¦HYDROGEN
Fueling the
HYDROGEN REVOLUTION
RNG
WITH
Stewart Stewart of BayoTech discusses the U.S. hydrogen industry, its potential to utilize RNG, and the company’s rollout of regional hubs. BY ANNA SIMET
T
he hydrogen economy is here and now. The rapidly growing opportunity is significant, and the RNG industry has a key role to play, according to BayoTech Chief Commercial Officer Stewart Stewart, who briefed the RNG industry on opportunities in hydrogen production from RNG, its advantages and what the sector currently looks like during a March webinar sponsored by the Coalition for Renewable Natural Gas. The hydrogen industry has traditionally served three very large, centralized industries, which Stewart categorizes as oil and gas refineries, methanol production and fertilizer production from ammonia. “In those value chains, hydrogen is traditionally produced in very large plants and shipped over long distances to their users,” he says. “The growth opportunity we’re focused on is in emerging applications—that’s where the growth will really come from over the next two decades.” Stewart says current hydrogen markets are approaching about $220 billion, and that’s projected to increase by 50% and then double over the next 10 to 15 years. So, where is that growth coming from and why? Some 26 BIOMASS MAGAZINE | ISSUE 2, 2022
examples of emerging applications include fuel cell mobility, hydrogen blending such as gas grid injections for natural gas, industrial end use applications such as chemical plants or glass production, as well as primary or backup power for data centers and smaller, off-grid or temporary power installations, according to Stewart. “Hydrogen is certainly a hot topic in area of energy transition and decarbonization, and it’s important to understand why hydrogen has benefits in the energy industry.” Stewart provides a comparison of hydrogen and natural gas, diesel and gasoline, highlighting its greater efficiency. “Hydrogen has the same amount of energy per kilogram as one gallon of gasoline or diesel, typically,” he says. “But by leveraging a fuel cell combined with an electric motor drivetrain, the efficiency is about two to three times greater than it would be in an internal combustion engine on compress natural gas, diesel or gasoline.” As for emissions, hydrogen has zero— but why not simply use low-emission technologies already widely available today like compressed natural gas (CNG), rather than
fuel cells and hydrogen production? Stewart says its important to understand the true advantages from the emissions standpoint.
How Far Can a Car Go on 1 Million Btu?
A traditional gasoline vehicle filled with 1 million British thermal units (Btu) of gasoline can drive about 200 miles, according to research done by the U.S. DOE, NREL and EERE. “If you look at the total CO2 emissions on a well-to-wheel basis, it produces about 430 grams of CO2 equivalent per mile,” Stewart says. The same amount of energy put into a CNG vehicle doesn’t go as far and is not as efficient, though there are some carbon benefits. “It can only reach about 175 miles per million Btu, but the value chain is more carbon efficient—you have about a 10% savings in total CO2 well-to-wheel emissions, at 390 grams of CO2 equivalent per mile. Now, if you took that million Btu of fuel as natural gas, converted it into hydrogen and used it in a fuel cell vehicle with its electric drivetrain, you would now go 255 miles—46% further than a CNG vehicle and 28% further than a gasoline vehicle.” And, because of the ad-
