University of Wyoming to lead hydrogen project

Partnered with Los Alamos National Laboratory; Engineering, Procurement and Construction LLC (EPC); and Williams, one of the nation’s largest energy infrastructure companies, the project aims to demonstrate hydrogen production using water produced during oil and gas extraction.

H₂ERC Director, Eugene Holubnyak, said: “Water is a very valuable resource in Wyoming and in the arid West. If we are able to utilise water that would be normally considered a waste product from oil and gas production and turn it into a value-added resource for another energy-producing technology, we are effectively helping two different energy industries in Wyoming while conserving an indispensable resource.

The US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management recently announced that the project had been selected to negotiate a nearly US$5 million award as part of the expanded 'Clean Hydrogen Production, Storage, Transport and Utilisation to Enable a Net-Zero Carbon Economy' funding opportunity with cost share among the project partners, bringing the total endeavour up to US$10 million.

The initiative aims to continue advancement in hydrogen technologies that can improve performance, reliability and flexibility of existing and novel methods to produce, transport, store and use hydrogen in support of the nationwide goals of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) and achieving economy-wide net-zero emissions.

Over the course of two years, the project team will construct a containerised demonstration unit and test unit at a Williams-owned natural gas treatment and compression plant in southwest Wyoming, US. During this time, there will be some research into the technology at Los Alamos to resolve remaining challenges associated with integration.

Williams New Energy Ventures Vice President, Brian Hlavinka, said: “This work in Wyoming and national laboratories is a critical step to advance our strategy to blend hydrogen into the natural gas stream and transport it via existing infrastructure to further improve the emissions footprint of heating, cooling, cooking and power generation. Our ultimate goal is to inject hydrogen into our natural gas pipeline assets as a blended fuel to be used within the state, as well as delivered to the Pacific Northwest or other demand centres via our nearly 4000 mile bidirection transmission system known as Northwest Pipeline.”

Read the article online at: https://www.globalhydrogenreview.com/hydrogen/21082023/university-of-wyoming-to-lead-hydrogen-project/