Hydrogen Energy Production Process

How it’s generated:

Hydrogen is produced through various resources, including natural gas, nuclear power, biomass and renewables such as solar and wind.

How it’s harnessed:

Hydrogen is separated from other molecules and transformed to create fuel through one of four processes: thermochemical, electrolytic, direct solar water splitting and biological.

How it’s stored:

Hydrogen is stored as a gas or a liquid, making it a leading clean energy candidate, as it can be transported and distributed via pipelines or ships.

How it’s used:

Hydrogen is used to generate power and heat while reducing carbon emissions. UH’s Energy Transition Institute will focus on its industrial, storage and transportation capabilities.

Harnessing Hydrogen

Some see hydrogen as a top candidate for the future of clean energy, but squeezing out the full potential of the most abundant element in the universe will take much more research and development. With the Energy Transition Institute, the University of Houston is taking a step to lead the vector into the future.

Proponents of hydrogen point to its capacity to fuel cars and heat homes while reducing carbon emissions. The institute’s efforts will focus on industrial, storage and transportation capabilities. Powell sees hydrogen powering heavy-duty transportation, improving air quality by pumping trucks with hydrogen made from clean energy sources. “You can think of it as the diesel fuel of the future,” he says.

One of the biggest challenges to the continued growth of wind and solar is the disparity in its availability—across regions and countries. Hydrogen, again, can help. Hydrogen can be transported through gas pipelines or in liquid form via ships, making it a leading option to store and transfer renewables.

Powell says he’s already been working with regions and countries with abundant wind and solar opportunities. He sees South America, the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand as leaders. “Essentially, bringing in the energy from regions of the world that have the most intense and durable wind and solar, and distributing it to areas that don’t have quite as good local resource access,” he says.

Of course, there’s value in transferring energy via hydrogen even before the global renewable energy infrastructure reaches maturity. Had the technology been available and policy interests aligned, the U.S. and other allies could’ve easily shipped energy reserves last year when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine caused an energy crisis throughout Europe.

As the institute gets its footing, it won’t be the only hydrogenfocused entity in the city. In 2021, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law earmarked $7 billion to create six to 10 clean hydrogen hubs nationwide. UH is the lead academic partner on a proposal, the Leading in Gulf Coast Hydrogen Transition (LIGH2T) Hub, in partnership with the Southern States Energy Board and the National Energy Technology Laboratory, as well as other organizations. Of the 79 applicants across the country, LIGH2T was one of just 33 projects encouraged to move forward with a full application. Already, the Texas Gulf Coast region produces about a third of the hydrogen used in the U.S., according to Houston Public Media.

“When you think about hydrogen, two-thirds of all the hydrogen pipelines, 95% of the hydrogen infrastructure is here in the greater Houston region,” Krishnamoorti says. “If we want to take that next huge leap and start to integrate both incumbent and new technologies, this is where we’ve got the infrastructure in place.”

Carbon, Plastics and Beyond

For all the discussion over the past two decades around plastics, we recycle only about 8% of all plastic waste today. Meanwhile, 4% leaks back into the environment, damaging wildlife ecosystems.

“The question is,” Powell says, “how do you reengineer that economy so that there are incentives to be recycling material and not have it lost as waste that falls outside of the system?”

If there’s a place tailor-made to tackle the problem, it’s Houston. No city in the world has a larger concentration of petrochemical manufacturing facilities. But the challenge is a stout one; while some plastics can be mechanically recycled, others need to go through a chemical conversion process— requiring significant energy as they’re broken down into new materials and made ready for reconstruction. Hence, the institute’s central theme around creating a cleaner and more efficient system of collection, sourcing and sorting.

Over time, Powell envisions a complete transformation of the plastics life cycle. Today, the products are largely made from crude oil and, for the most part, thrown into landfills at the end of their life. In the future, we’ll have “complex multicomponent recycle streams” that reuse the waste material, incorporating clean energy and human-made approaches, like direct air capture of carbon dioxide to curb greenhouse gases. “That’s a very exciting area,” Powell says. “It’s a little bit less developed in terms of having integrated solutions laid out.” That just means there’s opportunity for leadership.

Whether focusing on circular plastics, decarbonization or advancing hydrogen initiatives, the institute will look to keep the state at the center of conversation on the future of energy and climate change. Since the failure of the state’s electrical grid two years ago, the headlines and social media images here haven’t always been flattering.

But for all its imperfections, Texas has something other regions do not: a global voice. “How do we keep Houston’s ecosystem and Texas’ ecosystem at the forefront of transforming the world?” asks Krishnamoorti. “We’ve been seen as the energy leaders. We’ve not necessarily been seen as the sustainable energy leaders.”

With the help of the Energy Transition Institute, that could change.