BATON ROUGE, La. - Governors John Bel Edwards of Louisiana, Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma and Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas jointly revealed that they have entered into a bipartisan three-state partnership to establish a regional hub for development, production and use of clean hydrogen as fuel and manufacturing feedstock.
In entering the agreement, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Arkansas intend to compete as a unit for funding established in the Infrastructure, Investment, and Jobs Act, in which the Department of Energy (DOE) is directed to seek out and select regional clean hydrogen hubs to fund. The act specifies that such hubs should be selected by DOE based on a mix of feedstock available to produce hydrogen, available users of hydrogen, geographic locations and potential effects on employment, among other considerations.
"The state of Louisiana, as well as our partner states in this effort, has a long history of producing and transporting fuels and feedstocks in liquid and gas forms, as well as significant population of industrial end users with potential to make use of hydrogen as fuel or as part of manufacturing processes," Gov. Edwards said.
"Oklahoma is honored to join in forming this partnership, not because of convenience or necessity, but rather because we share a similar vision and goals for the production, use and economic impact that can result from creating this hydrogen economy," said Gov. Stitt. "Like our partners, we believe that creating as many end-use cases for commercialization with as many private partners is the quickest and best mechanism to spur real demand for this clean energy."
"In Arkansas, we have a growing and diverse energy portfolio and natural resources vital to any successful regional hub. We are excited to partner with our neighbors in Louisiana and Oklahoma to put forward a winning application," explained Gov. Hutchinson.
The states are ideally situated to demonstrate the entire value chain of hydrogen and uniquely situated to tackle the hard-to-decarbonize sectors like industrial, manufacturing and transportation. The partnership builds on existing advantages, such as an inland seaport system that runs from Oklahoma through Arkansas and down the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico in Louisiana, existing intermodal rail, existing pipeline infrastructure that runs from Oklahoma through Arkansas to the Gulf of Mexico, and some of the most valuable interstate freight highways in the U.S. More importantly, hydrogen is already available for demonstration with new large clean hydrogen production hubs scheduled to come on line in the near future.
Hydrogen is presently used in many manufacturing processes and has increasingly gained interest as a clean-burning fuel source that could help reduce carbon emissions from manufacturing, heavy industry and long-haul trucking. Currently, a great deal of hydrogen is produced in the partner states through separating methane into its components of hydrogen and carbon. While this process still produces waste carbon, the process can be made much cleaner by capturing the waste carbon and injecting it into permanent underground storage zones. There has also been growing interest and investment in making the electrolysis of water to release hydrogen more commercially available.
The three states have been focused on hydrogen as an additional resource in their all-of-the-above approach to a diversified and clean energy portfolio. In late 2021, a hydrogen-from-natural-gas project with carbon capture and sequestration was announced in Louisiana and a large electrolytic production hub was announced in Oklahoma.
The agreement also included provisions for: promoting investment in infrastructure for production and transportation of low-carbon hydrogen; prioritizing direct capture of carbon for all phases of hydrogen development; working with industry, transportation networks and ports to connect major facilities with high-carbon footprints to hydrogen infrastructure for fuel blending and reduction of CO2 emissions; and working to advance hydrogen production to support all phases of industry that can use it as a fuel source.
For more information, visit www.gov.louisiana.gov.
