Guest essay by Eric Worrall
The farce of government agencies and climate warriors celebrating new carbon belching coal-fired power plants that produce “clean hydrogen” is gaining momentum.
DOE supports projects to produce hydrogen from coal and biomass
March 15, 2021
by Darrell Proctor
The US Department of Energy (DOE) announced that the agency has allocated four US $ 2 million research and development (R&D) projects to further develop clean hydrogen technologies.
The DOE awards on March 15 are part of a push by the Biden government to fight climate change. Jennifer Granholm, the new energy secretary and former governor of Michigan, said reducing carbon emissions from the energy sector and promoting more forms of clean energy was a goal of her department.
“One of the most important ways to achieve zero net CO2 emissions is to find innovative approaches to create clean energy sources like hydrogen,” Granholm said on Monday. “With these awards, we’re drawing on some of America’s most brilliant minds to turn those ideas into real solutions. At the same time, we’re creating clean energy jobs and reducing the air pollution we breathe.”
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Read more: https://www.powermag.com/doe-backs-projects-to-produce-hydrogen-from-coal-biomass/
The Australian People’s Republic of Victoria stole the march on US green hydrogen efforts. The lignite pilot plant in Victoria has actually started producing hydrogen.
Dirty coal to hydrogen: experiment aims at a clean energy solution
Japan’s Kawasaki Heavy and the Australian state of Victoria plan to create the first international hydrogen supply chain.
March 12, 2021
A Japanese-Australian company has started producing hydrogen from lignite in a pilot project worth AU $ 500 million (US $ 390 million) to demonstrate that liquefied hydrogen can be produced commercially and safely exported overseas.
It is planned to create the first international supply chain for liquefied hydrogen. The next big step is to ship cargo on the world’s first liquefied hydrogen carrier.
“We have the potential here to be the world leader in the production and export of hydrogen, and this project is developing this technology to achieve just that,” Australian Energy Secretary Angus Taylor told Reuters on the sidelines of a ceremony that identifies the event.
Australia, already dominating the global liquefied natural gas (LNG) trade, is hoping liquid water will give it a greener market for coal and gas.
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Read more: https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2021/3/12/dirty-coal-to-hydrogen-trial-aims-for-clean-energy-solution
None of these systems have to bind their copious amounts of CO2 emissions. Most actors are so keen to kickstart the hydrogen economy by flooding the market with cheap subsidized hydrogen that they are happy to accept the CO2 emissions for now. There are vague plans to sequester the CO2 or switch to generating hydrogen with renewable electricity at some point in the future, presumably as soon as the technology becomes economical.
Some green groups, zealots who actually believe carbon emissions are important, have pointed out that the supposedly green hydrogen produced by burning coal is insanely carbon intensive. However, the “green hydrogen” plan is likely to provide a new source of government subsidies for renewable energy worth billions of dollars and save the jobs of thousands of politically active coal workers. Therefore, the objections are ignored for the time being.
There are also plans to dump a few truckloads of plastic in the furnace along with thousands of tons of coal, so the green hydrogen plan is even the solution to the plastic crisis.
Soon, politicians around the world will be subsidizing and celebrating the construction of new smoking lignite power plants to fuel our transition to a low-carbon future.
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