A hydrogen future could deliver sustainable energy and economic growth for Appalachia – Virginia Tech.
The country’s transition to a sustainable, clean energy future is largely focused on the use of hydrogen as an energy source. To accelerate a hydrogen-powered future, the Biden administration recently announced more than $7 billion in federal funding to expand hydrogen infrastructure nationwide.
Rohit Pandey, assistant professor of mining and mineral engineering at Virginia Tech, received $1.5 million in research funding to help facilitate underground hydrogen storage in the Appalachian Basin. This project will not only help the nation achieve energy independence, but will also develop a vital industry of the future while expanding jobs in regions affected by the coal decline.
Rohit Pandeysaying:
Hydrogen is quite versatile.
“In terms of usability, it can be used practically anywhere natural gas can be used, such as home heating, transportation, etc. The benefit of running cars and trucks on hydrogen instead of electricity is that not only is water produced as a combustion product, but there is also no need to spend an hour at a charging station.”
In the next decade, the Appalachian Basin is expected to become the nation’s leading producer of “blue” hydrogen, a form that is produced from methane with permanently captured carbon dixoid byproducts and is generally considered the most profitable. However, this goal depends on comprehensive development across the entire energy life cycle, including production, transportation, utilization and, in particular, storage of hydrogen. Appalachia’s distinctive advantage lies in its abundance of depleted oil and gas fields, which could theoretically be repurposed for the temporary, cheap and safe storage of surplus hydrogen and facilitate a reliable supply chain. However, storing hydrogen in this way requires validation through both laboratory and field testing, which will be the main focus of Pandey’s research over the next two years.
Rohit Pandeysaying:
“The benefit of using underground gas fields is twofold.”
“Firstly, it reduces the carbon footprint associated with the need to create new underground storage operations, which would be the case with alternative approaches such as underground salt caverns and saline aquifers, which lack sufficient wellhead infrastructure to meet the expected hydrogen storage volumes”. Additionally, the presence of existing wellheads will drive improvements to onshore infrastructure, greatly reducing the risk of methane leakage prevalent at currently abandoned sites.
Pandey’s work is part of the Department of Energy-funded project, Evaluating Underground Hydrogen Storage in Depleted Appalachian Gas Fields. He and his interdisciplinary team, including co-principal investigators Biswarup Mukhopadhyay, Nino Ripepi and Bahareh Nojabaei and researchers from the Kentucky Geological Survey and Advanced Resources International, will examine three major depleted gas fields in Appalachia that have the potential to serve as large gas reserves. long-term and volume hydrogen storage solutions. The proposed storage locations are in regions with the highest concentrations of disadvantaged communities in southwest Virginia, eastern Kentucky, and southern West Virginia, as found in the Department of Energy’s Disadvantged Community Reporter mapping tool.
To determine the feasibility of storing hydrogen in depleted gas fields, Pandey’s team will study the feasibility of storing hydrogen in fields that previously contained natural gas.
Rohit Pandeysaying:
“Geological formations can be biochemically reactive with hydrogen and, given its small molecular size, hydrogen is prone to leakage through caprocks, faults, fractures and wells when stored underground.”
“These pathways can potentially lead to an irrecoverable loss of stored hydrogen, a techno-economic risk that needs to be understood and quantified.”
“I have two main goals in this project,”
“First, we want to identify places in Appalachia where it is feasible to implement underground hydrogen storage. It is impossible to assess risks without thoroughly examining the scientific details of each potential site. Second, we aim to develop a rigorous and repeatable methodology for evaluating underground hydrogen storage sites, designed for broad adoption among researchers to improve risk assessment for stakeholders. Our hope is that these research efforts will directly benefit Appalachia and provide a valuable process for other researchers to leverage globally.”
READ The latest news shaping the hydrogen market at Hydrogen Central.
A hydrogen future could deliver sustainable energy and economic growth for Appalachia – Virginia Tech. source
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