Delaware is a key player in the Mid-Atlantic Energy Hub. The hub was announced Friday by the Biden Administration as part of its hydrogen program.
Canary Media reported that many details of hub proposals that led to the Mid-Atlantic hub getting up to $750 million under the program have been kept under wraps. A total of $7 billion has been allocated for hubs that would be located around the nation.
The Mid-Atlantic hub’s territory includes Delaware, south Jersey and southeastern Pennsylvania.
Canary noted that The Mid-Atlantic Clean Hydrogen Hub is comprised of a number of Delaware entities that include Air Liquide, Croda, DuPont, hydrogen start-up Versogen, Chesapeake Utilities, the University of Delaware, Bloom Energy and Delaware oil refiner PBF Energy.
Also a part of the consortium is PSE&G, operator of the Salem, NJ nuclear complex, along with DART and SEPTA transit systems. The transit systems would likely test hydrogen-fueled buses.
The University of Delaware operated a 17-year-long program that evaluated three hydrogen buses. The program ended in 2022 and led to the establishment of a start-up fuel cell company.
Hyudrogen is eyed as a cleaner option in powering refineries, steel mills, cement and chemical plants that use fossil fuels.
A hydrogen-producing electrolyzer from Bloom Energy is being tested as a way to produce hydrogen from excess generation at nuclear power plants.
The hub will be known as MACH2, according to the hub’s website, which lists a Dover address.
Hydrogen has its critics, with the Delaware Riverkeeper Network opposing the initiative. The group has been involved in a long-running legal dispute over fish kills around the Salem nuclear complex. Riverkeeper groups were championed by Presidential Candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. who is no longer with the network.
Other critics point to the high cost of producing hydrogen and argue that producing fuel consumes more energy than it produces.
