Feb 19, 2022
Staff Reports
editorial@newsandsentinel.com
MORGANTOWN — The National Energy Technology Laboratory in Morgantown, GTI and S&P Global Platts have launched the Open Hydrogen Initiative.
The collaboration will delve into the environmental impact of hydrogen production including carbon intensity in hyrdogen production.
“The potential for hydrogen to play a significant role as the global energy system transitions to a lower carbon intensity is vast,” Brian Anderson, director at the technology lab, said. “As hydrogen generation and use scales up, the market needs to adopt a consistent approach to the assessment of hydrogen’s greenhouse gas footprint that is agnostic to the different production technologies, modes of transportation and end-use sectors.”
The initiative’s measurement tools can play a role in informing market participants, technology innovators, policymakers and others tasked with evaluating and delivering against decarbonization targets.
“The world is rapidly preparing for aggressive decarbonization, and having access to precise carbon intensity assessments is no longer ‘nice-to-have’ but required,” said Paula Gant, senior vice president of strategy and innovation at GTI. “With hydrogen applications increasing, more sophisticated measurement solutions are needed to assess the carbon intensity impacts of using this energy source. This world-class collaboration leverages the strengths of our respective organizations to develop thoughtful, market-ready solutions that will redefine how the world measures and benchmarks the carbon intensity of hydrogen production.”
Failure to consider the carbon variability clouds decision-making and risks a slower, more costly transition to a low-carbon energy future.
“Across mature commodity markets such as crude oil, we are already seeing that the energy transition is driving market participants to assign a value to crude based on its carbon intensity,” Jonty Rushforth, senior director, Energy Transition Pricing at S&P Global Platts, said.
“As the hydrogen markets mature and start to be legislated for hydrogen’s associated carbon footprint, a clearly agreed framework is needed to allow market participants to make informed decisions,” Rushforth said. “We look forward to offering a cross-commodity perspective that will help OHI advance transparency towards the commoditization of hydrogen as a freely traded commodity.”
The initiative will be discussed at the S&P Global Platts London Energy Forum on Monday and Feb. 24 during GTI’s public webinar, or Tech Talk.
NETL is a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory. S&P Global Platts is a leading independent provider of information and benchmark prices for the commodities and energy markets. GTI is a leading research, development, and education organization.