Fracking II, Electric Boogaloo? - Hydrogen Hubs in PA

[Nymph-wristed]

I am not sure if anyone else attended this. I actually missed it but because I was signed up they sent the slides and recording. In a nut shell, the idea is that the push for Hydrogen hubs in PA, Ohio, and the rest of the country is really just a new way to maintain the status quo on fossil fuels and more pipelines, roads going through the state for cost-ineffective carbon capture, etc. Here is the link. It says an hour and change, but about 40 minutes or less gets you the meat of the two presentations. The rest was Q&A. I also attached a few slides as a teaser/shortcut....

 

[6xAdams(Jones)]

I didn't listen to the hour-long presentation, so my knowledge is lacking. What I can share is that power generating companies with nuclear assets (including the company I work for) have included pilot hydrogen generation as part of "behind-the-meter" initiatives. The operating temperatures at a nuclear plant are high enough to produce hydrogen from water. There are four locations that I know of so far. I know nearly nothing about hydrogen distribution or how its use impacts carbon emissions.

3 Nuclear Power Plants Gearing Up for Clean Hydrogen Production

U.S. nuclear power plants are being leveraged to help lower the cost and scale-up the production of clean hydrogen.

www.energy.gov

 

[greywolf]

I didn't listen to the hour-long presentation, so my knowledge is lacking. What I can share is that power generating companies with nuclear assets (including the company I work for) have included pilot hydrogen generation as part of "behind-the-meter" initiatives. The operating temperatures at a nuclear plant are high enough to produce hydrogen from water. There are four locations that I know of so far. I know nearly nothing about hydrogen distribution or how its use impacts carbon emissions.

3 Nuclear Power Plants Gearing Up for Clean Hydrogen Production

U.S. nuclear power plants are being leveraged to help lower the cost and scale-up the production of clean hydrogen.

www.energy.gov

If you use hydrogen to power vehicles the only product released in water in small quantities. Could greatly reduce pollution from vehicles if widely adopted. Infrastructure to fill vehicles is the item lacking.

 

[Bamboozle]

Daimler ends hydrogen car development because it's too costly

After 30 years of trying to develop a fuel-cell car, Mercedes-Benz is ending its program for a hydrogen car. The cost is double that of building a battery EV.

electrek.co

 

[troutbert]

If you use hydrogen to power vehicles the only product released in water in small quantities. Could greatly reduce pollution from vehicles if widely adopted. Infrastructure to fill vehicles is the item lacking.

Burning it may be clean. But how is the hydrogen produced? Is that a clean process?

 

[greywolf]

Burning it may be clean. But how is the hydrogen produced? Is that a clean process?

Depends on how the electricity is generated that is used to make the hydrogen useable

 

[Nymph-wristed]

Burning it may be clean. But how is the hydrogen produced? Is that a clean process?

Nope... and it sounds like carbon capture, which is how using fossil fuels to make hydrogen is sold as potentially green in the future, is cost prohibitive right now too.

 

[Nymph-wristed]

I didn't listen to the hour-long presentation, so my knowledge is lacking. What I can share is that power generating companies with nuclear assets (including the company I work for) have included pilot hydrogen generation as part of "behind-the-meter" initiatives. The operating temperatures at a nuclear plant are high enough to produce hydrogen from water. There are four locations that I know of so far. I know nearly nothing about hydrogen distribution or how its use impacts carbon emissions.

3 Nuclear Power Plants Gearing Up for Clean Hydrogen Production

U.S. nuclear power plants are being leveraged to help lower the cost and scale-up the production of clean hydrogen.

www.energy.gov

Yeah, they are calling that pink, as opposed to green or blue in terms of making it. That one is interesting to me too. If you dig into the presentation, 57% of hydrogen is being used for refineries right now, and besides fleet vehicles that fuel up in the same local spot each day or something, like mass trans or a local utility company, hydrogen is not going to solve it, many think. My father retired from a gas company in PA and my brother still works for one, so gas got me into the middle class. Times change, I am learning. They use CNG, and I think SEPTA does or did too, but they fuel at centralized spots. It sounds like the process to use hydrogen in the same way is costly, and to pipe it is far more dangerous than natural gas; more prone to leak and smaller molecules?? Sounds like for the money invested in charging stations, the automotive industry is going all in on electric and will work on the currently well grounded fears about how far you can go on a charge, etc.

As a fisherman, I am just more concerned about how they are going to distribute it, pipelines, more improved roads in rural areas. And what they do with the carbon they capture, if they end up making that work. Nukes is nukes, and people have reason to fear that too.