In yet another big step that boosts the efforts to make green H2 the energy of the future, a US startup company called Mote has come up with a new green H2 innovation. The company is working on a project that seeks to produce carbon-negative green H2. It plans to use wood waste at a plant situated in Bakersfield, California to produce renewable hydrogen. If everything goes as planned, the company will start making the product by 2024 ceteris paribus. According to the project implementers, the initiative will contribute to the energy transition activities currently happening in different parts of the world.
The proposed process utilizes biomass that absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. It then captures and stores it. So, the process simply removes carbon dioxide from the air then makes use of it as it produces carbon-negative green H2. But that’s not all! The process makes use of special equipment to heat biomass in an environment that has limited levels of oxygen. More precisely, the heating is done to above 1500°F [815°C] and what follows is the conversion of the biomass into a mixture of gases. The mixture then undergoes reaction, separation, and purification into green H2 for sale and use in various processes.
According brains behind the plant, the aim of setting it up is to not only produce green H2 that is carbon negative, but to also reduce the price of renewable green H2. “We will produce carbon-negative green H2 at a third of the current price of renewable hydrogen,” said Mac Kennedy, the CEO, and co-founder of the facility. Ground and engineering works are already ongoing and the plant might soon produce the highly anticipated carbon-negative H2. The aim is to ensure that the plant produces over 7,000 tonnes of green H2 annually. When it kicks off its full operation, the plant will also remove about 150,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, hence boosting the efforts to reduce carbon levels.
The company that’s driving the process says it will uniquely have an added advantage. That is, it will produce hydrogen whose producer sale price will be significantly lower than that of its competitors. That will be possible given that the project will have two revenue streams. The first one, of course, is from the sale of hydrogen and the other stream is through its carbon credits. If successful, it will be the first carbon removal project in the world. Most importantly, the project will join the growing list of companies that are seeking to meet the growing demand for renewable green H2.
Mote Company was formed by two friends brought together by the desire to contribute to the efforts to find clean alternatives to fossil fuels. The two founders are Mac Kennedy and Joshua Stolaroff. Joshua was the head of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s carbon capture program. He has a wealth of experience that includes 20 years in research. In 2019, he co-authored a report on carbon removal technologies that found that one of the cheapest ways to produce hydrogen and reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was through turning waste biomass into gas. That’s, in fact, what Mote Company will be doing.
Some of the investors that are supporting Mote’s project include Preston-Werner Ventures and Counteract. The company is also working with Fluor, a renowned engineering company, and SunGas Renewables a world-leading provider of gasification systems. With all these big names contributing differently to the project, Mote might soon achieve its goal of producing carbon-negative green H2 from its plant.
