NETL holds workshop on pathways to produce clean hydrogen
The National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) recently held a workshop that showcased innovative pathways to produce hydrogen as a clean and affordable fuel of the future.
The workshop, held June 22-23 at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) campus in Golden, Colo., allowed researchers from NETL, NREL, and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to meet with industry and academic representatives to discuss pathways to carbon-negative hydrogen production. They also sought to identify opportunities for collaborative research efforts among national labs, academic researchers and industry partners.
“As we work to mitigate the impact of climate change, it’s crucial that we identify how we can best interact to unlock the potential of hydrogen by developing carbon-negative hydrogen technologies and systems,” NETL researcher Jonathan Lekse, a member of the event’s organizing committee, said.
Hydrogen doesn’t typically exist by itself in nature and must be produced from compounds that contain it. The most common way of producing hydrogen is natural gas steam reforming, which requires high temperatures so that steam reacts with the hydrocarbon fuel to produce hydrogen. However, the process is energy intensive and emits carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas.
Nathan Weiland, a senior fellow at NETL, outlined analyses performed by NETL, explained how NETL and its research partners are exploring ways to diversify gasifier feedstocks using biomass — a broad term to describe wood, food crops, grass, woody plants and other organic materials. Gasification is a process that uses chemical reactions to break down carbon-based materials into molecular building blocks, creating syngas, a product primarily consisting of carbon monoxide and hydrogen molecules. Traditionally, gasifiers have relied on coal and petroleum coke as feedstocks, but advances in carbon capture technologies can enable hydrogen production with net-zero or net-negative CO2 emissions potential by blending biomass into the feedstocks.
“Advances in gasification of blended and variable feedstocks may enable co-gasification technology to perform reliably and flexibly to produce reliable and affordable supplies of hydrogen in a net-zero carbon emissions future,” Weiland said.
In addition, Weiland explained that NETL is investigating gasification of other waste feedstocks, such as construction demolition waste and municipal solid waste as well as reforming of renewable natural gas from landfills for carbon-negative hydrogen generation.
When used in fuel cells, hydrogen can power buildings, cars, trucks, portable electronic devices and backup power systems. Hydrogen is also envisioned as a long-duration energy storage medium to offset daily to seasonal differences between power generation and consumption. Further, hydrogen is expected to be the most economic option for reducing the carbon footprint of heavy industries such as iron/steel, chemicals and others requiring high temperature processes.
Weiland added that the research is aligned with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Hydrogen Shot, an initiative launched in June 2021 to reduce the cost of clean hydrogen by 80 percent to $1 per 1 kilogram in 1 decade. It also aligns with the Clean Fuels & Products Shot, which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the fuel and chemical industry at least 85 percent by 2035. They are key components of the Biden administration’s Energy Earthshot initiative, which has the goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
