Texas has resources, infrastructure to become global hydrogen hub: speakers

Texas is well-poised to become a global hydrogen hub, given that it already has significant production, demand and infrastructure, webinar speakers said Feb. 18

Brett Perlman, the center's executive director, speaking during the webinar hosted by the Center for Houston's Future, pointed out that Texas already has more than 900 miles of dedicated hydrogen pipelines, which equates to roughly 56% of the total hydrogen pipeline system in the US, and 32% globally, and produces roughly 3.4 million mt annually, which is 34% of annual US output.

In addition, the state has 48 hydrogen production facilities and significant storage potential due to numerous underground salt caverns.

At more than 30 GW, Texas also has the nation's largest wind capacity, which could be used to produce hydrogen. Perlman, making light of the past week's events, said the state's wind could potentially help with the state's sudden reliability issues.

"We can decarbonize our own energy system, but also ship across the globe," he said. "We can take a system we have now for refining oil to create a Houston hydrogen hub, which we believe would be one of the leading global hydrogen hubs going forward."

The webinar's guest speaker, Daryl Wilson, the Canada-based executive director of the Hydrogen Council, said the long-hyped hydrogen sector is finally starting to attract investment, pointing to roughly $350 billion in announced investments worldwide, including $70 million from various governments looking to advance a hydrogen economy.

"There's a lot more going on in hydrogen then perhaps [people] realize," Wilson said.

The Hydrogen Council is made up of CEOs from more than 100 global companies with interest in developing a hydrogen economy, including the CEOs from BP, Chevron, Microsoft, AngloAmerican, Aramco, Thyssenkrupp, General Motors and Airbus, among others.

Wilson agreed that Texas already has the natural gas and renewable resources, such as wind and solar, to make it a natural location for hydrogen production, but also the skills and knowledge base around pipelines and carbon capture, which is an integral part of the hydrogen vision of many industry players.

"Our view is if we want to meet decarbonization objectives by 2050, it will require a combination of blue and green hydrogen," said Wilson.

Green hydrogen refers to hydrogen produced from renewable sources that does not emit carbon dioxide, versus blue hydrogen, which refers to hydrogen produced from natural gas, but with the CO2 emissions captured and stored.

"The merit of blue hydrogen is we can build those projects at larger scale, faster, and at a lower cots then green hydrogen, though over time we expect green hydrogen to become more cost competitive," Wilson said.

"The state of Texas is home to the largest capacity of carbon capture technology, so it brings the local skills and know how," he added.

Developing a hydrogen hub in Texas will require a "coordinated effort" between industry and government,and "as that conversation progresses, it turns into a roadmap and strategy," Wilson said.