BONUS EPISODE: all the colors of h2

Apr 7, 2022

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Matt and Paul have a meandering conversation with Chris Kroeker from NW Natural about H2’s role in the energy transition.

04:01 - all the colors of hydrogen
17:32 - difference between hydrogen (H2) and renewable natural gas (CH4)
21:23 - How much H2 can go in CH4 transmission and distribution lines?
26:58 - How much H2 can be used in natural gas power plants?
29:35 - H2’s role in industrial decarbonization (include paper mills)
31:50 - Infrastructure necessary to get H2 to industrial loads (and money from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that may go toward it)
36:50 - How much hydrogen infrastructure does a billion dollars get ya!?
39:15 - Is there an inverse heat rate for the electricity to H2 conversion?

55kWh/kg-H2, 1kg-H2 = 135,000 btu
55kWh/135,000btu or 2,454 btu/kWh
Inverse heat rate (a.k.a. the Cold Hart Rate) = 1 / 2.454 MMBTU/MWh = 0.4075 MWh/MMBTU
Break even price for electrolysis at $30/MWh = 0.4075 MWh/MMBTU * $30/MWh = $12.22/MMBTU

I decided to check my concepts against known efficiencies of Proton exchange membrane electrolysis cells

3.4121 MMBTU = 1 MWh
Efficiency of electrolysis conversion from MWh to H2, η = ~70%
η*3.4121MMBTU/MWh = 2.38847 MMBTU/MWh
Inverse heat rate (a.k.a. the Cold Hart Rate) = 1/2.38847 MMBTU/MWh = 0.4187 MWh/MMBTU
Break even price for electrolysis at $30/MWh = 0.4187 MWh/MMBTU * $30/MWh = $12.56/MMBTU

Special thanks to Chris Kroeker and Jonathan Hart for finding mistakes in my initial math. In exchange for Jon’s help resolving my error, I will forever refer to this conversion as the “Cold Hart Rate”.

I don’t know if that was useful, if you have thoughts about the usefulness of an inverse heat rate or better math, let me know.

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