Nuclear hydrogen to receive $20 million from US Department of Energy
October 13, 2021The DOE has announced that the Arizona project will focus on cleanly producing H2.
The United States Department of Energy (DOE) has announced that it will be pouring $20 million in funding into a nuclear hydrogen project intended to demonstrate technology that will cleanly produce H2 from this form of power.
The strategy is meant to help accelerate the technology’s development with a zero-carbon energy source.
The DOE is looking at nuclear hydrogen as a way to produce H2 using a form of electricity that does not produce carbon emissions. This will also represent a meaningful product for nuclear plants to produce aside from electricity.
The Arizona-based project will be another step along the H2@Scale strategy’s vision for clean H2 produced across a spectrum of sectors. The broad goal is to help in meeting the DEO’s Hydrogen Shot goal of achieving $1 per 1 kilogram within one decade. The announcement of the new project and investment arrived at the end of the week-long celebration held in recognition of Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Day, which actually took place on October 8.
The DOE will invest $20 million into the nuclear hydrogen project through the HFTO and NE.
“Developing and deploying clean hydrogen can be a crucial part of the path to achieving a net-zero carbon future and combatting climate change,” said Deputy Secretary of Energy David M. Turk in an official DOE news release. “Using nuclear power to create hydrogen energy is an illustration of DOE’s commitment to funding a full range of innovative pathways to create affordable, clean hydrogen, to meet DOE’s Hydrogen Shot goal, and to advance our transition to a carbon-free future.”
The DEO will fund the project with $12 million through its Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies office (HFTO) in addition to another $8 million from its Office of Nuclear Energy (NE) for a $20 million total award.
The project will be based in Phoenix, Arizona, where the intention is to produce clean nuclear energy at the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station. Six tonnes of stored H2 will then be usable for producing 200 MWh of electricity during high-demand times. It may also be applied to the production of other fuels as well as chemicals.
This is not a good idea particularly. The only positive thing is this tech can be used by proper green, clean tech. Carbon whilst an issue is not the entire picture. Energy and how we transform it and generate it cleanly should be the focus.
Would make more sense to use excess solar energy to produce hydrogen using steam electrolysis, store the gas at a natural gas plant, fire the hydrogen in the duct burners used by the gas plant’s (combined cycle power plant) boilers. Produces more steam for use with the gas plants’ turbine generator thereby helping cover grid peaks in the evening. Combined cycle plants routinely employ dust burners while gas plant steam electrolysis is much more efficient than using a nuclear plant.
Basically, storing renewable energy as hydrogen.
No need to involve the nuclear plant.
Hi Mike, I’m wondering why they are pushing for such technology, nuclear instead of solar. Like you, they are certainly aware of what you are pointing out.
The bureaucrats in the DOE are desperately trying to invent dubious ways to use conventional nuclear power to produce hydrogen. Just another waste of taxpayer money.
The economics of nuclear hydrogen make no sense. The conventional nuclear plants should cover base load energy. Period. That is what they are good at.