The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) on Oct. 13 named seven regional clean hydrogen hubs to receive $7 billion in federal funding, a long-awaited announcement for an initiative aimed at accelerating the commercial-scale deployment of clean hydrogen and driving down its cost.

Funded by Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), the seven H2Hubs are located around the U.S. and aim to jumpstart a national network of clean hydrogen producers, consumers and connective infrastructure. Each hub will include clean hydrogen production, storage, delivery and end-use components.

Clean Hydrogen is expected to play a particularly important role in cleaning up hard-to-decarbonize sectors like refining, chemicals and heavy-duty transport.

Another major driver for clean hydrogen: Signed into law last year, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) includes a suite of tax incentives for project developers and is aimed at jumpstarting the industry. But the U.S. Treasury Department will need to determine how to account for the emissions from electricity used to make electrolytic hydrogen. Read our full primer with different viewpoints from the industry here.

The H2Hubs are expected to collectively produce three million metric tons of hydrogen annually, reaching nearly a third of the 2030 U.S. production target and lowering emissions from these industrial sectors that represent 30 percent of total U.S. carbon emissions.

In the power sector, hydrogen can be combusted in gas turbines for decarbonization or be used as a form of long-duration energy storage.

According to DOE’s previously-released Liftoff reports, clean hydrogen production has the potential to scale from nearly zero today to close to 10 million metric tons per year (MMTpa) in 2030 across the power, industrial and transportation sectors. That number could jump to 50 MMTpa by 2050.

Plug Power CEO John Marsh recently joined the Factor This! podcast and said he believes the U.S. could become a green hydrogen superpower. He specifically addressed the Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs program.

Here are the selected projects

Appalachian Hydrogen Hub (Or Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub – ARCH2): The Appalachian Hydrogen Hub includes West Virginia, Ohio , Kentucky and Pennsylvania and will leverage the region’s access to natural gas to produce low-cost clean hydrogen and store the associated carbon emissions (A process known as “Blue Hydrogen”).

The ARCH2 hub includes a diverse group of partner companies, including Battelle, Air Liquide, The Chemours Company, CNX Resources Corp, Dominion Energy Ohio, Empire Diversified Energy, EQT Corporation, Fidelis New Energy, First Mode, Hog Lick Aggregates, Hope Gas Inc., Independence Hydrogen Inc., KeyState Energy, MPLX, Plug Power and TC Energy.

The hub is expected to bring job opportunities to workers in coal communities.

“I am so honored to announce that today the U.S. Department of Energy has selected the Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub for up to $925 million in federal support under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law,” said

Sen. Joe Manchin (D – W.V.) said the award “means West Virginia and the Appalachian region will be the new epicenter of hydrogen in the United States of America.”

Amount: up to $925 million

California Hydrogen Hub (Or Alliance for Renewable Clean Hydrogen Energy Systems – ARCHES): The California Hydrogen Hub will produce hydrogen exclusively from renewable energy and biomass.

Through the application process, ARCHES identified several projects up and down the state—many shovel-ready—supporting three essential hard-to-decarbonize end-use sectors: heavy-duty vehicles, power plants and ports.

ARCHES is supported by over 400 organizations and individuals representing state and local governments, higher education institutions, business and industry leaders, organized labor and community advocates.

“Today we are moving from concept to reality – advancing clean, renewable hydrogen in California which is essential to meeting our climate goals,” said Gov. Gavin Newsom (D).

Amount: up to $1.2 billion

Gulf Coast Hydrogen Hub (HyVelocity H2Hub): The Gulf Coast Hydrogen Hub will be centered in the Houston, Texas region. Large-scale hydrogen production is planned using both natural gas with carbon capture and renewables-powered electrolysis.

The Gulf Coast is well-situated for a clean hydrogen hub as it contains the world’s largest concentration of existing hydrogen production assets, customers, and energy infrastructure. This includes a network of 48 hydrogen production plants and over 1,000 miles of hydrogen pipelines.

