Electrolysis

Last week, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) unveiled its timeline for receiving and reviewing proposals to develop six to 10 clean-hydrogen hubs and said its aim was to decide by the fall of next year which projects will share up to $7 billion in DOE support. The competition for those dollars is sure to be fierce, with some of the strongest proposals likely to come from states like Texas and California that have a lot of renewable energy and ambitions to be leaders in the energy transition. Also, there is a joint effort by three states east and north of Texas to develop a hydrogen hub that would take advantage of their existing and planned hydrogen-production and wind assets, natural gas supply, refinery and pipeline infrastructure, and carbon sequestration potential. In today's RBN blog, we discuss the DOE's recent announcement and the three-state hydrogen-hub plan, which is dubbed H2ALO.

It’s true. A lot of folks harbor serious doubts about whether “green,” “blue,” or “pink” hydrogen (H2) can ever be produced efficiently and cheaply enough — and in sufficient volumes — to justify blending hydrogen with natural gas, let alone using H2 as an outright replacement for gas. At the same time, though, a growing number of electric utilities and independent power producers — generally cautious groups — are planning new, large-scale power plants that will be capable of hydrogen/natgas co-firing from the get-go, and can be converted with relative ease to 100% H2 later on. Can hydrogen really make sense as a generation fuel? In today’s RBN blog, we begin a series on the prospects for environmentally friendly hydrogen — and ammonia, an H2 carrier — in the power generation sector.

It’s been heard in many a pub: “Liquor may not be the answer, but it’s worth a shot.” You could make the same argument for hydrogen. While many question whether it will ever make economic sense to use hydrogen as a supplement to — or replacement for — natural gas on a large scale, others insist that hydrogen has a great future as a climate-friendly fuel, assuming it receives sufficient developmental support from government and ESG-minded industry. As it turns out, an early test of hydrogen’s potential is coming from the liquor industry itself, or more specifically, the maker of a renowned single-malt scotch on the Isle of Islay, off Scotland’s western coast. In today’s RBN blog, we discuss the distiller’s hydrogen production and combustion project and the broader plan by members of the Scotch Whisky Association and Scotland itself to achieve net-zero carbon emissions within a generation, largely through the expanded use of hydrogen.

A few things have changed since we wrote our first hydrogen blog a year ago. First, there’s heightened awareness of the many ways hydrogen can be used to help reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Second, the number of proposed hydrogen production projects has proliferated, and our project list continues to grow each week. Third, and perhaps most importantly, the federal government has thrown its support — and billions in taxpayer dollars — behind low-carbon hydrogen. However, despite those positive developments, hurdles clearly remain in the hydrogen sector, with economics a major sticking point, though a few projects are set to get off the ground next year. In today’s RBN blog, we provide a year-end update on domestic hydrogen projects.

We get the sense that many hydrogen-market observers are looking for a silver bullet — the absolute best way to produce H2 cheaply and in a way that has an extremely low carbon intensity. If anything has become clear to us over the last few months, however, there isn’t likely to be an “Aha!” or “Eureka!” moment anytime soon. Rather, what we have seen so far in regard to hydrogen production has been a veritable smorgasbord of production pathways, with varying degrees of carbon intensity. While costs vary by project, it is also fair to say that a front-runner has yet to emerge when it comes to producing inexpensive hydrogen at scale. There is a silver lining though, if not a bullet, and that is the realization that there are many options when it comes to procuring environmentally friendly hydrogen. Today, we provide an update of currently proposed hydrogen projects.

It’s been two weeks since our last blog on hydrogen, so we’re back again with the latest installment of what has become something of a “Hydrogen 101” course. As with any college course, the time comes to review some material, in preparation for what will be our “final” on the subject, a one-day virtual conference in late June. No, today’s blog won’t be a repeat of what we discussed before, but we thought it would be helpful to look over the various hydrogen production pathways we have discussed so far this year, this time focusing on the drivers, advantages and disadvantages, and how they relate to each other. Finally, we will also review the general carbon intensity of each approach to producing H2, a method that we think will eventually replace the somewhat flawed hydrogen “color” scheme. In today’s blog, we draw upon our recent coverage of hydrogen production technologies and put them in perspective.

When it comes to hydrogen, it’s fair to say that hard data on what it costs to produce the fuel is difficult to come by, particularly for “green” hydrogen. If you’ve followed our current work on the fuel, we hope you know at least a few more facts than the average person on the street, though we must admit we’ve really just been scratching the surface so far. Diving deeper into the nitty gritty of hydrogen production costs and economics is not for the faint of heart, but it’s necessary, unless you are of the mind to dismiss the fuel altogether. (We are not.) While it’s very early days for many production pathways to hydrogen, especially green hydrogen, time will tell if the costs to produce it follow a downward trend similar to those for producing hydrocarbons from shale or remain at levels so high the current hydrogen bubble bursts like others before it. We’re optimistic the former may pan out, and in today’s blog we continue our series on hydrogen with a look at the factors impacting production costs.

Based on the response we received to our first-ever hydrogen blog last fall, it’s fair to say we didn’t waste this space on a fringe subject. To be honest, the level of interest in hydrogen far exceeded our expectations, and suggested that we might have even been a little bit late to the party — but fashionably so, if you ask us. In the weeks since then, we’ve spent a fair amount of time distilling the tremendous amount of news flow and reading material that was either sent our way or popped up in the daily news feeds. You could go a lot of different directions with hydrogen and it’s still very easy, in our view, to get lost in the forest of green energy technology. So, as we are wont to do, we have stuck to our simple approach of tackling this fuel just like we do with hydrocarbons, and we are first turning our attention upstream. Today, we continue our series on hydrogen with a look at the top production methods for the fuel.

Everywhere you look these days, someone is talking about hydrogen and, if you’re not well-versed in emerging technologies aimed at reducing carbon, you may not know what any of it means. A quick internet search isn’t much help either, as you will likely get lost quickly in discussions of fuel cell efficiency and electrolysis technology developments, not to mention the various “colors” of hydrogen and the myriad of ways it can be stored and transported. Don’t bother turning to your traditional green energy gurus either, as hydrogen is just one of many competing approaches to reducing the world’s carbon footprint, and electric vehicle folks like Elon Musk aren’t big fans. All the same, hydrogen news and investment plans seem to proliferate daily, and understanding this fuel — which, by the way, is not new to the energy space — seems prudent. At least that’s our view, which is why we today start a series to help us hydrocarbon experts unravel the mysteries behind the recent hydrogen ruckus.