Hydrogen -- January 17, 2023

RBN Energy: the secret list of survivors of DOE's hydrogen hub cutdown. Archived.

Note: before getting started, unless I missed it, RBN Energy did not include "blue hydrogen project in the Bakken."

The U.S. has committed billions of dollars over the last couple of years to clean-energy initiatives, everything from advanced fuels and carbon-capture technology to renewable energy and electric vehicles. The “all-of-the-above” approach also includes clean hydrogen, whose development the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has deemed crucial to meeting the Biden administration’s goals of a 100% clean electric grid by 2035 and net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

As part of its efforts, the U.S. plans to provide generous financial support for the buildout of several hydrogen hubs — initial concept papers were submitted last year by dozens of applicants for the federal largesse, and the DOE recently provided formal “encouragement” to 33 proponents to submit a full application this spring, in what amounts to an informal cutdown, but declined to name them.

In today’s RBN blog, we examine the 18 projects we’ve been able to identify that survived the trimming, what they tell us about the selection process, and how it compares to our previous expectations.

Location, location, location: We’ve long thought that the Gulf Coast was a natural choice for a hydrogen hub.

Of the 18 projects we’ve identified to date that were encouraged to submit a full application, at least three of them are in Texas or include Texas. The standout among them may be the HyVelocity Hub proposal for a hydrogen network along the Gulf Coast in Texas and Louisiana, a region that already has an impressive array of hydrogen production, pipeline and storage assets — not to mention natural gas supply, wind farms, solar facilities, carbon-sequestration potential, and scores of hydrogen end-users.

The founding proponents of the HyVelocity Hub include the Center for Houston’s Future, GTI Energy, Chevron, Air Liquide and the University of Texas at Austin.

Along those lines, a plan put forward by the Port of Corpus Christi has similar strengths. The Corpus Christi area — including Ingleside, just across the bay — appears to have all the makings of becoming a cost-effective, scalable hydrogen hub. Among other things, there are large tracts of land (much of it owned by the Port of Corpus Christi) that could be used for clean hydrogen (and clean ammonia) production, hydrogen/ammonia storage, and carbon dioxide (CO2) sequestration, as well as a plethora of marine terminals that could be expanded to export ammonia. Ammonia, which contains a lot of hydrogen, is an efficient carrier — or “suitcase molecule” — for transporting hydrogen by ship. (A third Texas plan focuses on Permian natural gas.