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United States Steel Corporation announced execution of a non-exclusive Memorandum of Understanding with Equinor. Under the MOU, the companies will study the potential for carbon capture and storage (“CCS”) and hydrogen development in the tri-state region of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.
A technology dubbed HYBRIT—a contraction of Hydrogen Breakthrough Ironmaking Technology—replaces fossil fuels both in the production of the iron pellets that are the key ingredient of steel, and in the removal of oxygen from the iron by replacing carbon and coke with green hydrogen.
Decarbonization of methane using turquoise hydrogen an emerging technology which encourage us to think of new possibilities for our long term future.
The United Arab Emirates sold its third shipment of blue ammonia to Japan, as the oil producer looks to build a hydrogen industry and plans for the global energy transition. Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia are leading the push among Persian Gulf governments to sell hydrogen and ammonia as the OPEC members seek to leverage their customer relations and supply chains for liquid fuels. Aramco and Adnoc both want to sign long-term supply contracts with buyers in countries such as Japan and South Korea.
It is believed that the development will provide more than 7,000 direct jobs in Texas and nearly $1.8 billion in economic activity for the regional economy – and it will help customers in Southeast Texas decarbonize their homes. Hydrogen is widely used today in industrial processes, including by a number of Entergy Texas’s large industrial customers. In the company’s Spindletop storage facility and can be deployed alongside natural gas to produce lower emissions energy reliably when needed.
Entergy Texas’ plan to build a 1.2-GW combined-cycle plant running on natural gas and hydrogen, may result in lower wholesale power prices beginning in 2026, although its use of hydrogen may increase its dispatch costs by 15% above pure-methane generation.
Hydrogen will have the most impact in sectors that are hard to electrify and where the technology and infrastructure constraints can be overcome. In mobility, long-haul trucking will have the most potential because its energy to weight ratio is superior to that of batteries. However, the largest volumes and gains for the climate on the short term can be achieved in industry, to decarbonize chemical and high temperature processes such as steel making. Many industrial processes already use hydrogen and application of blue hydrogen (hydrogen production from natural gas in combination with Carbon Capture and Sequestration), could be an intermediate step to the use of green hydrogen.
Rather than merely a stop-gap, H-Vision is being positioned as a stepping stone in the country’s green energy transition. This is because any ‘blue’ infrastructure or installations built in Rotterdam can one day be easily converted for use with green hydrogen.
Green hydrogen has to compete with SMR hydrogen, which costs between US$1-2/kg without CCS – or 50 cents more when paired with CCS. These are costs that green hydrogen can’t even get close to currently. Green hydrogen’s economics are particularly sensitive to two factors – power prices and plant utilisation rates. The economics only work on what are unrealistic assumptions today – high load factors (more than 50%) and low electricity prices (below US$30/MWh). But, right now, a green hydrogen plant paired with a renewable source could expect load factors nearer 20%; typically, power purchase agreement prices for renewables are nearer to US$50/MWh globally.
The new plant in La Porte, Texas, will supply over 30 tons per day of high-purity liquid hydrogen to meet growing demand from Linde’s customers. The liquefier takes hydrogen from Linde’s approximately 600-kilometer U.S. Gulf Coast pipeline, which has over 15 independent hydrogen production sources, giving it the most reliable feed supply of any hydrogen liquefier in the U.S. today.
According to a new study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, hydrogen-fired gas plants will compete with lithium-ion storage for seasonal storage and their competitiveness will strictly depend on the heat rate of the gas power plants they may replace.
The stakes are high – Australian oil and gas companies are in a race with peers in the Middle East that have pilot projects to scale up blue hydrogen, oil majors like Shell are bringing in global technological expertise to lower hydrogen costs, and proponents of green hydrogen advocate taking the plunge without transitioning through blue hydrogen. There’s also the question of whether Australian LNG companies will look to hydrogen as a substitute for LNG in the long run, or just a diversification strategy, amid the debate about stranded assets.
Hydrogen the emissions free fuel, is defined by how it is produced – thus the colors.
California’s policymakers are lobbying for hydrogen fuel to play a larger role in the state’s economy. A bipartisan group of 20 legislators penned a letter to assembly leaders requesting that $300 million of a $500 million executive order on emission reductions be set aside for hydrogen fueling infrastructure. Such a significant sum shows that California may be getting serious about hydrogen’s applications in the energy transition.
