Hydrogen City, Texas will be an integrated green hydrogen production, storage, and transportation hub with a capacity of 60 GW and an annual production capacity of over 2.5 billion kg of green hydrogen.
The project is centered on a hydrogen storage facility in Duval County’s Piedras Pintas Salt Dome. Green hydrogen will be piped to Corpus Christi and Brownsville, where it will be converted into green ammonia, sustainable aviation fuel, and other goods, or it will be sent directly to hydrogen power plants and other consumers throughout the state by pipeline.
The project will be fueled by 60GW of behind-the-meter solar and wind energy, supplemented by renewable power drawn from the ERCOT grid at times of low energy prices.
The project will be constructed in phases, with the first phase projected to begin operations in 2026. The first phase will include 2GW of production capacity and two storage caverns at the Piedras Pintas salt dome. Access to salt storage is crucial for scaling up green hydrogen production because it maximizes electrolyser utilization and acts as a buffer between variable wind and solar production and the ultimate supply of green hydrogen to customers. Over 50 caverns can eventually be built in the Piedras Pintas salt dome, storing up to 6TWh of energy and transforming the dome into a significant green hydrogen storage hub, comparable to the role Henry Hub plays in the natural gas market.
Negotiations regarding the end use of green hydrogen produced by GHI are continuing. Among these alternatives are the following:
- GHI is investigating the possibility of exporting green ammonia to Asia. By 2050, Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) intends to add 30 million tonnes of renewable ammonia per year to the country’s fuel mix.
- Green ammonia for the fertilizer market: Rising natural gas prices have resulted in farmers facing rising fertilizer expenses. Fertilizer made from green hydrogen has the potential to help alleviate unanticipated price volatility.
- GHI is in talks with potential buyers of green hydrogen as a feedstock for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). Corpus Christi, GHI believes, is ideally positioned to become a significant SAF manufacturing hub.
- Sustainable Rocket Fuel: The company is investigating the possibility of mixing hydrogen and carbon dioxide at the Port of Brownsville to make a green methane rocket fuel for South Texas launch operations.
- H2 can also be utilized as a natural gas alternative in power plants. In the United States, over 4GW of new gas power plants capable of burning a combination of hydrogen and natural gas have been planned.
