(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Renewable Tuesday: Hydrogen Colors [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-10-17 lede Let’s unpack that, and then get to the news of the week, including carbon capture and emissions disclosure. Sometimes other colours are ascribed to hydrogen, based on how it is produced. For red, pink and violet hydrogen, the electrolysers are driven by nuclear power. Yellow hydrogen refers to hydrogen production from a mixture of renewable energies and fossil fuels. Hydrogen that is merely a waste product of other chemical processes is referred to as white hydrogen. The use of coal as a fuel produces brown hydrogen. Hydrogen has many colour [names], and we frequently refer to green, turquoise, blue and grey hydrogen. Having done some reading on the topic, I think it would be valuable to explain the basics, like why hydrogen can be described in “colors”, i,e., green, blue, grey, etc. based on how it’s generated. It’s a rapidly evolving industry, and a brief sketch of the growth is also valuable for anyone interested in its huge environmental promise. Hydrogen is colorless. These color names are only convenient tags. There is no agreement on the meaning of “yellow hydrogen”, and some sources are confused about the colors for hydrogen produced with nuclear power. The hydrogen colour spectrum Colors of Hydrogen IEA and other analysts constantly point out that current national targets for decarbonizing are nowhere near enough to hold Global Warming to 1.5℃, but whenever I read such a statement I push back that this is due to gross lack of imagination among government officials and analysts. In reality, government targets are constantly being raised as the public gains more experience with rapidly falling costs and increasing capabilities, while the specialists in these areas and the activist organizations keep on telling us how much better we can do. That isn’t Peak Carbon, yet, because of other GHG emissions, but I take our tipping points where we find them. Next, transportation, then shutting down gas peaker plants and cleaning up steel, cement, and ammonia, and so on. And, of course, carbon sequestration. Carbon-free sources produced 40 percent of global electricity in the first half of the year, with solar and wind accounting for 14 percent of global power production. Other factors, such as lower electricity demand and declining coal use, have also helped reduce grid emissions in certain countries. Data from clean-energy think tank Ember shows that in the first half of this year , global power-sector emissions rose by just 0.2 percent, thanks largely to the planet-spanning embrace of wind and solar. The biggest source of carbon emissions in the world is electricity production , but a new report suggests the grid’s dirtiest days will soon be behind it. PWC is predicting that the cost of green hydrogen will fall to the level of current grey hydrogen production where solar and wind power are abundant. Half a gigatonne isn’t much when we need to get rid of a teratonne of carbon, but it helps a little. Hydrogen demand by 2050 could vary from 150 to 500 million metric tonnes per year, depending on global climate ambitions and the development of sector-specific activities, energy-efficiency measures, direct electrification and the use of carbon-capture technologies. Peter Styring, professor of chemical engineering and chemistry at the University of Sheffield, told CNN: “Unless you’ve got a full eco-toxic study, then you don’t know what it’s going to do, even at small concentrations.” Others remain concerned about negative impacts on the oceans, which are already under pressure from climate change, pollution and other human activity. But there may be regulatory hurdles to surmount. “Disposing of large tonnages of sodium bicarbonate in the ocean could be legally defined as ‘dumping,’ which is banned by international treaties,” Haszeldine said. The technique could be up to three times more efficient than current carbon capture technology, say the authors of the study , published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances. Biden administration to invest $1.2 billion in projects to suck carbon out of the air The Biden administration will announce on Friday its first major investment to kickstart the US carbon removal industry – something energy experts say is key to getting the country’s planet-warming emissions under control. Direct air capture removal projects are akin to huge vacuum cleaners sucking carbon dioxide out of the air, using chemicals to remove the greenhouse gas. Once removed, CO2 gets stored underground, or is used in industrial materials like cement. On Friday, the US Department of Energy will announce it is spending $1.2 billion to fund two new demonstration projects in Texas and Louisiana – the South Texas Direct Air Capture hub and Project Cypress in Louisiana. “These two projects are going to build these regional direct air capture hubs,” US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told reporters. “That means they’re going to link everything from capture to processing to deep underground storage, all in one seamless process.” Granholm said the projects are expected to remove more than 2 million metric tons of carbon dioxide from the air annually once they are up and running – the equivalent of removing nearly 500,000 gas cars off the road. The machines are being built to essentially supercharge the natural carbon removal already done by trees, bogs and oceans – which is not happening fast enough to capture fossil fuel emissions at the scale humans are emitting them. White House senior adviser Mitch Landrieu told reporters these will be the first direct air capture projects at this scale in the US and “will be the largest in the world.” Another project in Iceland that opened in 2021 removes about 10 metric tons of CO2 every day, roughly the same amount of carbon emitted by 800 cars a day. At the time, that project’s operator Climeworks said it was the largest one in the world. The US direct air capture projects alone could increase global capacity for the technology by 400 times, said Sasha Stashwick, policy director at Carbon180 – an independent nonprofit focused on carbon removal. “The industry’s very nascent at the moment,” Stashwick told CNN. “These are meant to be the first commercial-scale deployments at the mega-ton scale. It’s a very, very big deal.” [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/17/2199605/-Renewable-Tuesday-Hydrogen-Colors?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/