Southern California Gas and Bloom Energy have announced a project to demonstrate the hydrogen economy’s future and the technology needed to assist California achieve carbon neutrality.
To illustrate how natural gas infrastructure may be decarbonized while balancing future energy supply and demand, the firms will collaborate to create and then mix hydrogen into a university customer’s current natural gas network. The project will kick off next year on the Pasadena campus of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).
“California has lofty climate goals, and a successful energy transition will need corporations cooperating and implementing creative initiatives,” said Chris Holden, a member of the California State Assembly. “This one-of-a-kind demonstration has the potential to aid our state’s transition to a carbon-neutral future.”
Bloom Energy’s solid oxide, high temperature electrolyzer will be used in the cooperation to create hydrogen, which will subsequently be fed into Caltech’s natural gas infrastructure. The resulting 10% hydrogen mix will be converted to electricity without combustion using existing Bloom Energy fuel cells downstream of the SoCalGas meter, powering a section of the campus. The electrolyzer is meant to create hydrogen from grid power for the purposes of this research.
The electrolyzer and fuel cell combination, when scaled up, might provide long-term sustainable energy storage and low-carbon distributed power production for enterprises, residential neighborhoods, and dense metropolitan regions via the gas network. It might also offer resilient electricity when and where energy is required most, safeguarding companies, colleges, or communities from major power outages if designed as a microgrid.
Maryam Brown, president of SoCalGas, said, “We need to explore a wide set of decarbonization levers.” “Projects like these broaden and expedite clean fuel programs, accelerating California’s decarbonization.”
Bloom’s high-temperature electrolyzer is more efficient than low-temperature PEM and alkaline electrolyzers in producing hydrogen. The Bloom Electrolyzer uses less energy to break apart water molecules and create hydrogen since it runs at high temperatures. Nearly 80% of the cost of hydrogen from electrolysis is accounted for by electricity. Hydrogen manufacturing becomes more cost-effective by using less power, which will hasten adoption. The Bloom Electrolyzer is also capable of producing green hydrogen using just renewable energy.
Bloom Energy’s executive vice president and chief marketing officer, Sharelynn Moore, stated, “With our technology and collaborations like this one, Bloom Energy continues to drive developments in decarbonizing today’s energy system and driving a hydrogen-fueled economy.” “Bloom Energy’s solutions, which enable both the generation and consumption of hydrogen, are well-suited to enhance the usage of the natural gas network to cut carbon emissions while enhancing energy resiliency.”
Fuel cell technology, powered by clean fuels like hydrogen, can provide additional reliability and resiliency, according to a new economy-wide technical analysis released by SoCalGas. Fuel cell technology, powered by clean fuels like hydrogen, can provide additional reliability and resiliency, which will be in increasing demand as California moves toward its decarbonization goals.
SoCalGas is currently working on more than ten hydrogen pilot projects, including the award-winning H2 Hydrogen Home. SoCalGas is also testing and demonstrating the feasibility of using existing infrastructure to transport hydrogen at its engineering analysis center, and is working with other California gas utilities and research institutions to create a hydrogen blending standard for regulatory approval.
Bloom Energy is working with industry experts to help advance the global hydrogen economy, including initiatives to produce low-cost, green hydrogen and clean hydrogen using nuclear energy.