HyVelocity includes seven core industry participants: AES Corporation, Air Liquide, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Mitsubishi Power Americas, Orsted, and Sempra Infrastructure. HyVelocity is administered by GTI Energy and includes organizing participants like The University of Texas at Austin, the Center for Houston’s Future and Houston Advanced Research Center.

“This investment represents a pivotal step in decarbonizing our planet and revolutionizing mobility, serving as a powerful example of successful public-private partnerships in scaling up hydrogen and advancing the energy transition,” said Katie Ellet, President of Hydrogen Energy & Mobility of North America for Air Liquide.

Amount: up to $1.2 billion

Heartland Hydrogen Hub: The Heartland Hydrogen Hub includes Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and aims to help decarbonize the agricultural sector’s production of fertilizer, decrease the regional cost of clean hydrogen, and advance the use of clean hydrogen in electric power generation and for cold climate space heating.

The hub includes Xcel Energy, Marathon Petroleum Corporation and TC Energy, in collaboration with the University of North Dakota’s Energy & Environmental Resource Center.

Xcel Energy expects to receive a large portion of the federal award for projects within the hub.

The utility plans to use existing and future nuclear, solar and wind resources in the Upper Midwest to produce hydrogen to blend into power generation, existing natural gas distribution systems and other agricultural and industrial applications.

Amount: up to $925 million

Mid-Atlantic Hydrogen Hub (Mid-Atlantic Clean Hydrogen Hub – MACH): The Mid-Atlantic Hydrogen Hub includes Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey. It anticipates developing hydrogen production facilities from renewable and nuclear electricity using both established and innovative electrolyzer technologies.

Anchor partners include Air Liquide, Bloom Energy, Braskem, Chesapeake Utilities, The City of Philadelphia, DRS, DuPont, Enbridge, Holtec, PGW, PSEG and SEPTA.

Amount: up to $750 million

Midwest Hydrogen Hub (Midwest Alliance for Clean Hydrogen – MachH2): The hub includes Illinois, Indiana, Michigan. Hydrogen uses include steel and glass production, power generation, refining, heavy-duty transportation and sustainable aviation fuel.

Hydrogen will be produced with renewables, natural gas and nuclear energy.

A sampling of members in MachH2 include ADL Ventures, Air Liquide, Argonne National Laboratory, Big Rivers Electric, Bloom Energy, ComEd, Constellation, GTI Energy, Holtec, Hydrogen Technologies Inc., Invenergy, NiSource, Plug Power, Rockwell Automation and several large Midwest universities.

“Our hub and the region bring an unparalleled supply of clean energy, significant regional hydrogen demand, heavy industry, and an ideal location at the crossroads of America – all of which was recognized by the DOE’s selection of MachH2,” said Dr. Dorothy Davidson, CEO of MachH2.

Amount: up to $1 billion

Pacific Northwest Hydrogen Hub (PNW H2): The Pacific Northwest Hydrogen Hub includes Washington, Oregon, Montana and plans to produce clean hydrogen exclusively via electrolysis.

Association partners include the Consortium for Hydrogen and Renewably Generated E-Fuels (CHARGE) Network, Renewable Hydrogen Alliance (RHA), Washington Green Hydrogen Alliance, Washington State University, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and many private corporations, utilities, and ports.

The hub believes its widescale use of electrolyzers will drive down the costs for this equipment.

Amount: up to $1 billion

DOE’s $7 billion investment in the hubs will be met by awardees’ combined cost share of more than $40 billion.

Before funding is issued, the Department and the applicants will undergo a negotiation process. DOE notes it could cancel negotiations and rescind the selection for any reason during that time.  

Learn more about the seven H2Hubs selected here.

DOE said the project can now move forward with fabrication and construction.

MARVEL, a sodium-potassium-cooled microreactor that will generate 85 kW of thermal energy, is expected to be completed in early-2025. The Department said it will be built inside the Transient Reactor Test Facility at INL with future plans to connect it to a microgrid.

