The report, Fueling Up: How to Make U.S. Clean Hydrogen Projects Happen, draws upon the views and expertise of a range of sector specialists to explore what steps could be taken to realize clean hydrogen’s potential.

The report argues that the U.S. should boost exports to provide additional routes to market, bolster domestic manufacturing for hydrogen technologies, and prioritize ‘backbone’ infrastructure to reduce project risk.

The report says the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law have generated commercial interest in American clean hydrogen projects. But the legislation, and implementation of those regulations, come with complexities and caveats that require navigation.

One issue is tax credits. Designed as incentives to encourage companies to produce clean hydrogen, helping them transition from early-stage development and planning to construction, the arrival of proposed IRS regulations on Section 45V in December 2023 have been considered too stringent by many, offering up more questions than answers, the report said.

For hydrogen to be considered ‘clean’ and eligible for credits it must meet three criteria: additionality, time matching, and deliverability. These criteria require that hydrogen facilities cannot draw power from a source more than three years older than the hydrogen project, electricity-producing hydrogen must be generated within the same hour as the hydrogen, and the electricity source and hydrogen facility must be in the same geographical area, as defined by the DOE’s transmission needs analysis.

Troutman Pepper says that as a result, many concerned developers and utilities are halting progress, warning that it will drive up costs and make it harder to get projects funded and constructed in this nascent sector, as they await further clarity from the IRS on its finalized rules.

Meanwhile, off-takers are asking for improved clean hydrogen certification standards to offer transparent reassurance that they are getting the product they think they are. To stimulate demand, the Biden Administration made $7 billion available to support seven regional clean hydrogen production hubs across the country.

However, businesses inclined to follow this route, such as chemical and metal producers, oil refineries, and transportation and utility companies, are feeling uneasy about the potentially ambiguous nature of hydrogen classifications, the report said. Faced with directives to reduce their environmental impact, businesses are struggling with a lack of visibility, guidance, and uniform certification to verify how green any available fuel actually is.

The report notes that more states could encourage greater uptake of clean hydrogen, similar to what numerous states previously did with regard to renewable portfolio targets. For instance, only California, Oregon, and Washington have introduced low-carbon fuel standards thus far. State-led commitments along these lines could provide clean hydrogen users with greater confidence to support the development of a robust domestic clean hydrogen market, the report said.

Beyond the domestic market, some commentators within the report argue there is an opportunity to establish the U.S. as a clean hydrogen exporter, particularly to Europe and Asia, including in the form of ammonia. Industries globally are under regulatory pressure to decarbonize. Many countries outside the U.S. face greater challenges in relation to their regional energy transition policies, making U.S. hydrogen a potentially attractive proposition, bringing in capital and off-take certainty from around the world, while developing a spot market for clean hydrogen and related products.

On U.S. soil, report commentators have encouraged the building out of U.S. manufacturing facilities for hydrogen technologies, while prioritizing nationwide ‘backbone’ infrastructure to reduce project risk. Bloomberg New Energy Finance recently reported that 68% of global electrolyzer manufacturing is in China. In the short-term, this represents a reassuring level of access to equipment, but in the longer-term, the federal government has committed to growing domestic production to counteract that reliance.

Equally, interviewees argued that the government needs to unlock investments to support infrastructure, helping producers store and move their product more efficiently and economically. The DOE recognized this challenge in its June 2023 National Clean Hydrogen Strategy & Roadmap, where it reported that between $2 billion and $3 billion of investment annually is needed in hydrogen infrastructure projects between 2023 and 2030 to enable the U.S. to achieve annual production of 10 million metric tons by 2030.

“When compiling this report, we found that most commentators and sector specialists agreed about the vast potential of clean hydrogen to become a highly useful non-fossil component of America’s energy mix,” said Mindy McGrath, a regulatory and finance Partner in the energy practice group at Troutman Pepper. “And it’s been encouraging to see government incentives and financial support acknowledging that potential in an effort to drive both production and demand.

