Michigan-backed hydrogen hub gets up to $1B from feds
The U.S. Department of Energy is giving a Michigan-backed clean hydrogen hub project up to $1 billion to develop regional supply chains for the production, distribution and use of hydrogen in trucks and heavy-duty vehicles, officials said Friday.
The Midwest Alliance for Clean Hydrogen, known as MachH2, proposed to develop a hydrogen hub that serves Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Kentucky and Missouri. The Midwest hub is set to use hydrogen in steel and glass production, power generation, heavy-duty transportation and sustainable aviation fuel. The hub plans to use renewable energy, natural gas and nuclear energy to create the hydrogen fuel.
MachH2 is supported by roughly 70 partners, including the Detroit/Wayne County Port Authority, Palisades nuclear power plant owner Holtec International, the Flint Mass Transportation Authority, ExxonMobil, area universities, energy companies and transportation providers.
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The project is anticipated to create 13,600 direct jobs — 12,100 in construction jobs and 1,500 permanent jobs, according to Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's office. It wasn't clear how many of those jobs would be in Michigan.
“Manufacturing is a fundamental part of the Midwest region’s identity and economic prosperity. Today’s announcement will allow us to stay true to this heritage while advancing innovation to remain globally competitive in the ongoing transition to clean energy,” Whitmer said in a Friday statement.
“With this landmark achievement, made possible by the Biden administration and support of our congressional delegation, we are not only securing a more sustainable future for our region and state, but we are also unlocking new opportunities for job creation and economic growth.”
The Michigan Infrastructure Office is working with MachH2 to build a hydrogen "Truck Stop of the Future" in the Detroit area, according to Whitmer's office, which would serve Gordie Howe International Bridge traffic and is envisioned as establishing Michigan as a destination for building and testing hydrogen-powered heavy-duty vehicles.
In addition, MachH2 is slated to oversee the construction of a hydrogen production facility at the American Center for Mobility in Ypsilanti and the expansion of a hydrogen production and refueling center at the Flint Mass Transportation Authority, which has been working on increasing its fleet of hydrogen-powered buses.
“Unlocking the full potential of hydrogen — a versatile fuel that can be made from almost any energy resource in virtually every part of the country — is crucial to achieving President Biden’s goal of American industry powered by American clean energy, ensuring less volatility and more affordable energy options,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said in a statement.
Hydrogen can step in as an energy source where electricity doesn't make sense, such as powering medium- and heavy-duty vehicles or fueling manufacturing processes that require very high temperatures, said Todd Allen, co-director of MI Hydrogen and the University of Michigan's Glenn F. and Gladys H. Knoll department chair of nuclear engineering and radiological sciences.
"There will be certain cases where electricity is the most straightforward and cost effective way to move to lower carbon systems," Allen said. "There will be cases where hydrogen is better for doing that."
Moving the hydrogen to those end users poses a challenge, he said. Hydrogen could be moved in containers as gas or through pipelines as a liquid, although both options have drawbacks.
To use hydrogen in shipping, the transportation industry will have to pepper highways with refueling stations. But before companies are willing to spend money on a network of hydrogen refueling stations, they want to know there will be demand for the fuel, Allen said.
"I think there's a lot of open questions," he said. "My sense of (the Department of Energy's) goal in starting all these hubs is to get industries to grapple with this. It's a bit of a chicken and the egg thing."
The creation of hydrogen fuel isn't carbon-free if the electricity used to split those water molecules comes from fossil fuels, although fossil fuel companies propose they could capture the carbon dioxide released during hydrogen production.
"If you can make the hydrogen with a clean source that's not generating carbon dioxide, then it puts you in a position to decarbonize those industries," Allen said.
The Midwest hub will produce hydrogen using “diverse and abundant energy sources,” the U.S. Department of Energy said Friday, including renewable energy, natural gas and nuclear energy. Allen said the exact mix of energy sources that will be used to create the hydrogen has not been announced.
"Across the entire program, you'll see a little bit of everything," he said. "They're essentially testing all options."
Although an established method, splitting water molecules to create hydrogen, a process called electrolysis, is rarely used because it is expensive. Most hydrogen fuel produced today comes from natural gas, which is heated with steam and split into hydrogen and carbon dioxide.
The Department of Energy expects the hub will reduce carbon emissions by 3.9 million metric tons annually, or the equivalent of eliminating emissions from 867,000 gas-powered cars every year.
But environmental groups largely expressed skepticism about the announcement Friday, arguing they could further support hydrogen production using non-renewable sources of energy.
“The fossil fuel industry is working to continue our nation’s reliance on fossil fuels by any means necessary — and hydrogen offers yet another possible inroad for Big Oil and Gas to lock in polluting and non-economic uses of gas for decades to come,” Sierra Club Executive Director Ben Jealous said in a statement.
Auto industry advocates say hydrogen is a key part of decarbonizing transportation, particularly in cases where electric vehicle batteries would be too heavy to be practically used, such as in semi-trucks. Medium- and heavy-duty trucks, airplanes and trains represent around a third of transportation emissions.
The MachH2 partners will spend the next year-plus working with federal energy officials on the details of their hydrogen hub proposal, Allen said.
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