MARVEL will be used to help in demonstrating microreactor applications, evaluating systems for remote monitoring and developing autonomous control technologies for new reactors.

DOE’s microreactor program recently finished MARVEL’s final design report, which included more than 200 supporting documents detailing the engineering analysis, specifications, requirements and drawings of the reactor design.

The Department said the 90 percent completion threshold allows for minor changes that might arise due to unforeseen complexities during construction and assembly. 

While the design won’t be considered 100 percent final until the microreactor is cleared for operation, INL is now permitted to award contracts.

Later this year, INL will work to purchase fuel for the microreactor, which will use a version of TRIGA fuel similar to what is used in university research reactors across the country.

Additional milestones include safety analysis, training and drafting procedures, followed by the construction and assembly of the reactor before fuel loading.

MORE HERE

Direct air capture, with its fans, pumps, compressors, water cooling systems and air separation units, is an energy-intensive process that leads to high costs.

However, the DOE study revealed that advanced nuclear reactors could reduce the cost of certain DAC methods by up to 13% compared to non-nuclear systems.

Researchers assessed three advanced reactor types in combination with low-temperature solid sorbent and high-temperature liquid solvent direct air capture systems, comparing them to fossil fuel-powered alternatives.

The reactors evaluated were an advanced pressurized water reactor, a sodium-cooled fast reactor and a very high temperature reactor.

Researchers found the continuous and carbon-free output from nuclear reactors would benefit direct air capture, reducing costs by up to 13% for solid systems and up to 7% for liquid systems.

Future research will explore optimal system configurations, including using heat from reactors for liquid direct air capture and compatibility with emerging carbon capture technologies.

Researchers also found potential benefits for using nuclear energy with other negative emission technologies, including CO2 capture using biomass, seawater and basalt rocks.

The study was conducted by DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy Systems Analysis & Integration campaign, along with contributions from researchers from Argonne National Laboratory, Idaho National Laboratory and the National Energy Technology Laboratory.

Read the full report here

DOE recently announced more than $1 billion to develop two commercial direct air capture facilities in Texas and Louisiana through its DAC program funded through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA).

These include two aimed at expanding clean hydrogen and one focused on bringing a microreactor design closer to deployment. The other projects intend to tackle nuclear regulatory hurdles, improve operations of existing reactors, and facilitate new advanced reactor developments.

This is the final round of awards DOE is making through the Office of Nuclear Energy’s industry funding opportunity announcement (iFOA). Since 2018, the iFOA has invested more than $230 million into 48 projects from 31 different companies across 18 states. To date, 28 of the selected projects have successfully been completed.

Traditional and advanced nuclear reactors could be well-suited to provide the constant heat and electricity needed to produce clean hydrogen. This could also open up new markets for nuclear power plants.

The hydrogen project teams selected for DOE awards include:

• General Electric, which will scale-up co-electrolysis technology to produce a carbon-neutral aviation fuel and demonstrate a conceptual design with an advanced nuclear reactor.
• Westinghouse, which will carry out a series of engineering studies that will provide insights on coupling hydrogen technology with existing nuclear reactors.

Other teams selected for funding include:

• X-energy, which will complete a preliminary design of a microreactor to advance design elements and bring it closer to commercial deployment.
• The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), which will demonstrate advanced manufacturing of small modular reactor components to support the U.S. supply chain.
• 3M, which will develop an isotope recovery process to enable commercial deployment of molten salt reactors.
• Constellation, which will improve operational efficiency and flexibility of the current fleet of nuclear reactors.

The last four selected project teams will breakdown regulatory hurdles: 

• RhinoCorps will create a roadmap to help reactor licensees assess defensive strategies and incorporate modeling and simulation into their security assessment processes.
• Analysis and Measurement Services Corporation will develop a blueprint that reduces maintenance costs and outage time for the current fleet of nuclear reactors.
• General Atomics will support accelerated fuel testing efforts to license new fuel types needed by advance reactor developers to deploy their technologies.
• Terrestrial Energy will submit pre-licensing topical reports to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to advance the development of its molten salt reactors and reduce regulatory risk for advanced reactors. 