“What is less clear at present is how these mechanisms and stimuli will play out in the real world. Regulators are justifiably concerned about doing things the right way. That said, if the rules surrounding the sector are too onerous or ambiguous it is going to stifle progress. Major energy businesses – developers, producers, utilities, and investors – are rightly wary of this uncertainty. In this report we look at why there needs to be a concerted effort to demystify complex regulatory matters, and why clear guidance is needed to create a cohesive framework of strategies to properly advance the sector.”

Fueling Up: How to Make U.S. Clean Hydrogen Projects Happen can be downloaded here.

The U.S. Department of Energy said the California Hydrogen Hub will receive an initial $30 million to begin its planning and design phase. The state will eventually receive up to $1.2 billion for the project that is a key part of the Biden administration’s agenda to slow climate change.

The administration in October selected seven regional hubs for the $7 billion program that will kickstart development and production of hydrogen fuel, with the goal of eventually replacing fossil fuels such as coal and oil with the colorless, odorless gas that already powers some cars and trains.

The hubs, which include projects in 16 states, will spur more than $40 billion in private investment and create tens of thousands of good-paying jobs, many of them union positions, President Joe Biden has said.

The president has called clean hydrogen essential to his vision of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. by 2050.

The projects will be based in California, Washington, Minnesota, Texas, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Illinois. All but the California and Texas hubs include projects in multiple states. Pennsylvania has projects in two separate hubs.

Frank Wolak, president and CEO of the Fuel Cell & Hydrogen Energy Association, said the announcement is monumental because the Energy Department got through a rigorous competitive process to be at the point now where there are contracts and it’s able to fund the hubs.

The money will fund a major infrastructure program and invest in the future of clean energy, he added.

“It’s the beginning of really showing what the hubs are going to be doing,” he said. “They’re all unique. In the case of California, they’re undertaking projects for using hydrogen for the decarbonization of the hard-to-abate sectors in transportation, among other things. Transportation is a big portion of what they’re going to tackle.”

A hub is meant to be a network of companies that produce clean hydrogen and of the industries that use it — heavy transportation, for example — and infrastructure such as pipelines and refueling stations.

Hydrogen can be made in ways that yield little if any planet-warming greenhouse gases. The Energy Department says hydrogen, once produced, can generate power in a fuel cell, emitting only water vapor and warm air.

While electric utilities and developers use terms like “hydrogen-ready” or “hydrogen-capable” in their project plans, IEEFA said this is little more than marketing designed to obscure the challenges of hydrogen co-firing in gas turbines.

The biggest obstacles to hydrogen co-firing in gas turbines include building new infrastructure and ramping up supply, according to the Institute in Hydrogen: Not a solution for gas-fired turbines.

U.S. utilities and developers have announced myriad of “hydrogen-ready” projects over the last several years, ranging from technology demonstrations to large-scale commercial developments. But IEEFA said for at least the next 10 years, any “hydrogen-capable” gas-fired power plants are going to operate almost completely, if not entirely, using natural gas.

The institute said state regulators and potential project investors should scrutinize assertions that hydrogen gas will be widely used in natural gas-fired turbines.

Lack of supply

IEEFA noted the U.S. produces about 10 million tons of hydrogen every year, nearly all of which is consumed in the petrochemical and fertilizer sectors. Any hydrogen co-firing in the power sector would require a lot of new production, the institute said. Just running the 15 largest natural gas combined-cycle (NGCC) plants with hydrogen would require doubling current U.S. production and would replace less than 10% of the electricity now generated annually from natural gas, IEEFA said.

The report cited a 2022 demonstration where Long Ridge Energy tested a 5% hydrogen blend at its newly commercialized 485 MW combined-cycle plant in Ohio. While the demonstration was a success, the company told the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) it burned 325,000 cubic feet of hydrogen during the tests, producing 17 megawatt-hours (MWh) of power.

IEEFA said the example underscores the enormous amount of hydrogen needed for even a small level of blending and the challenges of scaling even larger. According to EIA, the company has not used any hydrogen in the Long Ridge turbine since the 2022 demonstration.

Lack of pipeline infrastructure

The institute noted that no pipeline network exists to distribute the fuel to hydrogen-capable gas turbines being proposed in the U.S. IEEFA also said building such a network would take years and cost billions of dollars, and the time and effort required for this buildout would slow the transition from fossil fuels.

