Hydrogen is all around us but out of sight, tied up in water, natural gas, plastics and elsewhere. Freed, that hydrogen could power cars and store energy for use later - all while leaving no emissions behind but water. What's more, hydrogen, the lightest and most abundant element in the universe, is already important to a range of vital and strategic industries.
"You use hydrogen in the production of steel. You use hydrogen in the support of new types of vehicles, electric vehicles. You use it for the production of fertilizers," said Bruce Hallbert, director of the U.S. Department of Energy's Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program, based at Idaho National Laboratory (INL). "So, there's a very large demand."
However, current commercial hydrogen production has a significant carbon footprint. Now, projects funded by DOE aim to change that by exploiting the capabilities of nuclear power plants. Three utilities - Akron, Ohio-based FirstEnergy Solutions, Xcel Energy of Minneapolis, and Arizona Public Service (APS) of Phoenix - will be rolling out projects over the next few years that demonstrate technology to make hydrogen from water on an industrial scale. Hallbert's group at INL is also participating, having worked on the concept for years. If successful, the result of the projects will be more hydrogen with no carbon emissions for the world at large and a new revenue stream for the utilities.