More information on the award recipients can be found here.

The programs are intended to help accelerate private-sector investment, spur advancements in monitoring and reporting practices for carbon management technologies, and provide grants to state and local governments to procure and use products developed from captured carbon emissions. 

In addition to this funding through the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Inflation Reduction Act features improvements to the federal Section 45Q tax credit for the capture and geologic storage of CO2, which are intended to provide complementary incentives.

The new efforts include: 

Direct Air Capture Commercial and Pre-Commercial Prize – DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM) announced the Direct Air Capture Prize for awards totaling $115 million to promote diverse approaches to direct air capture. The Direct Air Capture Pre-Commercial Prize provides up to $15 million in prizes to incubate and accelerate research and development of breakthrough direct air capture technologies. The Direct Air Capture Commercial Prize provides up to $100 million in prizes to qualified direct air capture facilities for capturing CO2 from the atmosphere. 

Regional Direct Air Capture Hubs – DOE’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED), in partnership with FECM, is announcing the Regional Direct Air Capture Hubs program. DOE will invest $3.5 billion to develop four domestic regional direct air capture hubs, each of which will demonstrate a direct air capture technology or suite of technologies at commercial scale with the potential for capturing at least 1 million metric tons of CO2 annually from the atmosphere and storing that CO2 permanently in a geologic formation or through its conversion into products. The first funding opportunity announcement makes available more than $1.2 billion to begin the process for conceptualizing, designing, planning, constructing, and operating direct air capture hubs, with additional opportunities expected to follow in the coming years. 

Carbon Utilization Procurement Grants – FECM will manage the Carbon Utilization Procurement Grants Program, which will provide grants to states, local governments, and public utilities to support the commercialization of technologies that reduce carbon emissions while also procuring and using commercial or industrial products developed from captured carbon emissions. The Notice of Intent informs stakeholders of DOE’s intent to announce the first FOA issuance, which will provide grants totaling up to $100 million. 

Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Technology Commercialization Fund (TCF) -– DOE’s Office of Technology Transitions (OTT), in partnership with FECM, will issue a Lab Call to accelerate commercialization of carbon dioxide removal technologies, including direct air capture, by advancing measurement, reporting, and verification best practices and capabilities. OTT anticipates awarding $15 million to projects led by DOE National Laboratories, plants, and sites, and supported by diverse industry partnerships spanning the emerging carbon dioxide removal sector. 

DOE said the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law programs support the goals of its Carbon Negative Shot initiative, which calls for innovation in carbon dioxide removal to capture CO2 from the atmosphere and store it at gigaton scales for less than $100/net metric ton of CO2-equivalent. Carbon Dioxide Removal Launchpad members each sign on to build at least one 1,000+ ton/year carbon dioxide removal project by 2025, contribute to cumulative investment of $100 million collectively by 2025 to support demonstration projects, and support efforts to advance measurement, reporting, and verification. 

The federal agency said that since January 2021, it has invested more than $250 million in 62 research and development projects and front-end engineering design studies to advance carbon management approaches that include carbon dioxide removal and carbon utilization projects. 

A new U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) study found hundreds of coal power plant sites could convert to nuclear, dramatically increasing dispatchable, carbon-free energy as the country strives to meet its net-zero emissions goal by 2050.

According to the Investigating Benefits and Challenges of Converting Retiring Coal Plants into Nuclear Plants report, a coal-to-nuclear transition could increase nuke capacity in the U.S. to more than 350 GW.

Among the report highlights: DOE says the transition could bring benefits to coal communities with additional jobs, economic development and improved environmental conditions.

The study is relevant as companies like NuScale and Bill Gates-backed TerraPower are working to commercialize and deploy small modular reactors (SMRs) at coal sites in the U.S. Proponents say SMRs offer a lower initial capital investment, greater scalability and siting flexibility than larger conventional nuclear reactors.

