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25 May 2023
By
Michael
Booth
Colorado becomes national model for clean hydrogen fuel
A new law requires
the promising renewable energy to be produced in a “green” way. What’s
the difference?
Toyota Motor Corp.'s hydrogen fuel cell
vehicle Mirai arrives at a charge station near Toyota's showroom in
2014 in Tokyo. Groups of states are teaming up to accelerate the
development of hydrogen as a clean-energy alternative for automobiles
and factories that rely largely on climate-warming fossil fuels. (Shizuo
Kambayashi, AP Photo, file)
National and local clean energy advocates
are hailing Colorado as a leader in the quest to produce clean
hydrogen fuel as another alternative to dirty fossil fuels. Their
prime evidence is a law just signed by Gov. Polis that defines clean
hydrogen and reserves public tax credits and PUC approval to truly
green projects.
So what’s the issue? What hydrogen is “green,” what methods are
“blue,” which are the dreaded “gray,” and when and where is hydrogen
likely to be used in real, large-scale projects in Colorado? We talked
to a few experts to help sort it out.
How does hydrogen
work as an alternative fuel source?
Pure hydrogen can be burned as a high-heat source, much like natural
gas or coal or gasoline. It can also be used as an alternative to
natural gas as a “feedstock” for industries like fertilizer
production.
The challenge is that while hydrogen is abundant — it’s the first
entry on the periodic table — it’s usually tied to a partner like
oxygen. It needs to be split out before it’s useful. Splitting water —
H2O — is the cleanest way.
How does the hydrogen color system work?
If hydrogen isn’t produced cleanly, or used to replace “dirty” fuel
sources in hard-to-decarbonize industries like cement production, it’s
not doing much good from a global warming perspective. If you produce
hydrogen with electricity produced from coal or natural gas, you’re
playing for the tie.
Green hydrogen is produced by splitting water with clean electricity
such as solar or wind power, or hydroelectric power from dams. A green
hydrogen system also means one that has no leaks in the literal
pipeline — leaked hydrogen extends the life of the intense greenhouse
gas methane in the atmosphere. And it’s greenest when hydrogen is
replacing fossil fuel in a place that needs intense, always available
heat, like a steel forge or cement kiln.
“We definitely see huge opportunities around hydrogen if it’s done
right. But there’s also huge risks around it” when done wrong, Pete
Budden, hydrogen advocate for the Natural Resources Defense Council,
said in an interview about Colorado’s legislation. “It just has to be
really targeted, where you use it and how you make it.”
Gray hydrogen is produced from methane (natural gas), and is currently
the dominant production method for hydrogen used to make ammonia
fertilizer and other industrial chemicals. The process releases much
carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, according to the NRDC and other
nonprofit sources, such as RMI. Producing gray hydrogen emits 10
kilograms of carbon dioxide for every kilogram of hydrogen made.
Blue hydrogen is an in-between, relying on natural gas methane but
then capturing the resulting carbon dioxide and sequestering it
underground or by other methods.
There is also “pink” hydrogen, in theory produced by electricity from
nuclear power plants, which have advantages in producing fewer
greenhouse gases but terrible disadvantages in producing toxic waste
and suffering enormous cost overruns. Since there are no realistic
plans for new nuclear energy in the U.S, environmental groups say,
pink will not come into play outside of Europe.
What did Colorado’s
2023 bill do for hydrogen?
With lucrative federal and state tax credits and research grants
becoming available for hydrogen projects, Colorado clean energy
advocates wanted to get the state on the right “color” scheme from the
start. House Bill 1281 says a new state tax credit for each kilogram
of hydrogen produced can only go to a clean hydrogen project. That
includes what Sen. Lisa Cutter, D-Littleton, says are some of the
basic requirements for clean hydrogen: Produced with clean
electricity, with minimal leaks in transport, and favoring projects
that use hydrogen where other clean fuels won’t work.
“I give a ton of credit to all the bill sponsors and the Colorado
Energy Office for really working hard to be responsive to all the
environmental groups, and still do what we needed to do to be able to
draw down from” new federal funding, Cutter said. “We really did have
to work hard to thread the needle with the environmental groups. I
never would be on the opposite side.”
Other sponsors of the bill included Rep. Brianna Titone, D-Arvada,
Rep. Stephanie Vigil, D-Colorado Springs, and Sen. Kevin Priola,
D-Henderson.
The bill also instructs the Public Utilities Commission to set up a
process to review hydrogen projects proposed by investor-owned
utilities like Xcel Energy. The PUC will have to review how new
projects are paid for, whether costs are charged to consumer
ratepayers or to company shareholders.
