Chris Tomlinson: Texas companies embrace hydrogen to retain energy crown

The world is determined to move away from burning fossil fuels, but Houston could remain the energy capital of the world thanks to a coalition of Texas businesses and nonprofits betting on hydrogen helping the city retain the crown. The gamble is sound. Climate activists agree that hydrogen molecules in either gas or liquid form will help replace oil, natural gas and coal where electrons are impractical. President Joe Biden’s Department of Energy has promised $9.5 billion to help cities develop hydrogen hubs across the country. The Texas Gulf Coast is already home to 48 hydrogen production plants and 900 miles of H2 pipelines, which should make Houston a shoo-in for a few billion new development dollars. But the journey to a clean hydrogen future could be far more circuitous than expected, and Houston’s future role will rely on a commitment to clean energy.

Hydrogen atoms are plentiful in the universe, but most of them are bound to other elements, mostly famously oxygen to create water. Hydrogen also binds with carbon to make fossil fuels, such as oil and natural gas. Chemists have developed several techniques for breaking hydrogen atoms free, but each has a drawback. Using steam to release hydrogen from natural gas releases carbon dioxide, the most problematic contributor to global warming. Using electricity to break apart water molecules is expensive. Today, hydrogen is made almost exclusively for industrial uses from natural gas. Petrochemical companies release the excess carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, contributing to climate change. Expanding hydrogen production without controlling emissions would only make global warming worse. Corporate executives and climate activists are engaged in a massive lobbying effort to shape future H2 regulations. Environmentalists want governments to support so-called green hydrogen made from water using electrolysis. Energy firms want the government to equally support so-called blue hydrogen, where producers use natural gas and existing technology but capture and trap the carbon dioxide. Exxon Mobil, Shell and other major energy companies have already promised to adapt their Gulf Coast plants to capture carbon.