Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Making hydrogen power a reality [View all]

[Caribbeans]

At MITEI’s 2022 Spring Symposium, the “Options for producing low-carbon hydrogen at scale” panel laid out existing and planned efforts to produce hydrogen at scale to help achieve a decarbonized energy system.Photo: Kelley Travers

Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Making hydrogen power a reality

Hydrogen fuel has long been seen as a potentially key component of a carbon-neutral future. At the 2022 MIT Energy Initiative Spring Symposium, industry experts describe efforts to produce it at scale.

Calvin Hennick | MIT Energy Initiative
Publication Date: June 27, 2022

For decades, government and industry have looked to hydrogen as a potentially game-changing tool in the quest for clean energy. As far back as the early days of the Clinton administration, energy sector observers and public policy experts have extolled the virtues of hydrogen — to the point that some people have joked that hydrogen is the energy of the future, “and always will be.”

Even as wind and solar power have become commonplace in recent years, hydrogen has been held back by high costs and other challenges. But the fuel may finally be poised to have its moment. At the MIT Energy Initiative Spring Symposium — entitled “Hydrogen’s role in a decarbonized energy system” — experts discussed hydrogen production routes, hydrogen consumption markets, the path to a robust hydrogen infrastructure, and policy changes needed to achieve a “hydrogen future.”

...The Hydrogen Shot will be facilitated by $9.5 billion in funding for at least four clean hydrogen hubs located in different parts of the United States, as well as extensive research and development, manufacturing, and recycling from last year’s bipartisan infrastructure law. Still, Dinh noted that it took more than 40 years for solar and wind power to become cost competitive, and now industry, government, national lab, and academic leaders are hoping to achieve similar reductions in hydrogen fuel costs over a much shorter time frame. In the near term, she said, stakeholders will need to improve the efficiency, durability, and affordability of hydrogen production through electrolysis (using electricity to split water) using today’s renewable and nuclear power sources. Over the long term, the focus may shift to splitting water more directly through heat or solar energy, she said....

...“We’re very excited to see hydrogen go from a [research and development] conversation to a commercial conversation,” she said. “We’ve been calling it a little bit of a ‘middle-school dance.’ Everybody is standing around the circle, waiting to see who’s willing to put something at stake. But this is real. We’re not dancing around the edges. There are a lot of people who are big players, who are willing to put skin in the game today.”...more https://news.mit.edu/2022/making-hydrogen-power-reality-0627

“We think that the 2020s is the decade of hydrogen,” - Huyen N. Dinh, a senior scientist and group manager at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)

Making the case for hydrogen in a zero-carbon economy
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Energy Initiative | Jun 23, 2022