MORE: Replacing coal is a ‘natural for us’: One-on-one with NuScale’s John Hopkins

A deeper look at the study

DOE study teams evaluated potential coal power plant sites based on a set of ten parameters, including population density, distance from seismic fault lines, flooding potential, and nearby wetlands.

After screening recently retired and active coal plant sites, researchers identified 157 retired and 237 operating coal plant sites as potential candidates for the transition.

The teams found that 80% of those sites, representing over 250 GW of generating capacity, were suitable for hosting advanced nuclear power plants.

But DOE says more investigating is needed for this coal-to-nuclear transition, including into ownership of the plant, an in-depth evaluation of the remaining coal plant infrastructure and a consideration of other factors that could pose siting challenges.

Construction costs and economic impacts

DOE examined economic and environmental impacts based on the evaluation of a composite, four-county region surrounding a coal plant site in the Midwest.

The study weighed hypothetical scenarios involving NuScale and TerraPower reactors.

According to DOE, depending on the technology used, nuclear overnight costs of capital could decrease by 15% to 35% when compared to a greenfield construction project, through the reuse of infrastructure from the coal facility.

In a case study replacing a large 1200 MW coal plant with NuScale’s 924 MWe of nuclear capacity, the study teams found regional economic activity could increase by as much as $275 million and add 650 new, permanent jobs to the region analyzed. Nuclear can have a lower capacity size because it runs at a higher capacity factors than coal power plants.

In general, DOE says the occupations that would see the largest gains from a coal-to-nuclear transition include nuclear engineers, security guards, and nuclear technicians. Nuke plants could also benefit from preserving the existing experienced workforce in communities around retiring coal plants sites.

Click here for a look at DOE’s full report.

America’s existing nuclear fleet currently has a combined capacity of 95 GW and supplies half of the nation’s emissions-free electricity.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced new funding aimed at improving the efficiency of hydrogen-fueled turbines that could one day be used in clean power plants.

The Department’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM) earmarked $4 million, which would fund several projects focusing on the research and development of ceramic matrix composite components, which allow hydrogen turbines to operate at higher working temperatures.

DOE said the effort would enable operations at 150°C higher than current ceramic matrix composite technology and 450 °C higher than existing nickel-based materials allow, while reducing the amount of cooling air required.

Electricity made from clean hydrogen—whether produced from renewable resources or from fossil or carbon-based waste resources, coupled with pre-combustion carbon capture and durable storage—will help in achieving the Biden-Harris Administration's goal of a zero-carbon U.S. power sector by 2035.

The Department said projects would be selected under two areas: Benchmark of CMC Performance with Predictive Modeling and Improvement to Temperature Performance of CMC Materials.

As the energy industry works to meet decarbonization goals, the advantages of hydrogen combustion include fuel flexibility, through the ability to burn hydrogen and fossil fuels like natural gas; fuel security through integration with hydrogen storage; the ability to meet large demands for electricity; and the flexibility to follow loads from variable generation.

Major OEMs in the power generation industry like GE, Siemens and Mitsubishi Power have been focusing their efforts on hydrogen combustion in gas turbines, particularly for large-scale generation.

The industry has developed materials and systems to increase the concentration of hydrogen that can be combusted. According to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), these advances have allowed hydrogen to be fired at concentrations over 90% in simple-cycle turbines or aero-derivative machines, and at concentrations of up to 50% in large-frame combined-cycle turbines.

But experts note while hydrogen combustion offers a promising energy storage and conversion pathway, it is not a “drop-in” fuel for much of today’s natural gas fired energy conversion devices.

According to the DOE’s hydrogen plan, though significant progress has been made, additional research, development and demonstration is needed to address issues such as auto-ignition, flashback, thermo-acoustics, mixing requirements, aerothermal heat transfer, materials issues, turndown and combustion dynamics, NOx emissions, and other combustion-related issues.