DOE publishes first Hydrogen Shot report findings

In Washington, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced the findings of a report highlighting ways to achieve the Department’s goal of making hydrogen an affordable, abundant source of clean energy and examining different pathways to get there through thermal conversion. The report is the first of three assessments of clean-hydrogen production pathways for the Department’s Hydrogen Shot, unveiled in June 2021 as the first goal of the Energy Earthshots Initiative, a set of eight separate moonshots to accelerate breakthroughs of more abundant, affordable, and reliable clean energy solutions within the decade. The Hydrogen Shot seeks to reduce the cost of clean hydrogen by 80% to $1 per kilogram by 2031. Clean hydrogen is a valuable energy carrier that can be produced with zero or near-zero carbon emissions and is crucial to meeting President Biden’s climate and energy security goals.

The Hydrogen Shot Technology Assessment: Thermal Conversion Approaches

report, led by experts at DOE’s National Energy Technology Laboratory, Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management, and in coordination with the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office, presents a snapshot of various thermal conversion pathways for clean hydrogen production, including technology status and envisioned approaches for achieving the Hydrogen Shot goals through research, development, and deployment (RD&D) advances. In the next two reports in this series, DOE experts will provide similar technology assessments of hydrogen production from electrolysis pathways and from advanced pathways (such as photoelectrochemical, solar-thermochemical, and biological hydrogen production).

The report found that based on screening-level analyses, hydrogen costs could be reduced through technology advancement to between $1.30 and $1.40 per kilogram depending on pathway. Therefore, beyond RD&D improvements, the report also explored the following factors for cost reduction: plant scale, market scenarios, plant site location, optimization of carbon dioxide (CO2) transport and storage, byproduct sales, CO2 valuation, and integration with other energy systems.

The report focuses on producing clean hydrogen through thermal conversion of fossil and/or waste feedstocks (with carbon capture and sequestration) that could meet the Hydrogen Shot goal. Thermal conversion is as a process that uses heat as the energy source to drive chemical reactions that convert carbon-based feedstocks into other fuels and chemical energy carriers.