Hydrogen

Every now and again, the left will deal honestly with energy issues. It’s rare, but it happens. Recently, a journalist for Canary Media made the following stark admission in an article: “Even before Trump and fellow Republicans began pulling the financial rug out from under the industry, green hydrogen megaprojects were collapsing.” He goes on to list the evidence for “green” hydrogen’s collapse—prior to Trump and the Republicans coming into power in January. Read More “U.S. Green Hydrogen “Boom” Went Bust Before Trump & GOP Won”

Here’s a truly noteworthy hydrogen story. If you’ve read MDN for any length of time, you’ll know that while we’re not against hydrogen energy, we keep asking the question: Where are all the customers for it? You can convert water into hydrogen with no CO2 involved (called “green” hydrogen), or use the more common natural gas and capture the CO2 (called “blue” hydrogen), and produce enormous volumes of hydrogen. But if there are no customers who want to buy this cleaner and greener energy source, what’s the point? Hydrogen molecules behave differently in steel pipes than natural gas, making it unlikely to be widely used as a replacement for natgas by utility companies to sell to homeowners and businesses. However, there is one end-user, power plants, where hydrogen may have a meaningful role to play. Georgia Power and Mitsubishi Power are showing how that can happen. Read More “Georgia Power Succeeds Using 50% Hydrogen-to-Gas in Power Plant”

An interesting report from BTU Analytics connects many of the dots that (for us) have been missing with respect to hydrogen production from natural gas that captures carbon dioxide in the process—called “blue hydrogen.” As you know, we’ve been skeptical of the big push to produce hydrogen as a magic replacement for other forms of energy, particularly natural gas. Environmentalists pay lip service to loving hydrogen because it burns “clean” with no CO2 emissions. Why not just burn natural gas (and capture the CO2) instead of going through the time and expense of converting natural gas into hydrogen? Please, don’t ask such common-sense questions. It marks you as a MAGA extremist. Read More “Blue Hydrogen Facilities Could Move Needle on NatGas Demand This Yr”

The Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub (ARCH2), led by West Virginia and Ohio, was one of seven projects to win the Bidenista Hunger Games competition to receive a chunk of $7 billion to build a regional hydrogen hub (see Hydrogen Hub Winners Announced – WV Takes Prize in M-U Region). ARCH2 is (was) slated to receive $925 million of the $7 billion pot. It was selected specifically because it will use Marcellus/Utica shale gas as the feedstock to create hydrogen. The hydrogen hub projects were a line item in the so-called Infrastructure and Jobs Act, passed in November 2021 (see Biden So-Called $1.2T Infrastructure Bill Passes Thanks to RINOs). Upon entering office for his second term, Donald Trump paused any more distribution of Biden’s billions, including distributions for the hydrogen hub projects. Read More “Trump DOE Reviewing Biden Hydrogen Hub Funding; Will ARCH2 Survive?”

An Austrian-based company claims its hydrogen-to-power projects are demonstrating the viability of using hydrogen gas engines, with some installations in Germany, the Netherlands, and South Korea using 100% hydrogen. At a company-hosted event, representatives discussed how natural gas-fired plants are adaptable for future hydrogen conversion and detailed the technical modifications required to support this energy transition. There is at least one gas-fired power plant in the Marcellus/Utica experimenting with blending hydrogen with natgas, the Long Ridge Energy Terminal in Monroe County, OH, (see OH Long Ridge Energy Power to Blend Hydrogen with Utica Gas). Read More “Austrian Co. Claims Projects Use 100% Hydrogen for Powergen”

As Joan Rivers used to say: Can we talk? In other words, can we have an honest and open conversation…about hydrogen energy? There’s a lot of hype around the topic of hydrogen. Some promising early innovations around hydrogen and its use in applications like gas-fired power plants exist. However, as a sobering new commentary by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy makes clear, the future of hydrogen “is not imminent.” Even fracking wasn’t an overnight hit. It took from the early 1980s until the early 2000s (about 20 years) before fracking *began* to take off in a major way. It took another decade or so before fracking went big time. Call it 30 years. So why would we expect hydrogen to be some spectacular overnight success? That’s just not how energy revolutions happen. Read More “Hydrogen Energy is Promising, but Widespread Use Decades Away”

Last August, MDN told you that the Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub (ARCH2) officially received its first $30 million from the Bidenistas (see EQT & Others Enter “Phase 1” of Hydrogen Hub; DOE Cuts $30M Check). ARCH2 is getting $925 million from a $7 billion pot. ARCH2, one of seven projects to win approval, was selected specifically because it will use Marcellus/Utica shale gas as the feedstock to create hydrogen (so-called “blue” hydrogen). At an open house yesterday in Ohio, anti-shale protesters showed up to register their discontent with “clean” hydrogen because it will “perpetuate fracking.” We wonder how it feels never to have graduated from kindergarten. Read More “ARCH2 Hydrogen Hub Open House Brings Out Anti-Fossil Fuelers”