Biden administration doles out $7 billion for hydrogen hubs

The Biden administration will funnel $7 billion into seven completely different “hubs” for hydrogen manufacturing throughout the US. It’s a part of President Joe Biden’s plan to transition the nation to wash vitality, regardless that the environmental advantages of hydrogen nonetheless hinge on overhauling the best way the gas is historically made.

Hydrogen combustion creates water vapor, in contrast to fossil fuels that launch greenhouse fuel emissions when burned. That’s seen as particularly priceless for cleansing up aviation, maritime delivery, and heavy industries like metal which might be harder to run on renewable vitality and batteries. The difficult half with hydrogen is cleansing up air pollution from the method of constructing it. Most hydrogen at this time is made utilizing fossil fuels, and some of the brand new hubs will proceed utilizing fuel to provide hydrogen.

The Biden administration has been planning for these hubs since final yr. Whereas visiting Philadelphia at this time, he’s anticipated to call seven places chosen for funding by means of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Legislation. The hubs are anticipated to catalyze one other $40 billion in non-public funding, in keeping with a White Home press launch.

A hub within the Pacific Northwest, spanning throughout Washington, Oregon, and Montana, will use renewable vitality to provide hydrogen. A California hub will use renewable vitality and burn biomass. Two hubs within the mid-Atlantic (Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey) and the heartland (Minnesota and the Dakotas) will depend on a mixture of renewable and nuclear vitality.

It’s nonetheless far more costly to provide hydrogen utilizing clear vitality than it’s to make it the old style method with fuel. The Biden administration has a aim of slashing the associated fee 80 p.c to $1 per kilogram this decade. To do this, Biden approved using the Protection Manufacturing Act final yr to spice up home provide chains for clear vitality applied sciences, together with electrolyzers that break up water molecules to get hydrogen.

The choice to electrolysis is a course of referred to as steam-methane reforming. Methane, the principle element of so-called pure fuel, reacts with steam to provide hydrogen in a course of that also releases carbon dioxide. The plan is to seize any carbon dioxide emissions from fuel on the new hubs, however the know-how to do this remains to be very costly and unproven at scale. Furthermore, leaking methane, a really potent greenhouse fuel, is a large downside with fuel infrastructure that capturing CO2 alone doesn’t clear up.

An Appalachian hub, encompassing West Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, will make hydrogen utilizing fuel. A Midwest hub in Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan will use fuel, renewables, and nuclear vitality. A hub on the Texas Gulf Coast will depend on fuel and renewables.

Ultimately, the Biden administration plans for all seven hubs to cumulatively minimize 25 million metric tons of CO2 emissions yearly, roughly equal to getting greater than 5.5 million automobiles off the highway a yr. Clustering hydrogen manufacturing in “hubs” can also be a cost-saving measure since amenities can share infrastructure like pipelines and storage. The Biden administration can also be promising hundreds of jobs, and the hubs fall inside his “Justice40” Initiative that commits the administration to creating positive that 40 p.c of the advantages from federal investments go to communities “marginalized, underserved, and overburdened by air pollution.”