Everyone is fixated on hydrogen as the savior of humankind. However, there is no widespread demand for hydrogen because we still don’t have pipelines and appliances that can use pure hydrogen (see Why 100% Hydrogen Will Never Power Your Home; Why Antis Hate H2). Even so, the world seems focused on how to produce ever more quantities of hydrogen.
Read More “Wildcatters Pursue the Next Big Thing – Drilling for Hydrogen!”
Cornell University professor Robert Howarth has poked his head up again to bash shale energy. This time he’s taking aim at hydrogen produced from natural gas. Howarth hates fossil fuels–all of them–including clean-burning natural gas. In March 2011, Howarth and two other Cornell profs published a peer-reviewed study in the journal Climatic Change titled, “Methane and the greenhouse-gas footprint of natural gas from shale formations” (see New Cornell University Study Says Shale Gas Extraction Worse for Global Warming Than Coal). The study made the laughable claim that shale gas extraction is worse for the environment than burning coal because of greenhouse gases.
Read More “Anti-Fossil Fuel Zealot from Cornell Trash Talks PA Blue Hydrogen”
We have nothing against using hydrogen as an energy source, other than it will never be able to power your home (see Why 100% Hydrogen Will Never Power Your Home; Why Antis Hate H2). But physics isn’t stopping a couple of utility companies in the Pittsburgh area from trying. NiSource, the parent company of Columbia Gas of Pennsylvania, and Peoples Natural Gas are working on experiments to introduce hydrogen into existing pipelines and use the blend in existing furnaces and gas stoves.
Read More “Pittsburgh Utilities Experiment with Hydrogen Blend for Customers”
Last Friday, Form Energy, a Boston-based firm building a utility-scale battery factory just across the Pennsylvania border in Weirton, West Virginia, held a groundbreaking ceremony on the site of a former steel plant. On hand for the ceremony were Jennifer Granholm, Secretary of the Department of Energy (DOE), and U.S. Senator Joe Manchin, from WV. We don’t care a fig about the battery factory. It was comments about a potential Appalachian hydrogen hub, made during interviews at the event, that caught our attention. Granholm all but guaranteed a hydrogen hub is coming to our region. Hello, $1 billion! Joe Manchin went even further and said, “I think West Virginia is going to be awarded a hydrogen hub.” What does Joe know that we don’t?
Read More “Desperate Joe Manchin Predicts WV Will Win Fed Hydrogen Hub Project”
The second annual Hydrogen Summit was held yesterday in Pittsburgh at the Energy Innovation Center Institute. The summit is a collaboration between Peoples Natural Gas, the Energy Innovation Center Institute, and Bedford Management Partners, with an aim to position the Pittsburgh region to be a leader in global energy innovation. Front and center at yesterday’s confab was talk about two applications from the Marcellus/Utica region hoping to receive money from a $7 billion pot that is part of Biden’s Hunger Games contest, money to be awarded to 6-8 new regional hydrogen hubs.
Read More “H2 Summit in Pittsburgh Highlights M-U Applications for Hydrogen Hub”
We have nothing against using hydrogen as an energy source, other than it will never be able to power your home (see Why 100% Hydrogen Will Never Power Your Home; Why Antis Hate H2). One of the “promises” of hydrogen is that it can potentially be used as the main fuel in electric power plants–replacing natural gas in that role. Based on what we’ve read, we think it’s a pipe dream (pun intended). But companies continue to experiment with using hydrogen in gas-fired power plants. The first step is to combine hydrogen with natural gas and gradually increase the volume of hydrogen used.
Read More “Constellation Ekes Out 38% Hydrogen/NatGas Blend at Alabama Plant”
When the public teat is full of taxpayer money, ready to dispense, and big business can’t get its mouth around that teat to start sucking, big business begins to whine and moan. That about sums up what happened at the Pennsylvania Energy Summit held yesterday in Pittsburgh. The Bidenistas went on a drunken spending spree over the past two years, unleashing what amounts to trillions of dollars to be made available for so-called renewable energy projects via the poorly crafted Infrastructure bill and the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act. Now, big business wants to start feeding on that money, but it can’t because it takes too long to get projects permitted. Too bad, so sad.
Read More “Dems & GOP Desperate for Permitting Reform at PA Energy Summit”
Rational thought was purged from the radicalized left long ago. Still, it’s worth mentioning from time to time just how illogical and irrational the “environmental” left has become in its thinking and pronouncements. For example, extremely combustible hydrogen emits NO carbon dioxide when burned. It simply turns into water. So you might think replacing natural gas with hydrogen would be a dream come true for anti-fossil fuel zealots. But you would be wrong. Antis HATE hydrogen energy and are now actively working to defeat it even as they work to defeat natural gas. Why?
Read More “Why 100% Hydrogen Will Never Power Your Home; Why Antis Hate H2”
One of the world’s largest chemical companies, the Chemours Company (which you used to know as DuPont), along with TC Energy (which you used to know as TransCanada), announced a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the potential development of two electrolysis-based hydrogen production facilities at or near Chemours’ Washington Works and Belle manufacturing sites in West Virginia. Both companies are part of the effort to attract a hydrogen hub to West Virginia called Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub (ARCH2). The financial terms of the Chemours/TC Energy deal were not disclosed.