Such utilities would also have to report to the PUC what a hydrogen
project’s impact might be on disproportionately impacted communities,
who have already suffered the consequences of utility and industrial
pollution throughout Colorado history. And the utilities would have to
keep reporting about greenhouse gas savings and other aspects of their
projects.
The language in the bill is already seen as a national model for other
state regulators to follow, the NRDC and other groups say.
The careful parameters will “encourage a robust, renewable long term
hydrogen industry, that is climate aligned, and not something that’s
going to be a flash in the pan or that wouldn’t have the credibility
of true emissions reductions that these guardrails can actually
deliver,” Budden said.
Where is hydrogen most likely to be used on a big scale in
Colorado?
Colorado is currently teaming with other southwestern states to be an
officially sanctioned “hydrogen hub” with the federal government.
Winning that status would open doors for more research, development
and capital grants to get big hydrogen projects off the ground here.
Passage of thoughtful state legislation can help Colorado’s chances,
advocates say.
Hard to decarbonize: Industries that rely on always-available
heat in the thousands of degrees are not easily switched to renewable
sources like wind turbines or solar farms. Researchers are working on
lower-temperature production methods, but they remain experimental.
Steel and cement plants are known as “stubborn” or hard-to-decarbonize
industries. EVRAZ Steel in Pueblo, and cement kilns in Pueblo,
Florence and Lyons are among largest producers of greenhouse gases in
Colorado.
Hydrogen could be ideal in such places, since locating hydrogen
production next to a massive industrial plant removes some of the
danger of leaking during pipeline transportation. Hydrogen can burn at
the high heats necessary for kilns and forges, and those factories are
already accustomed to working with regulators on controlling emissions
other than carbon.
Colorado utilities have
plans to get to 80% carbon emission reductions by 2030, noted NRDC’s
Alana Miller. To get the next 20% out by 2040, as planned, hydrogen
will likely have to be in the mix, she said.
Chemicals: Production of fertilizer for U.S. farming is a
chemically intensive process. Currently, the ammonia needed to create
fertilizer is usually made with hydrogen refined from natural gas.
Employing hydrogen made cleanly from water and renewable electricity
would sharply cut carbon emissions from agriculture.
Utilities, as peak or backup power: When solar and wind
renewable energy are producing an excess for the grid, that clean
electricity can be used to split water into hydrogen, which can then
be stored for far longer periods than power in electric batteries.
At peak energy demand, or when the sun is not shining, the hydrogen
can be burned more cleanly than natural gas to produce peak or backup
electricity for the grid. Utilities could store hydrogen for months or
longer to help smooth out the seasonal cost spikes of natural gas of
the kind that burned Colorado consumers in the winter of 2022-23.
Burning hydrogen does not create excess carbon, but it can increase
emissions of nitrogen oxide, which is controlled by the EPA and
contributes to Colorado’s Front Range ozone problem. Any utility-scale
burning of hydrogen would have to include NOx safeguards, advocates
say.
Heavy trucks and other long-distance transportation: The costs
and storage needs of hydrogen make more sense for fueling heavy-duty
trucks, trains or long-distance seagoing ships. Some truck builders
are working on hydrogen-fueled models. Hydrogen can be refilled as
fast as gasoline and diesel, creating some advantages over current
electric recharging rates.
Environmental advocates are mixed about transport possibilities:
“Electrification is coming on, it’s improving so fast that we kind of
don’t want to call a winner yet in that,” Budden said. “And there is
risk to putting all your eggs in the hydrogen basket when it comes to
those trucks.”
Will I be able to fuel my car with hydrogen?
Not anytime soon. California has some hydrogen fueling stations, but
most car manufacturers are treating hydrogen models as experimental,
far different from the ramped-up production of consumer electric
vehicles.
AAA Colorado was working with hydrogen power developers to locate a
station that would fuel AAA rescue vehicles as well as potential
public access. The state has now helped fund that project by New Day
Hydrogen, and the company is working on a Globeville-Elyria-Swansea
location. Those neighborhoods would be better suited to developing
hydrogen for the trucking and warehouse industry, heavily concentrated
along Interstates 70, 25 and 270. New Day Hydrogen says it has six
large fleet operators showing interest in addition to AAA, and their
goal is to open a fueling station in 2025.
Consumer hydrogen uses, such as cars, may not be the best application
of the material for a long time, experts say. Federal, state and local
officials are busy pouring money into the public recharging
infrastructure for electric vehicles, which are ready, attractive and
price competitive right now.
“We don’t want to see building out huge hydrogen refueling networks to
double the amount of investment we have to make,” Budden said. “If we
don’t want to waste loads of money.”
Update: This story was updated on June 5, 2023, with
more information about a potential public hydrogen vehicle fueling
station in north Denver.
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