Advancing Next-Generation Hydrogen Energy Storage Technology for Clean Power

Hydrogen has the potential to enable long-duration energy storage and decarbonize the industrial and power generation sectors, helping to meet the growing U.S. market demand for cleaner electricity. Innovative energy storage technologies combined with fossil energy assets can deliver more reliable and affordable energy, a cleaner environment, and stronger power infrastructure.

A GTI Energy-led team, including Southern Company, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) recently completed a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)-funded project that demonstrated technology to store energy as “blue” hydrogen and used it for load-following in an existing natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) plant with a hydrogen-fired duct burner. Hydrogen storage and discharge rates were coupled to follow daily power demand fluctuations from variable renewable energy, increasing the plant capacity factor while reducing emissions.

Researchers performed feasibility and techno-economic studies, and results indicate that high-efficiency production using GTI Energy’s patented hydrogen generation technology would achieve a greater than 95% rate of carbon capture at low cost.

GTI Energy and the team have now been selected for a DOE Phase 2 award to conduct a Preliminary Front End Engineering Design (Pre-FEED) study of this asset-integrated hydrogen production and storage system in an NGCC power plant operated by Southern Company subsidiary Alabama Power. The project will demonstrate production and intermediate duration storage of more than 54 megawatt-hours of energy and the use of this hydrogen to address power output as electricity demand fluctuates.

GTI Energy’s patented low-cost hydrogen generation technology that inherently captures carbon produced in the natural gas conversion process is currently being piloted under a DOE-sponsored 0.3MW project at GTI Energy’s Des Plaines campus, and in a larger 1.6MW Hydrogen by Sorbent Enhanced Steam Reforming (HyPER) project.