Hydrogen startups are widely seen as a promising way to eliminate fossil fuels from heavy industry and long-haul transportation. But they have been stuck in limbo for the last couple years, waiting for official guidance from the U.S. Treasury on lucrative tax credits. Because hydrogen can be made in so many different ways, the resulting rules are a complex maze of regulations designed to ensure that hydrogen producers receiving the credit aren't inadvertently causing more pollution. There are two main sources of hydrogen: that which is produced by electrolyzers, which use electricity to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen, and that which is generated by steam reformation, which uses steam and heat to break methane molecules, producing hydrogen and carbon dioxide. But both of those have myriad variations. Steam reformation can dump carbon dioxide pollution to the atmosphere (producing so-called grey hydrogen in the process) or it can capture and store it (blue hydrogen)....
learn more
