A Debate Rages Over the Putative Environmental Benefits of the ARCH2 'Hydrogen Hub' in Appalachia

[NickB79]

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/26052024/arch2-hydrogen-hub-appalachia-debate/

The project, which would produce, distribute and consume hydrogen in West Virginia, Ohio and western Pennsylvania, plans to make so-called blue hydrogen from natural gas by combining it with steam at a high temperature and pressure, a commonly used process called “reforming” that creates most of the world’s industrial hydrogen.

Instead of being released into the atmosphere, where it would warm the climate, the carbon dioxide produced by burning the natural gas would be pumped underground and permanently stored using carbon capture and sequestration (CCS), a process that critics say is unproven and expensive.

Snip

ARCH2 is one of seven proposed hydrogen hubs which the Biden administration has funded with up to $7 billion as part of its effort to decarbonize sectors such as long-haul trucking and chemical manufacturing, helping to hit the national clean-energy goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. The Appalachian hub’s share of the public funding is up to $925 million.

CCS has been shown repeatedly to be bullshit, primary used to repressurize old oil wells and boost production. And now it's being funded by money supposedly set aside to decarbonize the energy sector, and keep us fracking for natural gas for decades to come.