While the U.S. has a sprawling natural gas pipeline network, with approximately 305,000 miles of inter- and intrastate transmission lines, there are only roughly 1,600 miles of hydrogen-dedicated pipelines in the U.S. Virtually all the existing infrastructure is concentrated in Texas and Louisiana, where there is petrochemical and other industry activity.

Blending hydrogen into existing pipelines has been proposed as a possible alternative, but IEEFA said the latest research has raised more questions than answers about the technical and safety implications of introducing hydrogen into the system. In short, blending hydrogen into pipelines would weaken the steel, IEEFA said, potentially leading to cracks, leaks and complete failure.

Read the full report here.

The Phoenix (Performance Hydrogen Engine for Industrial and X) project, which is funded with almost €5 million ($5.4 million) by the German government, is aimed to generate the same electrical and thermal energy as currently available through natural gas CHP units in the higher power range of up to 2.5 MW.

When fueled by green hydrogen, this next-generation stationary energy plant, expected to be a first of its kind, should be able to run in a completely carbon-neutral manner.

“We are convinced that combustion engines will remain an essential part of the provision of a reliable energy supply during the energy transition,” said Dr Jörg Stratmann, CEO of Rolls-Royce Power Systems.

“We are making them climate-friendly with sustainable fuels. That’s why we at Rolls-Royce are investing in the development of next-generation hydrogen engines.”

The Phoenix project is being undertaken by a consortium including the sustainable mobile propulsion systems group at the Technical University of Munich, MAHLE Konzern, Fuchs Lubricants Germany GmbH, the German Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM) and Robert Bosch AG.

The joint project is scheduled to run for three years to develop a technology concept that is sufficiently mature for use in a complete prototype engine.

Rolls-Royce already has developed a gas-powered combustion mtu engine which can use hydrogen as a fuel, but the Phoenix project will develop the technology for an even more efficient next generation hydrogen engine.

New developments from the partners include the injection system, the piston group and the ignition system, as well as a completely new lubricant.

Rolls-Royce reports that the German government as part of its power plant strategy, which includes the expansion of renewable energies, has decided in favor of building more gas-fired power plants to compensate for the variability of renewable resources – in particular, smaller, decentralized gas engine plants that can flexibly compensate for the fluctuating feed-in of wind and solar power to the grid, which varies depending upon weather conditions.

To reduce CO2 emissions, biogas gensets and, in some cases, the first gas engines converted for hydrogen are currently being used. But as soon as the availability of green hydrogen is ensured on a large scale, the technology of the hydrogen cogeneration plants promoted in the Phoenix project should be ready for use.

Originally published by Power Engineering International.

Wärtsilä said the new plant can be converted to run entirely on hydrogen, representing a significant advancement over its current technology, which supports blends of natural gas and up to 25% hydrogen.

The hydrogen-ready plant is based on the Wärtsilä 31 engine platform, which the company says has over 1 million running hours and more than 1,000 MW of installed capacity globally.

The new power plant concept has received a Concept Certificate from TÜV SÜD as part of its H2-Readiness certification process. Wärtsilä plans to make the 100% hydrogen-ready engine available for orders in 2025, with deliveries expected to begin in 2026.

In the announcement, Wärtsilä Energy President Anders Lindberg emphasized the importance of flexible, zero-carbon power generation that can support intermittent renewable sources like wind and solar. He also noted the continued role of natural gas in power systems during the transition period.

“We must be realistic that natural gas will play a part in our power systems for years to come,” he said. “Our fuel flexible engines can use natural gas today to provide flexibility and balancing, enabling renewable power to thrive. They can then be converted to run on hydrogen when it becomes readily available: future-proofing the journey to net zero.”

In the Fall of 2022, a hydrogen-natural gas blending demonstration was conducted using Wärtsilä engines at the A.J. Mihm Generating Station in Michigan. The demo involved blending hydrogen in one of the three grid-connected 18.8 MW Wärtsilä reciprocating engines at the plant.

The partners demonstrated 25% hydrogen by volume fuel blending in the engine that was tested.

Several mechanical changes are needed for engines to be able to handle 100% hydrogen. One of them is to change the compression ratio to reduce temperatures, thus avoiding NOx increases and engine knocking. Another tweak could be implementing pre-chamber combustion to better control the ignition.

