A group of researchers, on the campus of a former DuPont facility based in Newark, Delaware, happen to be working to go ahead and create what can be key to solving the world’s climate challenge. The idea is to come up with an affordable way so as to make hydrogen by using renewable energy.
As per the chief technology officer of Versogen, Balsu Lakshmanan, it is not a question of technical feasibility; it happens to be a question of figuring out what happens to be the lowest cost so as to produce that hydrogen, and they are also displacing bad hydrogen with good hydrogen.
The world happens to be filled up completely with bad hydrogen, and almost all the hydrogen used in today’s times happens to be made with natural gas through a process known as steam methane reformation, or by way of coal using gasification. And while the hydrogen burns cleanly when it is used in fuel cell cars, trucks, and buses emitting just water vapor, climate warming gases such as carbon dioxide get released all through the hydrogen production.
Apparently, the bulk of this hydrogen does not get used to power vehicles but as part of oil refining, such as those found in the Philadelphia region. It happens to also be used to help feed us all and is used to create ammonia, which is a prominent ingredient in fertilizer.
It is well to be noted that ten million metric tons of hydrogen happen to be produced in the U.S. each year, and over 1,600 miles of pipeline go on to transport it primarily to the Gulf Coast.
The process to make hydrogen by way of using renewables happens to be simple enough. A machine known as an electrolyzer goes on to zap water with electricity, hence splitting the water molecules within their elements, oxygen as well as hydrogen. It is well to be noted that Versogen’s electrolyzer would happen to be the size of a tractor trailer and could very well be placed by way of a solar array or offshore wind farm, says Lakshmanan.
The fact is that the electrolyzers don’t happen to be new, and apparently the first electrolyzers generated hydrogen over 200 years ago.
Yet they are not cheap, said the founder as well as the CEO of Versogen, Yushan Yan.
As of date, it happens to be five times more expensive to generate clean hydrogen as compared to making dirty hydrogen by way of using coal or natural gas, and this does not factor in any environmental or health expenditures that are associated with burning fossil fuels.
Yan says that natural gas came along, and the production of hydrogen got so much cheaper that everyone went for that.
The Department of Energy happens to be having a goal to get the direct cost of green hydrogen dipped to $1 per kilogram of hydrogen by 2031, in comparison to $4.5 to $12 per kilogram, which is witnessed today.
The MACH2 hydrogen hub
To close that gap and throttle hydrogen production, the Biden administration has plans to invest $7 billion across the seven hydrogen hubs throughout the country.
The fact is that all this happens to be part of the administration’s goal of achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050, which would mean that the amount of the amount of carbon dioxide going into the atmosphere is balanced by way of eradicating carbon emissions over a period of time. As per Biden, these are more about people getting together across state lines, throughout industries, and also political parties to build a robust and more sustainable economy and also rebuild communities.
It is worth noting that, as part of a proposal, Versogen will go on to get over $34 million in order to develop its new electrolyzer, estimated to be around $224 million.
According to the White House, the effect of the regional hydrogen hubs is to eliminate 25 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, which goes on to equate to over 5.5 million gas-powered cars every year.
The region also happens to have miles of pipelines that happen to connect the different refineries across Delaware and New Jersey, which, as per the MACH2 officials, can be re-sleeved in order to carry hydrogen rather than oil or natural gas. As per the MACH2 officials, all this promises to create 20,000 jobs.
