Hydrogen's role in energy will be more important going forward

PENN VALLEY, PA, US, November 17, 2020 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Last week’s Fourth Annual Appalachian Storage Hub Conference gave project updates in developing underground natural gas liquids storage in the Appalachian Basin. “We pleased that we could give the latest and best information about underground storage prospects in the Appalachian Basin,” commented Joe Barone, President and Founder, Shale Directories. He further added, “Hydrogen is receiving more attention as source energy for the United States.”

But no fewer than three of eight speakers at the all-day conference talked about the importance of hydrogen in the oil and gas industry, how the most prolific mineral on earth is becoming increasingly important to an industry coping with cellar-dwelling prices and heightened environmental pressures. “The hydrogen opportunities coming to U.S. industry is sizeable and it solve the global warming issue,” stated Tom Gellrich, CEO and Founder, TopLine Analytics.

As countries worldwide seek to reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions while providing energy to businesses and consumers, hydrogen is emerging as a key technology – and many experts believe it could become a multi-billion industry in the U.S., Shale Directories reports.

Nonpartisan climate policy think tank Energy Innovation has developed two scenarios in which hydrogen becomes a major part of the U.S. energy mix, earning revenue of $130-170 billion annually by 2050 while lowering GHG emissions by 20 or 120 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide-equivalent (CO2e) each year.

Today, there is global interest in hydrogen storage, something the U.S. has had for 20 to 30 years, and has been around for 60 years,” Mike Tritt, President, Lane Power & Energy Solutions, one of the premier underground storage developers in the world, said at the storage hub conference.

Nearly all hydrogen consumed in the U.S. today is used by industry for refining petroleum, treating metals, producing fertilizer, and processing foods. U.S. petroleum refineries use hydrogen to lower the sulfur content of fuels.

A $384 million project in Clinton County, north-central Pennsylvania will use onsite-produced natural gas as a fuel to produce low-carbon, so-called blue hydrogen and blue ammonia, along with diesel exhaust treatment and power plant exhaust treatment.

KeyState Natural gas Synthesis plant will also practice carbon capture and storage (CSS) which company CEO and Chairman Perry Babb told storage conference attendees will be a major piece of the U.S. natural gas industry.

“Most hydrogen produced in the next 30 years will come from fossil fuels,” according to Babb. His project is located in what he refers to as a 17-state “blue ocean,” as it will be the only production facility for ammonia, urea and diesel exhaust fluid within that multi-state region.

Hydrogen has great appeal as a renewable fuel, and can replace batteries as a storage medium, according to underground storage conference presenter Ken Thompson, founder and President, Mustang Sampling.
Hydrogen can be stored underground or flow via pipelines (up to 25% of line capacity), Thompson said, but does require “special attention” because of hydrogen’s active chemical nature.

“Hydrogen is highly reactive and requires attention since it permeates metals and elastomers,” according to Thompson. He added hydrogen may supplement other energy types in the short term, but infrastructure costs currently are very high.

The Fourth Annual Appalachian Storage Hub Conference was held Nov. 5, south of Pittsburgh in the Southpointe Office Park, and presented by Shale Directories and TopLine Analytics.

Joe Barone
Shale Directories
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