administration for political reasons, the agency conceded this month in response to a lawsuit over the cuts, as first reported by New York Times.
Air Liquide will invest more than $160 million to build, own and operate a new large-scale production facility to supply ultra-high-purity gases, including hydrogen, to a new semiconductor fabrication plant in Arizona.
Plug Power said July 13 it has agreed to sell its planned Graham, TX, green hydrogen project (#9 in map below) to Stream Data Centers for up to $76.5 million. As noted in this week’s Hydrogen Billboard, the transaction represents a growing trend in hydrogen and related clean-energy projects, as industrial sites with substantial power access are increasingly being redirected toward data centers because those projects can often generate higher and faster returns than energy-transition infrastructure.