Plug Power and Brookfield Renewable recently announced plans to build a green hydrogen production plant utilizing 100% renewable energy from Brookfield Renewable’s Holtwood hydroelectric facility as part of previously announced partnership. The plant will be located along the Susquehanna River in south-central Pennsylvania.
Hydrogen combustion engines can leverage existing technologies and provide a zero-emissions option for specific use cases while supporting the growth of hydrogen infrastructure.
Norway’s state oil company Equinor will triple its UK hydrogen output, after setting out plans to build the world’s biggest hydrogen production plant with carbon capture and storage technology near Hull. Equinor plans to produce clean-burning “blue hydrogen” to supply the Keadby gas power plant in Lincolnshire, owned by energy company SSE, making it the world’s first full-scale power plant to burn pure hydrogen to generate electricity.
U.S. natural gas producers hope climate-conscious electric utilities and gas exporters will pay a premium for what they say is “greener gas” that has been certified as coming from low-emission operations or from renewable sources such as landfills. EQT Corp, Chesapeake Energy and liquefied natural gas firms Cheniere Energy and NextDecade Corp are among the companies considering low-carbon certifications from groups such as Denver-based Project Canary. Gas certified as “responsibly produced” and contributing less emissions could get up to 5% above market prices, or up to 15-cents per thousand cubic feet (mcf), proponents say.
Saudi Aramco, the world’s No. 1 listed oil and gas company, and Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., the UAE’s biggest energy producer, are leading efforts in their countries to become blue hydrogen and ammonia leaders. Aramco got a leg up in September when it exported the world’s first blue ammonia shipment — from Saudi Arabia to Japan — for use in power generation. ADNOC struck the first fuel ammonia cooperation deal with Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry as Tokyo intends to develop its supply chain of blue ammonia possibly in the Middle East by the late 2020s. Japan wants to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, with hydrogen and ammonia accounting for about 10% of the power generation mix in 30 years, from zero currently.
According to Platts Analytics, SMR gray hydrogen can be produced at a cost under $1/kg, even assuming a natural gas price at $3.50/MMBtu. Adding carbon capture to make blue hydrogen raises the cost to roughly $1.40/kg. Making the fuel green through a PEM (proton exchange membrane) electrolysis production method, though, more than triples that cost to an estimated $4.42/kg – assuming a renewable power cost of $65/MWh
Long Ridge Energy Terminal, a US-based multimodal energy terminal that is developing a 485 MW power plant, has partnered with New Fortress Energy (NFE) and GE in a bid to produce carbon free power. Claimed to be the first purpose-built hydrogen-burning power plant in the US, Long Ridge will be the first to blend hydrogen in a GE H-class gas turbine globally. It is expected to start its commercial operations in November next year.
A new energy project in North West England and North Wales that will put this region at the forefront of the UK’s journey to a Net Zero future. It will use a combination of hydrogen energy, in place of fossil fuel gas, and carbon capture and storage (CCS) to meet the challenge of reducing emissions of greenhouse gases from industry, homes and transport by 2050, starting in the 2020s.
Acorn is an ambitious program designed to tackle climate change by dealing with industrial CO2 emissions and other ‘hard to decarbonize’ sectors. By making use of oil and gas pipelines that are already in place, offshore geology that is ideal for permanently storing carbon dioxide (CO2), and a region that is embracing hydrogen as a fuel of the future, this project is a really important catalyst for the next phase of the UK’s journey to Net Zero.
According to Perry Babb, chairman and acting chief executive officer:
“The company plans to extract natural gas and capture CO2 generated in the manufacturing process and store it on site underground and eliminate a high percentage of emissions from reaching the air,”
“We are making something with our own gas and capturing the CO2 from that manufacturing process and storing it underground. This leaves a low carbon product called ‘Blue Ammonia, which is used for industrial practices, medical practices, and agricultural practices. With carbon capture and storage, we are decreasing CO2 emissions by 50 percent per ton of ammonia. Ammonia is the combination of hydrogen along with the nitrogen from the air. Lower-carbon and lower-cost hydrogen and ammonia are part of the coming low carbon economy.”
“I have spoken at several energy conferences recently where most of the people were natural gas producers. They were in shock that there was actually a low-carbon future for natural gas. It is not an either-or situation. Natural gas is responsibly produced and combined with carbon capture and storage are imperative to meeting climate objectives. Combining carbon storage with drilling wells will kick off a new industry.”
jbarone@shaledirectories.com
