The contenders, part 3: LIGH2T hydrogen concentrator seen as platform for industrial-scale decarbonization

Much has been written about the federal government’s plan to provide billions of dollars in financial support to create a limited number of regional hydrogen hubs, but not much information about how these hub proposals are made to meet with the Department of Energy (DOE) selection criteria. The details and strategies behind those plans have been hard to come by because few of the initial concept papers were made public, while others remain a mystery, even months after the candidates were first informally presented. An exception is the Gulf Coast Lead Hydrogen Transition (LIGH₂T) center proposal being prepared by a consortium that includes a large group of states, some key trading partners, several universities and the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL). In today’s RBN blog, we look at what we know about LIGHT₂Proposal T, who will submit a full application by the April 7 deadline, and how it addresses three key factors that may play a role in the selection process.

As we pointed out in Part 1 of this series, the US has made clean hydrogen a priority, with the federal government’s Regional Clean Hydrogen (H) Centers.₂Hubs) initiative aimed at speeding up the process. The DOE opened $7 billion in funding in September 2022 for the development of several centers. Clean hydrogen can be produced in a number of different ways. It can be run with water through nuclear or renewable energy electrolysers, producing hydrogen and oxygen. Separately, low-carbon hydrogen can be produced by passing natural gas through SMRs or ATRs (steam methane reformers and autothermal reformers, respectively) and capturing and sequestering most of the resulting carbon dioxide (CO).₂), resulting in low lifetime net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. A clean hydrogen hub, then, is “a network of clean hydrogen producers, potential clean hydrogen consumers and connecting infrastructure located in close proximity.”