A coalition of Appalachian natural gas producers, industrial companies and research institutions launched on Wednesday to pursue a hydrogen hub in the region. Again.
This group, which unites the state of West Virginia with some of the same companies involved in a previously announced effort to pursue a hydrogen and carbon capture and sequestration hub, is called the Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub, or Arch2.
EQT Corp. is among the leading companies in this effort, which hopes to center the hub in West Virginia, “while expanding its impact, through cooperative efforts in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky,” the group announced in a news release.
Other companies involved in the Arch2 coalition include CNX Corp., Nucor Steel, Peoples Natural Gas, the Energy Innovation Center in the Hill District, Babcock and Wilcox, Air Liquide, the National Energy Technology Laboratory, and Battelle.
The race is on for federal money recently made available for the establishment of clean hydrogen hubs — networks of producers, pipelines and customers for hydrogen made in a low-carbon way. In Appalachia, the entities vying for that money are interested in establishing a blue hydrogen hub, where the hydrogen is made from natural gas with the CO2 that would be emitted in the process captured and piped to yet-to-be-established injection wells for permanent storage underground.
The U.S. Department of Energy last week opened the application period for $7 billion of that money, with concept papers due Nov. 7 and final applications by April 7.
In echoes of the region’s pursuit in recent years of a petrochemical hub and an Appalachian natural gas and liquids storage hub — initiatives that didn’t come to pass but were touted as tri-state collaborations — it again seems like multiple competing entities will be pursuing the same opportunities.
EQT, for example, was part of a coalition launched last year in Pennsylvania that included Shell, Equinor and U.S. Steel, among others, with the aim of preparing the region for hydrogen opportunities.
Last month, Shell and Equinor, with U.S. Steel hedging its participation, announced they would jointly apply for federal funding for “clean energy hubs” after signing an agreement to collaborate on hydrogen and carbon capture and sequestration opportunities in the same tri-state area.
EQT said it’s not associated with the Shell/Equinor/U.S. Steel effort.
There are be multiple funding opportunities for available for different pieces of a blue hydrogen hub.
While EQT’s CEO Toby Rice has talked about the potential of investing in the hydrogen production part of the equation, Shell’s interest seems to be in developing a carbon capture and storage network in the region, where the CO2 captured from power plants or factories is pumped into geological storage.
In addition to the clean hydrogen funding announcement that the Department of Energy released last week, it also made available close to $5 billion in funding for carbon capture and storage research and projects. Applications for that are also due in November.
Anya Litvak: alitvak@post-gazette.com
First Published: September 28, 2022, 7:47 p.m.
