Despite continued outcry from environmental justice advocates and communities forward, the US continues to steer the world in federal spending for hydrogen, a gas whose risks threaten to outweigh any potential advantages. it might present clear vitality switch. The Biden Administration continues to pour billions of {dollars} into main tasks like Regional Hydrogen Hubs, regardless of ongoing analysis revealing the intense environmental and public well being impacts that hydrogen can have. One such concern that’s usually ignored is the dangerous penalties that the manufacturing of blue and inexperienced hydrogen can have on the water provide. This is very so as a result of, at a time when groundwater tables are quickly reducing around the globe, greater than half of the blue and inexperienced hydrogen manufacturing capability deliberate within the US is in areas with an emphasis on water.
Why is Hydrogen Intensive in Water?
The Clean Energy Group just lately launched two truth sheets (accessible right here and right here) that define why producing blue and inexperienced hydrogen can hurt native water tables, and the way sure finish makes use of can exacerbate the consequences. To perceive why hydrogen is so robust in water, you might want to have a look at the manufacturing processes for every kind of hydrogen.
Blue Hydrogen
Blue hydrogen refers to hydrogen produced from fossil fuels utilizing a course of referred to as steam methane reforming (SMR), which is paired with carbon seize and storage (CCS) to take away some emissions from the method. Producing 1 kilogram of hydrogen by way of SMR requires 1.2 gallons of water to generate the required steam. Once the SMR is full, the water used for steam has been transformed into hydrogen, which means none of it may be recycled. In addition to this water consumption, CCS makes use of plenty of water for cooling. 92 p.c of the entire water required to provide blue hydrogen is used for cooling, though a few of IT water might be recycled.
While these base numbers for water use could not sound too dangerous, the problems grow to be extra obvious when you think about that the typical blue hydrogen plant produces over 500,000 kilos of blue hydrogen a day. To produce that degree of blue hydrogen, a plant would devour 1.9 million gallons of water per day from the water provide, and solely recycle about 450,000 gallons of that water. And that is simply to make the blue hydrogen – if that hydrogen is burned in an influence plant, the facility plant will want extra water for cooling. Power vegetation account for 40 p.c of all water withdrawals within the US, and when vegetation burn hydrogen, they want even extra water.
Green Hydrogen
Green hydrogen is usually thought-about the least dangerous type of hydrogen manufacturing, as a result of it refers to hydrogen produced by electrolysis, the place an electrical present is run by way of water to separate hydrogen molecules. If that electrical energy is powered by renewable vitality, then hydrogen is taken into account “inexperienced” or zero-carbon. However, inexperienced hydrogen has its personal set of disadvantages. Not surprisingly, electrolysis may be very water intensive, consuming 2.6 gallons of water for each kilogram of water produced. And since that water has already been damaged down into hydrogen, none of it may be recycled. On prime of that, electrolyzers require pure water. It takes nearly twice the quantity of water wanted from an area water supply, comparable to a municipal waste therapy plant, after which cleans it. When the water has been run by way of the purification course of, the “rejection” water normally accommodates a really concentrated combination of impurities, which makes it troublesome to recycle.
Green hydrogen manufacturing continues to be very costly, so most inexperienced hydrogen manufacturing services are nowhere close to the dimensions of blue hydrogen vegetation. But as a result of inexperienced hydrogen manufacturing makes use of plenty of water, the affect of even a small-scale plant can injury native water provides over time. A inexperienced hydrogen plant producing 11,000 metric tons of hydrogen per yr, such because the one just lately damaged floor in Arizona, would devour 26.4 million gallons of water a yr, none of which might recycle. And once more, when hydrogen is burned in an influence plant, the consequences on water are solely amplified.
Washing away the Hype
Although there are some restricted use circumstances the place zero-carbon inexperienced hydrogen is smart, it have to be weighed towards the numerous harms it causes. As local weather change worsens already harassed water tables, the pouring of billions of federal {dollars} so as to add extra new sources for water wants continues to threaten in the way forward for many communities throughout the nation. Environmental justice teams in water-stressed areas like New Mexico are already conscious of the menace posed by hydrogen — clearly the federal government would not need to hear.
