America has just taken the leap into the future, and we’re not talking about a new geothermal well, or even a wind generator like the one we’ll soon see… made of wood. We have found a new type of hydrogen that, unlike others you have met with us, has no color. It is the strangest ever known to mankind, and it is capable of doing this that baffles everyone.
New type of hydrogen discovered in America: It´s really a good idea?
Another classification of hydrogen fuel is low carbon hydrogen referring to the generation of hydrogen through processes that emit far fewer amounts of greenhouse gases than the conventional methods of hydrogen generation through fossil fuels.
Thus, it is claimed to be an essential element of the shift toward a circular economy with a low carbon footprint since hydrogen can act as an energy vector and fuel in various sectors such as transport, electricity production, and others.
The importance of the low-carbon hydrogen perspective can be viewed in the fact that the direct use of hydrogen as a fuel could help decrease carbon emissions while keeping the high energy density of the hydrogen fuel. Low-carbon hydrogen is produced by techniques that either reduce or do not emit this CO2 at all.
It´s important to use renewable sources like solar power, wind energy or nuclear power to produce hydrogen, or by capturing CO2 emissions during the overall process of hydrogen production if it is being produced from fossil fuels. Examples of these are water electrolysis by renewable energy systems or production from biomass.
This hydrogen has experts on edge: The project to revolutionize the energy industry
Air Liquide, world player in gases, technologies and services for industry and health, leverages its dedication in the fight against climate change and actively contributes to the low-carbon transformation of the United States by participating in the US Department of Energy’s hydrogen hub initiatives.
It is today involved in six out of the seven hydrogen hubs that the DOE has revealed demonstrating the company’s knowledge on hydrogen and its determination to further extend its development. Hydrogen hubs, in their capacity, are regional initiatives aimed at fostering cooperative alliances between industry and government.
Air Liquide joined multiple hubs to support the establishment of hydrogen economy infrastructures across various locations focusing on different objectives and tasks. One example is the recent collaboration with Total Energies, an expert company on renewable sources.
What´s strange about this new type of hydrogen? Why it has no color
The low-carbon hydrogen development process is significant in the United States and is utilizing a structure that is different from that of previous projects. Disclaimer, which can be stated as ‘it is essential to point out that we undertake to explain some of the oddities of this inventive technological process.
This low-carbon hydrogen is generated using a competitive process that involve integrating renewable energy and methane reforming. The main technology hinges on high-temperature electrolysis to reduce renewable electricity consumption to convert water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen.
The produced hydrogen is then blended with natural gas to form the reformed natural gas, where the natural gas undergoes reforming process to produce more gas and hydrogen with formation of carbon dioxide. The brilliant thing is in the approach to capture or sequester the carbon dioxide emissions from the reforming process.
As you have seen, this new hydrogen could mark a historic milestone in the generation of energy from renewable sources, leaving solar and wind power far behind. In fact, not even geothermal or nuclear (the latter by far) could match it in terms of efficiency, availability and procurement without harming America’s natural resources, like the Alaska ones (you know what we´re talking about).