Read More “Chemours & TC Energy Collaborate on 2 Hydrogen Hub Plants in WV”
Yesterday MDN told you about the recently-filed application by the State of Pennsylvania to attract one of 6 to 10 so-called hydrogen hubs to the Keystone State (see PA Loses Equinor, Gains Mitsubishi in Hydrogen Hub Application). In the (very little) information disclosed by PA about its application, the big news was that Equinor had dropped out of the project. Today the news is about a competing hydrogen hub application proffered by West Virginia. The Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub (ARCH2) team confirmed that it, too, had submitted its full application to the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED) in the Hunger Games contest, with a plan to attract a $1 billion hydrogen hub to the Mountain State.
Read More “WV, EQT, Battelle Submit ARCH2 Application for M-U Hydrogen Hub”
One of two original “anchor” applicants in the billion-dollar hydrogen hub Hunger Games contest that was part of Pennsylvania’s application was Equinor (the Norwegian super major formerly known as Statoil). The Pittsburgh Business Times reports Equinor is now out and has been replaced by Mitsubishi Power, which (among other things) builds natural gas and hydrogen turbines to generate electricity. Why did Equinor leave? Is this proposal in trouble?
Read More “PA Loses Equinor, Gains Mitsubishi in Hydrogen Hub Application”
The ARCH2 (Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub) project, the West Virginia-led effort to attract government funding for one of 6-10 regional hydrogen hubs, took a leap forward today with the announcement by Adams Fork Energy, Haldor Topsoe, and CNX Resources Corp. of a plan to build a “multi-billion-dollar” clean ammonia manufacturing facility in southern West Virginia. CNX will provide natural gas to the plant, tentatively scheduled to begin construction in 2024 in Mingo County, WV. The ammonia plant will be an “anchor project” in the ARCH2 Hydrogen Hub application currently under consideration by the U.S. Dept. of Energy.
Read More “CNX to Provide NatGas for WV Hydrogen Hub Clean Ammonia Plant”
Last year MDN told you about an interesting development for an LNG export project in Canada we’ve tracked for years. Bear Head LNG in Nova Scotia was sold to Houston-based Buckeye Partners for an undisclosed sum (see Buckeye Partners Buys Bear Head LNG Project in Nova Scotia). We’ve tracked the project because there was a small chance Marcellus/Utica molecules would feed the plant via a connection to the Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline (MNP). That small chance has now turned into a zero chance. Buckeye, after closing on the purchase of the Bear Head project, announced it plans to convert the project into an $850 million large-scale green hydrogen and ammonia export project.
Read More “Buckeye Partners Switches Canadian Bear Head LNG Proj to Hydrogen”
For more than a year, we have covered the topic of the Bidenistas’ Hunger Games contest to award $7 billion to some 6-10 “hydrogen hubs” across the country. Each winning hub will receive $500 million to $1 billion of government largesse to help build a hub in a particular region. The money for the hub projects was allocated as part of the so-called Infrastructure bill, passed in November 2021. Some 79 “concept papers,” which is a pre-application, were received by the Dept. of Energy. Of the 79, only 33 were given “encouragement” (i.e. permission) by the DOE to advance to the next stage of the Hydrogen Hunger Games (see 33 of 79 Hydrogen Hub Teams Encouraged to Submit Full Applications). One of the 33 passing through to the next round is a private industry application submitted by Shell, Equinor, and U.S. Steel, and backed by Pennsylvania (see PA-Backed Blue Hydrogen Hub Effort Passes First Hurdle with DOE). At a Pittsburgh event yesterday, the head of that effort recounted the challenges they are facing in their effort to win the Hydrogen Hunger Games for the M-U region.
Read More “Application for Hydrogen Hub Faces Uphill Climb Says PA CEO”
Three advocates for Appalachian hydrogen and carbon capture projects–two lawyers and the head of Appalachian Energy Future–say that Pennsylvania (and Ohio and West Virginia) are missing key pieces of the hydrogen puzzle before a billion-dollar hydrogen hub can become a reality in any of those states. The missing pieces are permitting and regulations.
Read More “Missing Pieces of M-U Hydrogen Puzzle: Regulations & Permitting”
As we mentioned in passing in our post yesterday about Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s first budget, one of the items in his budget (and in his speech) was support for a $1 billion hydrogen hub project in the Keystone State (see Shapiro’s 1st Budget a Mixed Bag – Severance Tax Out, Carbon Tax In). All three of the potential hydrogen hub projects in which PA is involved depend on converting natural gas into hydrogen while capturing any resulting carbon dioxide and storing it–called “blue” hydrogen. Blue is not green enough for Big Green wackos who are panning Shapiro’s support for a hydrogen hub. Even though he was their candidate. Buyer’s remorse?
Read More “Big Green Not Happy with PA Gov. Shapiro’s Support for Blue H2”