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Hydrogen hubs

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The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 earmarked $7 billion in federal funding aimed at accelerating the commercial-scale deployment of hydrogen as well as driving down its cost.  Clean hydrogen is considered to be a key technology for cleaning up hard-to-decarbonize industrial sectors like refining, chemicals, and heavy-duty transport. 

On October 13th, the Department of Energy named seven regional clean hydrogen hubs which will provide clean hydrogen production, storage, delivery, and end-use components.  The so-called H2Hubs are expected to collectively produce three million metric tons of hydrogen annually. 

One selected project is the Appalachian Hydrogen Hub that includes West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania.  Another is the California Hydrogen Hub, that will produce hydrogen exclusively from renewable energy and biomass.  Then there is the Gulf Coast Hydrogen Hub, centered in the Houston, Texas region.  A fourth hub is the Heartland Hydrogen Hub, which includes Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota.  A fifth hub is the Mid-Atlantic Hydrogen Hub, that includes Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey.  The sixth is the Midwest Hydrogen Hub that includes Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan.  Finally, there is the Pacific Northwest Hydrogen Hub that includes Washington, Oregon, and Montana.

Each of these hubs involve multiple partner organizations in their regions and each has specific goals and strategies. The seven centers are located all around the country and are intended to jumpstart a national network of clean hydrogen producers, consumers, and connective infrastructure.

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Hydrogen hubs have arrived. Here are the big winners of the $7 billion sweepstakes

Photo, posted August 17, 2010, courtesy of David Stanley via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Here Come The Lanternflies | Earth Wise

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The spotted lanternfly is an invasive pest from Asia that primarily feeds on tree of heaven, which is itself an invasive species that has become widespread.  The real problem is that the lanternfly can also feed on some 70 other plants such as grapevines, maples, fruit trees, and more.

The lanternfly was first discovered in the US in Pennsylvania in 2014 and has since spread to 14 states including New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island.  (It was first spotted in New York in Staten Island in 2020 and has continued to spread).

The insect poses a significant threat to New York’s agricultural and forest health. Both the adults and nymphs feed on the sap of plants which stresses them making them vulnerable to diseases and other insect attacks.  They also secrete a sticky substance that attracts molds and interferes with photosynthesis.

Lanternflies are not strong fliers.  They mostly spread through human activity by laying their eggs on vehicles, firewood, outdoor furniture, and other objects that people transport.

The bout of unusually warm weather that the Northeast experienced in early spring is likely to have jumpstarted the spotted lanternfly timeline and hatching could be bumped up to as early as May.

Agriculture officials are asking for people to look for spotted lanternfly egg masses and scrape them off with implements with a sharp edge.  Adult insects should be reported to local authorities and should be killed if at all possible.  There is lots of information online about how to recognize the egg masses and the insects.  Spotted lanternflies are not a direct threat to humans, but they have the potential to cause great harm to vineyards, orchards, and forests.

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Spotted Lanternfly

Photo, posted September 12, 2018, courtesy of the U.S. Department of Agriculture via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Recyclable Wind Turbines | Earth Wise

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The blades of modern wind turbines can be longer than the wing of a Boeing 747. Their useful lifetime is perhaps 20 years and after that, they can’t just be hauled away.  They end up being cut up with special industrial saws to create pieces small enough to be strapped to a tractor-trailer.  Then, they end up in landfills.  There are thousands of blades being removed each year and those numbers are growing.

Wind turbine blades are currently manufactured using thermoset resin, which cannot be recycled.  It is also energy-intensive and manpower-intensive to produce.

Researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in partnership with Arkema Inc of Pennsylvania have demonstrated the feasibility of using thermoplastic resin instead to make wind turbine blades.  That material can be recycled and can also enable longer, lighter-weight, and lower-cost blades.  Using thermoplastic could also allow manufacturers to build blades on site, alleviating the problems of transporting ever larger turbine blades.

Current blades are made primarily of composite materials like fiberglass infused with thermoset resin.  The manufacturing process requires additional heat to cure the resin, which adds cost and time.  Thermoplastic resin cures at room temperature and requires less labor.  With regard to recycling, thermoplastic resin, when heated above a certain temperature, melts into its original liquid resin and can be reused. 

