Experts at MIT Energy Initiative Tem 2020 at Hydrogen Decade
Strategic Research Institute
Published on :
06 Jul, 2022, 6:30 am
For decades, government and industry have looked to hydrogen as a potentially game-changing tool in the quest for clean energy. As far back as the early days of the Clinton administration, energy sector observers and public policy experts have extolled the virtues of hydrogen to the point that some people have joked that hydrogen is the energy of the future and always will be. Even as wind and solar power have become commonplace in recent years, hydrogen has been held back by high costs and other challenges. But the fuel may finally be poised to have its moment. At the MIT Energy Initiative Spring Symposium “Hydrogen’s role in a decarbonized energy system” experts discussed hydrogen production routes, hydrogen consumption markets, the path to a robust hydrogen infrastructure and policy changes needed to achieve a hydrogen future.
During one panel, “Options for producing low-carbon hydrogen at scale,” four experts laid out existing and planned efforts to leverage hydrogen for decarbonization. National Renewable Energy Laboratory scientist & director of HydroGEN Ms Huyen N Dinh said “We think that the 2020s is the decade of hydrogen. The energy carrier is poised to come into its own over the next few years, pointing to several domestic and international activities surrounding the fuel and citing a Hydrogen Council report that projected the future impacts of hydrogen including 30 million jobs and USD 2.5 trillion in global revenue by 2050. Now is the time for hydrogen, and the global race is on.”
Ms Dinh also explained the parameters of the Hydrogen Shot, the first of the DOE’s “Energy Earthshots” aimed at accelerating breakthroughs for affordable and reliable clean energy solutions. Hydrogen fuel currently costs around USD 5 per kilogram to produce, and the Hydrogen Shot’s stated goal is to bring that down by 80% to USD 1 per kilogram within a decade. The Hydrogen Shot will be facilitated by USD 9.5 billion in funding for at least four clean hydrogen hubs located in different parts of the United States, as well as extensive research and development, manufacturing, and recycling from last year’s bipartisan infrastructure law.
Equinor’s principal engineer for international commercial development Mr Wambui Mutoru said that hydrogen is an important component in the company’s ambitions to be carbon-neutral by 2050. The company, in collaboration with partners, has several hydrogen projects in the works, and Mutoru laid out the company’s Hydrogen to Humber project in Northern England. Currently, the Humber region emits more carbon dioxide than any other industrial cluster in the United Kingdom, 50 % more, in fact, than the next-largest carbon emitter. He said “The ambition here is for us to deploy the world’s first at-scale hydrogen value chain to decarbonize the Humber industrial cluster.”
The project consists of three components: a clean hydrogen production facility, an onshore hydrogen and carbon dioxide transmission network, and offshore carbon dioxide transportation and storage operations. Mutoru highlighted the importance of carbon capture and storage in hydrogen production. Equinor, she said, has captured and sequestered carbon offshore for more than 25 years, storing more than 25 million tons of carbon dioxide during that time.