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Moving from Fossil Fuels to a Hydrogen Economy

Manufacturers, standards organizations and industry are collaborating to accelerate hydrogen as a replacement fuel to power our grid and our economy.
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The Valve Manufacturers Association held its first Hydrogen Valve Summit this spring in Houston, Texas. Speakers from across the industry presented on the opportunities as well as the challenges faced not only in the U.S. but around the world as we phase out fossil fuels for renewables, particularly hydrogen solutions.

Many experts say we must move faster to decarbonize to meet the goals stated by world leaders. With a stated goal of decarbonizing the U.S. electrical grid by 2035, at today’s rate we’ll need three times the overall generation capacity compared to 2020. Annual solar and wind deployments must occur at four times the current rates, and 200,000 miles of new high voltage transmission lines must be installed. For reference, only 675 miles of lines were built in the U.S. in 2022.

The carbon footprint of hydrogen is more than just production. Energy is used to convert the input material to hydrogen, as well as to compress or liquify it and to transport it via truck or rail and pipeline. Liquification makes transporting and storing hydrogen much more efficient as it is 853x denser in liquid form than in gaseous form, occupying only 1/600 of its original volume in gas form.

This makes storage and transportation more efficient and eliminates the need for new pipeline construction where it isn’t feasible. It can be converted back to gas later to be processed as an energy source. All these factors must be considered when looking at the full impact of hydrogen production as the world moves away from traditional fossil fuels and to greener energy solutions.

But production isn’t the only hurdle to building a fully renewable grid. Intermittency, storage, permitting, generation and transmission capacity, grid connections, workforce and lead times to production also factor into the equation. Testing is also underway to learn more about how the components that make up the grid and infrastructure will behave in hydrogen service. This includes metallurgical studies, leak tests and temperature tests as hydrogen must be transported at very low temperatures. While components are generally compatible with hydrogen, a lot still needs to be learned.

Curbing Emissions

Today, it’s estimated that more than 40 percent of emission in the U.S. come from heat generated by electricity, especially in large scale and non-conductive applications that don’t work with today’s technology. Even with a fully decarbonized electrical grid, high-heat applications require a faster and more effective decarbonization solution. To address this, a heating fuel is required that won’t emit CO2 or other greenhouse gases, and clean hydrogen offers a very promising future.

Companies around the world that are exploring every aspect of decarbonization and greenhouse gas emissions reductions. Those working in clean hydrogen and moving toward hydrogen-based energy sources both for electrical grids and even for vehicles are making great strides. This article will discuss specific ideas shared at the forum, as well as highlight work being done by organizations globally to accelerate the transition to more hydrogen-fueled power.

One way to accomplish this is through on-site pyrolysis. This method allows for companies to create two revenue streams (hydrogen and solid carbon), avoids transportation costs via distributed production and bypasses reliance on infrastructure and renewables. Modern Hydrogen is one of the companies leading the charge in this technology.

Diagram of energy consumption

Source: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

On-Site Conversion to Green Hydrogen

Backed by venture capital through Bill Gates, by utilities such as NextEra Energy and National Grid and by industrial companies, Modern Hydrogen is succeeding at proving that generating hydrogen via methane pyrolysis is not only viable but creates valuable byproducts. This process creates new revenue streams for companies that adopt it.

Pyrolysis of natural gas is possible today and doesn’t require extensive new infrastructure or inputs. It can draw from the existing natural gas infrastructure already available. Today, the usage of natural gas is comparable to that of coal, nuclear, solar, wind and hydrogen energy sources combined. Notably, natural gas is already composed of about 80 percent hydrogen.

Natural gas (methane), RNG or biogas is piped from existing gas pipelines into on-site hydrogen generation units where the gas is heated until it breaks down into solid carbon and hydrogen molecules. The carbon is removed from the system in solid form and can be sold to companies to use in asphalt, while the hydrogen is delivered for end-use applications, with a small amount recycled into the system to power it.

Modern Hydrogen’s modular methane pyrolysis units are relatively small, about the size of a shipping container, and can be placed on-site at facilities to generate the energy that powers industrial process energy plants, commercial steam boilers or transportation refueling centers.

Photo of Modern Hydrogen pyrolysis unit in place at NW Natural
Source: Modern Hydrogen

The technology can also be placed earlier in the natural gas distribution process. For example, in Oregon, the hydrogen that is generated by Modern Hydrogen technology is blended into gas delivery lines at the Northwest Natural distribution center and delivered to businesses and homes via Portland's existing infrastructure. With more than $2 trillion of deployed natural gas assets across the United States, these Modern Hydrogen systems can be easily implemented into existing systems.

Additional Technologies for Hydrogen Production

Another technology used to produce hydrogen from natural gas is steam methane reforming (SMR). These projects are being initiated by downstream hydrocarbon industrial companies to remove CO2 and reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG).

Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) is another process used that separates the hydrogen from off-gas emissions by using two adsorption beds operating in parallel, with one bed purifying the off-gas while the other regenerates. High purity hydrogen (above 99.9%) can be produced by PSA units according to Emerson.

Diagram process flow of pressure swing adsorption system for hydrogen separation
Source: Emerson

Once hydrogen is extracted, it is often liquified for transportation at temperatures as low as -425°F (-254°C). At this extremely low temperature, embrittlement becomes a concern, with materials breaking down and cracking and allowing the hydrogen to escape, creating a source of fugitive emission.

EPRI, the Electric Power Research Institute, is currently working with a number of utilities around the world on a variety of hydrogen studies and demonstration systems to test the process from end to end. So far, they have found areas within gas turbine combustion systems that may need to be adjusted for hydrogen service are: fuel nozzles; coatings, based on new flame structures; liner and transition piece length and diameter, based on hydrogen flame speed; and combustor pressure drops, which may require changes to account for updated performance and turbine cooling requirements.

Diagram of fuel nozzle in gas turbine combustion system

EPRI indicates parts of gas turbine combustion systems that may need to be adjusted for hydrogen service.
Source: EPRI

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Testing and Certification of Components

As would be expected, a variety of industry groups and standards organizations are developing new tests or modifying existing ones for components used in hydrogen service, transport and storage. Among these groups are ASME, MSS’s Committee for Severe and Special Service Valves, including cryogenic tests and new standards regarding hydrofluoric acid service.

These standards and recommendations are currently in committee and under testing and review. The Compressed Gas Association represents member companies across industry and works with regulators, code developers and international standards bodies on technical guidance. Their Safe Hydrogen Project has mapped all its guidelines and regulations to date that are designed to ensure the safe storage, handling and transport of hydrogen.

Standards related to safety in hydrogen production
Source: Safe Hydrogen Project

 

Types of Hydrogen

There are a number of different ways to describe and define the types of hydrogen being generated today. Using colors to denote the process used to generate the final hydrogen fuel, industry has settled on at least a few colors – green, blue and gray – but other colors are being described, too. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has created a color wheel, showing the expanding nature of the hydrogen color assignments, as well as a description of how each “color” is created.

Diagram of the color of hydrogen
Source: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Group

 

The Path Forward

Even with all that still needs to be learned about moving our economy one run on hydrogen as a replacement for fossil fuels, there is a lot that is already known and technology that has been developed and is being proven out today.

Companies like Modern Hydrogen are seeking customers to install their pyrolysis technology to move toward creating their own energy plants run on clean fuel. Emerson and Flowserve are two large valve manufacturers, among other products, that have dedicated enormous resources to testing existing components and developing new ones that will be required for hydrogen service to be widely adopted.

Valve Magazine and the VMA will continue to provide content on these developments to readers, both online and in the printed magazine.

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