Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm arrives to speak before U.S. President Joe Biden at Tioga Marine Terminal in Philadelphia.
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The U.S. government is making an unprecedented push to invest in clean hydrogen as part of its efforts to cut greenhouse gas pollution. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm tells Forbes that the government believes fuel will be crucial in decarbonizing heavy industrial processes, particularly steel and ammonia production.
“Hydrogen is going to play a role in the hardest-to-decarbonize sectors (that are) 30% of our CO2 emissions,” she said. “We want to be in a position to move eventually away from fossil fuels and to clean energy all the way. Renewables are not going to be able to get to the temperature necessary for decarbonizing heavy industry. Another solution is going to be necessary and we think this is really right for that.”
Last week, the Energy Department designated seven “Hydrogen Hubs” around the country, covering 16 states, that will share $7 billion in funds for clean hydrogen projects set aside in the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Those projects, including proposed pipelines, heavy-duty truck programs and clean hydrogen for fertilizer production, have also attracted announced corporate investments worth more than $40 billion. The Biden Administration also predicts the hubs will create hundreds of thousands of new jobs.
“Hydrogen is going to play a role in the hardest-to-decarbonize sectors”
Hydrogen, the universe’s most abundant element, is already heavily used at oil refineries, by the chemical industry and for food and agricultural products, but most of the 100 million tons currently produced globally is made by pulling it from natural gas in a process that creates carbon dioxide. New technologies, including electrolyzers from companies such as Plug Power and Cummins’ Accelera that make “green” hydrogen from water and renewable power as well as carbon capture methods being applied to conventional production methods, are incentivized by the federal hub plan. A new tax credit for clean hydrogen is also expected to kick in by the start of 2024.
Granholm, a former Michigan governor, spoke from Morgantown, West Virginia, after an event there with Senator Joe Manchin to detail the Appalachian Hub, which stretches from that state into western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio. The 10 sites that are part of this hub are receiving up to $925 million and will focus on making hydrogen from the region’s natural gas resources but capturing and storing carbon emitted in the process. The coal country hub is expected to create more than 21,000 permanent jobs.
The Appalachian Hub, projected to produce 2,100 tons of clean hydrogen per day, will “remove the largest amount of CO2 pollution of any of the hydrogen hubs,” Granholm said. “The types of hydrogen used here will be heavy-duty vehicles — transforming diesel trucks into fuel-cell-powered trucks. There will be creation of green ammonia for fertilizer. There’ll be power generation and decarbonizing of steel and industrial heat.”
Not all the hubs will focus on hydrogen generated from carbon-free sources, with many of the projects still utilizing natural gas. As a result, some environmental groups are critical of the government’s strategy, seeing the continued use of fossil fuels as running counter to the long-term goal of weaning the U.S. off carbon-based energy.
“The Sierra Club only supports the use of hydrogen made through electrolysis that is powered by renewable energy, known as ‘green’’ hydrogen, with targeted end uses in sectors that can not easily be electrified, like the steel or concrete sectors,” the group said after the hubs were announced. “Even green hydrogen has limited applications due to safety and cost restraints. Fossil fuel-based hydrogen, like ‘blue’ hydrogen, is not a climate solution.”
Granholm said she “hears” the criticism but sees the new push as necessary to advance cleaner types of hydrogen. “We’re hoping that this can give us a chance to demonstrate the transition to electrolysis-based hydrogen … and gives us the chance to demonstrate that (carbon capture and sequestration) works.”
The Energy Secretary also highlighted the carbon capture technology being introduced to these sites as an essential part of the administration’s solution to climate change. The International Panel on Climate Change “has said that we’re not going to get to 2050 and net zero without some kind of carbon management and removal. That’s going to be a piece of a couple of these hubs as well,” she said. “We want to be in a position to move eventually away from fossil fuels and to clean energy all the way.”