Blue hydrogen hopes hinge on managing methane emissions

By Beth Trask

This piece was originally published in Hydrogen Insight.

When the global energy industry gathers at CERAWeek in Houston next week, they’ll be reacting to a fast-changing energy landscape. But what hasn’t changed is the global demand for cleaner energy — including clean hydrogen.

However, most of the attention on clean H2 at the all-energy conference is likely to be on blue hydrogen. Produced from natural gas with its carbon dioxide emissions captured and stored underground, blue hydrogen is projected to receive the lion’s share of private investment and taxpayer subsidies in the U.S.

But it’s too early to say whether hydrogen made from natural gas can be a clean and globally competitive product. Even when carbon capture is highly effective, blue hydrogen could be up to 50% worse for the climate over the next 20 years than fossil fuels if overall emissions aren’t managed carefully.

This is largely due to methane emitted upstream when natural gas is produced and processed. The primary component of natural gas, methane, is both a valuable source of energy and a potent greenhouse gas responsible for more than 25% of the warming we are experiencing today — if allowed to leak into the atmosphere.

In the U.S. alone, $2 billion worth of methane is wasted from leaks, venting, and flaring every year, enough to meet the annual needs of 12 million households. With few exceptions, oil and gas companies have been painfully slow at preventing wasted methane, and they won’t be helped by current efforts to roll back common-sense U.S. policies, like the Waste Emissions Charge.

Failure to manage and mitigate methane emissions not only puts billions of dollars of corporate and taxpayer investments in blue hydrogen at risk, but it also undercuts the very reason to produce hydrogen at all. For example, for an average U.S. blue hydrogen producer sourcing gas from the Permian Basin, the annual climate impact from upstream methane emissions alone exceeds that of more than five natural gas-fired power plants.

The good news — for the climate and industry — is that reducing methane emissions is both feasible and affordable today. We know how to detect and track methane emissions nearly anywhere on Earth. Industry has all the technical knowledge and capital it needs to virtually eliminate upstream methane emissions from its supply chain. Now it’s time to execute.

Methane isn’t the only challenge. Another is capturing and permanently storing a meaningful amount of the carbon dioxide produced by blue hydrogen.

To call blue hydrogen clean, at least ​​95% of its CO2 emissions must be captured, with rigorous steps taken to ensure that the captured carbon that is stored underground will not leak over time.

Similarly, hydrogen carries its own climate warming impacts when leaked or vented, and as the world’s smallest molecule, it can easily escape and must be managed carefully.

There’s a lot at stake in getting hydrogen right. Billions of shareholder and taxpayer dollars have been mobilized. Thousands of new jobs could be created, and entirely new hydrogen hubs around America could spur generations of economic growth.

Clearly, this is not just about the climate. But ultimately, producing a climate-beneficial product that meets the expectations of the global marketplace is the point. We must ensure new energy solutions — like hydrogen — actually deliver the benefits they promise.

We’re spending too much time, energy, and money to fail.