Pipelines also need to be code-certified for 100% hydrogen to prevent leaks.

The project will include the development of up to 530-turbine wind farm with the ability to generate 3.5 GW of electricity and 150 MW solar PV. The facility will have the capacity to produce 165kta of hydrogen and 5000 metric tons per day of ammonia.

Under the scope of the agreement, McDermott will provide front-end engineering design (FEED), engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) execution planning services, and open book EPC cost estimate for the hydrogen production, ammonia processing, and product storage portion of the project.

The work will be led from McDermott’s Houston office with support from its Gurgaon office in India.

Green hydrogen will play a disappointingly small role in global decarbonization between now and 2030, according to International Energy Agency executive director Fatih Birol.

Despite a plethora of projects and “huge excitement” around green hydrogen, Birol said IEA research had found a significant gap between the hype and the reality.

Speaking at a press conference earlier this year for the launch of the IEA’s Renewables market report, Birol said: “Of all the projects today in the pipeline, only 7% will see the light of day and come online before 2030.”

Birol said the hydrogen bubble had burst because of a slow pace of projects reaching an investment decision, combined with a limited appetite from off-takers and higher production costs.

To fully convince investors, Birol said ambitious project announcements should be followed by consistent policies supporting demand, adding that he hoped “to see governments take steps to create demand for hydrogen”.

Originally published in Renewable Energy World.

If planned U.S. electrolyzer projects proceed, U.S. capacity could grow from 116 MW to 4,524 MW, producing about 0.72 million metric tons (MMmt) of hydrogen annually via electrolysis, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. EIA is citing these numbers from information collected by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Hydrogen Program Record. Electrolyzers, which separate hydrogen from water using electricity, could qualify for tax credits if built by 2033.

Currently, 10 MMmt of hydrogen is mostly produced via steam methane reforming (SMR) from natural gas and coal, but this yields significant carbon emissions. SMR units can be fitted with carbon capture and storage (CCS) capabilities to reduce the carbon footprint of hydrogen production by storing CO2 underground. Some call this process “blue hydrogen.” The U.S. Department of Energy’s data shows 7.6 MMmt annual SMR capacity, mostly without CCS.

Hydrogen is a critical input for petroleum refining and fertilizer production, and it can also be used as a fuel for electric power generation to be blended with natural gas for use in traditional gas turbines or engines. Operators of natural gas-fired power plants are conducting hydrogen-blending pilot projects, but challenges remain to readily accommodate 100% hydrogen combustion in large-scale power plant applications.

It’s important to note that hydrogen produced by electrolyzers is only considered carbon-neutral if the electricity consumed is generated from renewable or clean energy resources like nuclear.

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), two types of electrolyzer technologies are currently commercially deployed, both of which require further improvements to stay competitive: Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) and Alkaline. These technologies vary by construction cost, start-up times, and materials used to convert electricity to hydrogen. No matter the materials used, electrolyzers can leverage electricity generated from renewable resources.

These technologies include electricity powered by hydrogen, the low carbon fuel of the future that can enable the renewable-powered economies of the future to deliver net zero targets.

“We are already seeing solar power, and wind power, being deployed at massive scale. So the key technologies that now need to cope, and need to accelerate, and need to be deployed in big, big size, bigger speed, are technologies that enable more wind and more solar coming to the grid,” says Cavada.

“So we are talking about energy storage, we are talking about backup solutions, and we’re talking about technologies that provide sustainable, reliable, affordable, 24/7 renewables,” he added.

Watch the full video interview with Dr Javier Cavada below.

This interview was filmed in November 2023 at Enlit Europe in Paris, France.

Cavada concludes: “So today, we have the technologies and we have the will for decarbonization but we are all aware that what we do not do in the coming two years will impact the coming generations.

“The coming 24 months are going to be crucial for our future, so let’s act urgently. Let’s do it together.”

Originally published on Power Engineering International.

The cooperation is built within the framework of an existing Memorandum of Cooperation on Hydrogen signed in December 2022 and is intended to build collaboration in areas and technologies necessary to boost decarbonization.

