NETL Director Brian Anderson, Ph.D., addressed participants of the virtual 2022 Spring Symposium of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Energy Initiative (MITEI) Tuesday, May 10 and highlighted NETL’s ongoing contributions to building a sustainable energy future via hydrogen power generation and carbon capture.

The symposium’s theme, “Hydrogen’s Role in a Decarbonized Energy System: How to Enable It,” explored the hydrogen markets, infrastructure, production and policies needed to achieve a future in which the needs of the economy are met by a hydrogen-based power sector ─ actions essential to meet the administration’s greenhouse gas emission reduction and net zero-carbon economy goals by 2050.

Addressing the symposium, Anderson shared the big picture perspectives shared by NETL and the U.S. Department of Energy regarding hydrogen power hubs and infrastructure, the barriers to deploying it on a commercial scale that have yet to be overcome and the potential to do so with the addition of new assets such as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

“MITEI’s Spring Symposium was a great opportunity to gather the minds of government labs, industry and academia simultaneously and share the latest developments in this exciting area of research,” Anderson said. “A hydrogen future is about more than energy alone. For example, when paired with carbon capture projects, hydrogen power—sourced from our country’s vast fuel resources—presents exciting opportunities to decarbonize power plants and industrial facilities that produce cement, steel and other industrial products.”

Anderson also touched on the Lab’s carbon-neutral hydrogen power development focus including carbon capture and storage for large-scale fossil fuel production and infrastructure and power systems development.

Anderson said the Lab’s Strategic Systems Analysis & Engineering researchers are pursuing an all-hands-on-deck effort to realize a clean energy future by harnessing the nation’s fossil energy resources to produce hydrogen sustainably through the use of commercial and advanced hydrogen production and carbon dioxide capture technologies.

He said funding for hydrogen economy research is growing with $9.5 billion included in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill and $8 billion for hydrogen hubs.

“This support demonstrates the success of other projects that have been ongoing for years.” He said. “An example can be seen in one of NETL’s major carbon capture and sequestration projects in Port Arthur, Texas. It is successfully combining carbon capture with steam methane reforming to produce hydrogen. For a single production stream, the project can capture over 90 percent of the CO₂ (carbon dioxide) for the production of clean hydrogen. The project has captured over seven million tons of CO₂ since 2013. This is but a sample of what can happen when we all work toward a common goal.”

NETL is a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory that drives innovation and delivers technological solutions for an environmentally sustainable and prosperous energy future. By leveraging its world-class talent and research facilities, NETL is ensuring affordable, abundant and reliable energy that drives a robust economy and national security, while developing technologies to manage carbon across the full life cycle, enabling environmental sustainability for all Americans.