NREL has demonstrated the feasibility of the thermoplastic resin system by manufacturing nearly identical blades using both the standard materials and the thermoplastics.  NREL has also developed a technoeconomic model to evaluate the cost benefits of using thermoplastic resin.

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News Release: NREL Advanced Manufacturing Research Moves Wind Turbine Blades Toward Recyclability

Photo, posted June 28, 2008, courtesy of Patrick Finnegan via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Working Forest Buffers | Earth Wise

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More than 100,000 miles of U.S. rivers and streams are polluted by nitrogen and phosphorus, mostly from agricultural runoff.  In the past, forests grew naturally alongside these waterways and helped stabilize stream banks and decrease flooding while trapping and filtering pollutants.  But most of these forests have been cut down to make way for towns, cities, livestock, and crops.

Farmers are reluctant to retire valuable farmland with non-productive buffer planting.  But in Pennsylvania, there is an innovative program that encourages farmers to plant cash crops in waterway buffer zones that can help stabilize stream banks and clean up the waterways.  These plantings are called working buffers.

Strips of streamside land are replanted with native floodplain trees and shrubs.  These are known as riparian forest buffers.  Pennsylvania has instituted a grant program under which farmers and landowners plant these buffers and turn a profit.

Many of these buffers have three zones.  A conventional forest buffer that can be just 15 feet wide is composed of native woodland and stabilizes the bank with tree roots and enhances wildlife habitat.  A second zone, some 20 feet wide, is planted with trees and shrubs that can tolerate periodic flooding.  Apart from slowing floodwater and taking up nutrients, this zone can provide profits by planting trees like black walnut, hazelnut, persimmon, and elderberry.  Only hand harvesting is allowed.  A third zone, adjacent to conventional crop, can contain blueberries, raspberries, and decorative woody florals.

How many farmers can be enticed to create these riparian buffers remains to be seen, but they do represent a way to help farmers to reduce pollution and turn a profit along the way.

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A Movement Grows to Help Farmers Reduce Pollution and Turn a Profit

Photo, posted March 19, 2010, courtesy of the USDA via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

More Plastic Pollution On The Way | Earth Wise

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Public concern about plastic pollution has been rising.  More and more of us are choosing reusable grocery bags, metal straws, and reusable water bottles.  We shake our heads at images of immense plastic garbage patches in the ocean. We see reports of birds with 15% of their body weight in plastic.

While all of this is going on, companies like ExxonMobil, Shell, and Saudi Aramco are ramping up production of plastic – which is mostly made from oil, gas, and their byproducts.  They are doing this as a hedge against the growing possibility that the global response to climate change will reduce demand for their fuels.  Plastics are part of the category called petrochemicals, which currently account for 14% of oil use.  Petrochemicals are expected to drive half of oil demand growth over the next 30 years.

The World Economic Forum predicts plastic production will double in the next 20 years.  The fracking boom in the United States has turned this country into a big growth area for plastic production.  Natural gas prices are low which is hurting profits at fracking operations.  But fracking also unearths ethane, which is a feedstock for plastic production.  So plastic is becoming a kind of subsidy for fracking.

The American petroleum industry’s hub has historically been the Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana as well as a stretch along the lower Mississippi River.  There is a slew of new projects there.  The industry is also seeking to create a new plastics corridor in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, where fracking wells are rich in ethane.

Society in general may be increasingly concerned about the impact of things like carbon emissions and plastic pollution, but the fossil fuel industry continues to focus entirely on growth and profits.

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The Plastics Pipeline: A Surge of New Production Is on the Way

Photo, posted January 10, 2015 , courtesy of Daniel Orth via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

A Record Drop In Coal Consumption

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Global consumption of coal dropped by 1.7% last year.  This is a major change considering that it had increased by an average of 1.9% per year from 2005 to 2015.   China, which accounts for about half of the coal burned in the world, used 1.6% less in 2016, as compared to an increase of 3.7% per year over the previous 11 years.

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