This week, U.S. utility operator Southern Company, which provides electricity and natural gas service to 9 million customers through subsidiaries in multiple U.S. states, announced that it has been awarded funding from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy for a joint project to produce hydrogen from biowaste. Southern Company will share the award with its project partners, renewable energy tech firms Electro-Active Technologies and T2M Global.
The DoE awarded $1 million to Southern Company’s research and development (R&D) arm for the project, which will advance next-generation clean hydrogen technologies and support its newly unveiled Hydrogen Energy EarthShot initiative, which aims to lower costs and accelerate breakthroughs in the clean hydrogen sector.
The project seeks to de-risk, develop and demonstrate high-efficiency, low-cost renewable hydrogen generation for use in transportation and distributed energy applications, thus removing barriers to commercialization.
“Southern Company is committed to reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in its enterprise-wide operations, including Southern Company Gas, by 2050,” said Robin Lanier, renewable gas director for Southern Company Gas. “Having a diverse portfolio of clean fuels is key, and we see great potential in hydrogen technologies. We are excited for this opportunity to work with our partners and the DOE in advancing the wet waste-to-clean hydrogen pathway and to help bring the hydrogen economy to reality.”
The project’s approach targets distributed generation of hydrogen from food waste, diverting the waste from landfills and minimizing greenhouse gas emissions from the food value chain and the transportation sector. The solution will offer waste generators an advanced option to divert large volumes of food waste from landfills and comply with local regulations. The technology is based on use of biology and electrochemistry to break down food waste into electrons and protons and their combination at the cathode to produce hydrogen via small external voltage.
“This project provides a unique opportunity to highlight the feasibility of generating meaningful amounts of hydrogen and a practical means to offset more carbon-intensive fuels,” said Abhijeet Borole, Ph.D., co-founder and president of Electro-Active Technologies, the project’s co-leading company and a spinout of Tennessee’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory. “As the movement toward the hydrogen vector is gaining speed, demand for all sources of hydrogen is increasing. However, developing pathways to clean hydrogen is critical. Funding from DOE’s Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office is making this possible. Further, the Biden Administration‘s focus on hydrogen as the first EarthShot illustrates the need to get to a low-cost, clean hydrogen within a decade.”
Southern Company Gas will lead the project – titled ‘Novel Microbial Electrolysis System for Conversion of Biowastes into Low-Cost Renewable Hydrogen‘ – based on core technology from Electro-Active Technologies. T2M Global will support investigations into end-use applications, including fuel cell testing. This project will support Electro-Active Technologies’ efforts in demonstrating the waste-to-hydrogen technology at pilot scale in collaboration with its partners.
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