PITTSBURGH (TNS) — The Pennsylvania-blessed effort to develop a “blue hydrogen” hub in the region, which would use natural gas to make the new fuel, has secured encouragement from the U.S. Department of Energy, which is overseeing a fierce competition for $7 billion in hydrogen hub funding.
The Keystone state proposal, dubbed Decarbonization Network of Appalachia (DNA), submitted its concept paper to the energy department in the fall, along with 79 other consortia, including a West Virginia-based effort that includes some of the same companies.
Team Pennsylvania, a public-private partnership between the state and industry, announced Friday that its proposal with Shell and Equinor as technical leads, passed the first hurdle in the federal funding process.
While the partnership has declined to provide the details of the project, the concept revolves around a cluster of facilities that would use hydrogen derived from natural gas to decarbonize their operations.
The carbon emissions that result from turning methane into hydrogen would be captured and sequestered in geological storage wells, which have not yet been developed. That would create another industry for the hub — carbon dioxide management, transportation, and storage.
Federal money available for these hubs stems from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021, which sought to establish several such centers across the country.
The DOE, which is administering the program, said it would issue ‘encourage’ or ‘discourage’ notices to applicants in order to prevent projects that aren’t as likely to win funding from spending more money on preparing a full application, due by April 7.
According to the Department of Energy, 33 applicants received encouragement to proceed, although any of the discouraged entities could still go forward with a full submission. The agency didn’t release the names of the groups, leaving it up to them to disclose the news as Pennsylvania’s team did on Friday.
Teams in California, Colorado, Texas, Louisiana and Hawaii announced receiving notices of encouragement, too.
A West Virginia-based effort called Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub, or Arch2 — which includes EQT Corp., Peoples Natural Gas, CNX Corp., and a number of other Pennsylvania-based companies — has not yet said which notice it received from the DOE.