Said Simson in a statement: “Hydrogen will be an internationally traded commodity, and close EU-Japan cooperation will be essential for promoting renewable and low-carbon hydrogen globally and ensuring standards and regulation converge.”

Commissioner Simson and Minister Saito agreed to address systemic and supply chain vulnerabilities and “promote a level-playing field through coordinated efforts.”

Specifically, Saito and Simson agreed on the following points:

1. They shared deep concerns about economic dependence on specific sources of supply for strategic goods due to a wide range of non-market policies and practices, such as market-distorting industrial subsidies, and its weaponization. They recognize the need to address the systemic vulnerabilities stemming from economic dependencies on certain supply sources and overcapacities, and to promote a level playing field through coordinated efforts.
2. They agreed to cooperate on supply and demand-side policies in clean energy sectors, and to properly evaluate non-price elements such as principles of transparency, diversity, safety, sustainability and reliability. They confirmed that work will begin in the fields of wind, solar and hydrogen, with plans to expand in the future.
3. They agreed on the importance of working with like-minded partners to build and strengthen transparent, resilient and sustainable supply chains as widely as possible, and agreed to establish a working group on Japan-EU Clean Energy Industrial Policy Coordination to carry out the work mentioned above.
4. They reiterated their common interest in supporting investment and deployment of renewable and low-carbon hydrogen.

To promote business cooperation between Japan and the EU, the forum provided an opportunity for the signing of agreements to promote collaboration. Agreements were signed between:

(1) Japan Hydrogen Association (JH2A) and Hydrogen Europe

(2) New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) and Clean Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (CHJU)

(3) Japan Organization for Metals and Energy Security (JOGMEC) and H2GLOBAL

(4) Japan Hydrogen Association (JH2A) and H2GLOBAL

(5) Kawasaki Heavy Industry and Daimler

As a next step, Japan and Europe will work to formulate a joint working plan to continue deepening the cooperation in the hydrogen field. The plan will take into account recent policy developments regarding hydrogen, which include supporting schemes established by the Hydrogen Society Promotion Act in Japan and the European Hydrogen Bank in the EU.

Listen to this episode of the Energy Transitions podcast with Professor Dr Emmanouil Kakaras, Executive Vice President, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries EMEA, to learn more about developing a hydrogen economy.

The agreement calls for the installation of additional MW of Bloom Energy’s solid oxide fuel cell-based Energy Server at Intel’s existing high-performance computing data center in Santa Clara, California. The additional capacity expands an existing Bloom Energy fuel cell installation already deployed at the tech giant’s location since 2014. The resulting installation will be the single largest fuel cell-powered high-performance computing data center in Silicon Valley, Bloom Energy said.

“Bloom Energy is proud to be a long-term supplier to Intel and to support the company’s data center capacity building at a time when the grid is severely constrained,” said Ravi Prasher, Bloom Energy’s Chief Technology Officer. “Bloom Energy technology is compatible with hydrogen fuel in addition to natural gas. We are working with governments and industries to adopt hydrogen as a primary fuel when it becomes economically viable. Intel’s confidence in our fuel cell technology is a testament to Bloom’s ability to reliably meet the energy needs of cutting edge and high-performance IT infrastructure.”

Bloom’s offerings can be deployed as grid parallel in conjunction with utility power to meet dual source energy needs of a data center or as grid independent by avoiding transmission infrastructure.

“Intel is leading the industry in extreme energy-efficient high-performance computing data centers with existing hyperscale Intel Santa Clara Data Center operating at 1.06 PUE, enabling the HPC scale needed for complex Intel chip design and technology development,” said Shesha Krishnapura, Intel Fellow, and Intel IT Chief Technology Officer.

Data centers are growing dramatically – in the U.S. and elsewhere. According to a recent study released by EPRI, data centers could consume up to 9% of U.S. electricity generation by 2030 — more than double the amount currently used. This could create regional supply challenges, among other issues.

According to EPRI’s analysis, an estimated 80% of the national data center load in 2023 was concentrated in 15 states, led by Virginia and Texas. Demands for highly reliable power, requests for power from new, non-emitting generation sources, and short lead times for connection—of two years or less—can create local and regional electricity supply challenges.