June 01, 2023 • Paul Rodden • Season: 2023 • Episode: 219
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Welcome to The Hydrogen Podcast!
In episode 219, There’s one big hydrogen conference I’m planning on going to this year, I’ll tell you which one it is and who’s going to be there. Also, a new hydrogen project and Appalachia could set the benchmark on how to build out a regional hydrogen hub. All of this on today’s hydrogen podcast.
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Paul Rodden
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Transcript:
There’s one big hydrogen conference I’m planning on going to this year, I’ll tell you which one it is and who’s going to be there. Also, a new hydrogen project and Appalachia could set the benchmark on how to build out a regional hydrogen hub. All of this on today’s hydrogen podcast. So the big questions in the energy industry today are, how is hydrogen the primary driving force behind the evolution of energy? Where’s capital being deployed for hydrogen projects globally? And where are the best investment opportunities for early adopters who recognize the importance of hydrogen? I will address the critical issues and give you the information you need to deploy capital. Those are the questions that will unlock the potential of hydrogen. And this podcast will give you the answers. My name is Paul Rodden. And welcome to the hydrogen podcast.
Before I get started today, I want to take just a quick second to let everyone know that I’m going to be at the Hydrogen Tech Expo in North America, and Houston, Texas on June 28, and 29th. Now, I was reviewing the lineup of speakers and there are some people on there that I think provide a lot of value. And I look forward to hearing what they had to say. It’s actually kind of an impressive list when you look at these speakers. So now just going through this list, you have Marcelo Mulholland from the Department of Energy, Brett Perlman is also going to be there and he’s the CEO for the Center for Houston’s future. Now I followed him for a while, and they’ve done a great job to help further Houston’s energy future. And also Mark Klewpatinond from ExxonMobil is going to be speaking there. And that is awesome.
Now I’ve had the pleasure of meeting with Mark a few times now. And he is a fantastic individual. He’s super sharp and what he’s doing now over at ExxonMobil with the Low Carbon solutions business, let’s just say that I’m expecting big things to come from them in the near future. Now, who else is going to be there? Well, I don’t want to read the entire list right now. But there are some names that pop out one being Greg Matlock, he should give an interesting talk on the future of hydrogen investments. Takajiro Ishikawa will be there. Now he is from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America and he’s the CEO there and I only hear great things about him. I’m also glad to see that Shinichi Hirano is going to talk and I think Hyzon is a good company, they need to showcase their talent. And Shinichi is a good one to pay attention to Oh, and Trevor Best is going to be speaking there. That’s always a good person to watch. Syzygy has some incredible Tech, I highly recommend checking out their booth if they have one very interesting stuff. Jack Hedge is going to be there. You know, we keep trying to get Bayotech on the hydrogen podcast and can never seem to connect. And I think Jack will be a good person to have on the show, it’d be great to learn about BayoTech’s hydrogen hub development plans.
I also like their approach to the market and think that the company is making the right moves. Harry Warren is another department of energy person, that would be a good person to check out, I bet his insight on the loan program and how that works will be of note to just about every potential hydrogen producer out there. Oh, and AAlexander Roesch from Air Liquide is going to be there too. And that is great. His focus is on syn gas. And that is an important conversation that needs to take place. And I wonder what type of deals if any, they’re going to be making in the aviation industry. Now. I’m gonna stop there. I just dropped off a number of people. And that just scratches the surface as who’s going to be speaking at the event. I’m looking forward to going and if anyone in the audience is going to I hope we have an opportunity to chat should be a fun event. Now let’s get to the show. And so to kick this off in a press release on March 21, CDM Smith and Newport gas signed clean hydrogen project teaming agreement to reindustrialize former Department of Energy site in Pike County, Ohio. In a significant step forward for a major clean energy and manufacturing project that aims to reinvigorate the economy in Central Appalachia. Newport gas announced on March 21 That CDM Smith will serve as the engineering procurement and construction or EPC partner in support of the H2 Trillium energy and manufacturing complex or h2 Team complex. The h2 team complex will be owned and operated by trillium h2 Power LLC, and serve as the anchor development project to launch the reindustrialization vision at the site of the US Department of Energy. Former Portsmouth gaseous diffusion plant or ports facility near Piketon Ohio. The complex will be built on remediated property once owned by the federal government and deeded by the Department of Energy to southern Ohio diversification initiative. The DoE designated community reuse and economic development organization.
Newport has committed to building the $1.585 billion clean hydrogen power generation and closed loop manufacturing facility at the Pike County site. In the construction phase h2 Team estimates the creation of 1900 jobs that will generate over $346 million in local economic impact. Long term and phase one, the project is expected to add 237 operations and maintenance jobs and over $198 million annually to the regional economy. In a quote from Richard Hamilton, Vice President of industrial at CDM Smith Newpoint gas has assembled an exceptional team of industry leaders to deliver it the h2 team complex as a globally recognized leader in sustainable and resilient design. He says they are committed to helping their clients decarbonize and they are proud to be the newest members of the h2 team. He said their strong presence in history in Ohio, make it easy to be enthusiastic about working together to engineer procure and construct this exciting project in Central Appalachia. And in a quote from Wiley Rhodes, the CEO of Newpoint gas. The addition of CDM Smith as their EPC contractor completes the core group of partners that they need to develop the h2 team complex. With over 75 years of experience in the region. CDM Smith was the obvious choice as they work with the Ohio labor organizations and other project partners to bring hundreds of clean energy jobs to Central Appalachia, the reindustrialization of the port’s facility has the opportunity to be the single most impactful driver of economic growth and stability for this region in a generation.
Now, the effort is being carried out in collaboration with state, federal and community leaders as well as organized labor to bring economic stability and prosperity back to the communities in the region. The h2 team project builds on more than a decade of work by the southern Ohio diversification initiative or SODI and Ohio University’s one of its school of leadership and public service to plan for it develop and pursue the redevelopment of the port’s facility. The agreement continues to build regional support and momentum for the project. CDM Smith joins an exclusive list of partners Newpoint has established including Ohio based Babcock and Wilcox, to serve as a foundation technology partner and J.W. Didado as a primary electrical contractor. Newpoint has also signed a letter of intent with SODI for an exclusive option and right of first refusal to purchase 250 acres of land at the former DOE, gaseous diffusion site in Pike County, Ohio. Okay, so I just recently heard about this project. And the more I’m thinking about it, the more I like how it’s been set up.
And I had a great opportunity today to actually sit down and talk with Richard Hamilton, who again, was the vice president of industrial at CDM Smith to talk me through this project. And one of the things that he told me that really makes this project stand out in my mind is that they’ve already gone through a lot of the off taker problems that a lot of these hubs starting out are going to have, and they’ve already lined out their three derivatives that they’re going to be using from their natural gas feedstock. That’s right, the feedstock for this project is going to be natural gas. And two of those products, the first being hydrogen, the second is very interesting. And that is energy that’s going to be used for heavy industry carbon abatement. And that heavy industry in particular, is silicone. And I thought that was extremely interesting because most people think heavy industry being maybe glass or most likely metals of some kind.
But this is silicone. And I thought that was really interesting. One of the other things that I really liked and appreciated about this project is how they’re buying up Department of Energy land that’s not being used anymore. And I know that there are so many opportunities in the US alone for this to happen over and over again, I can’t imagine what that’s like in other parts of the world where it say certain governments may have shut down natural gas refineries or coal plants can be repurposed with this sort of framework in mind. And so far as I can tell the economics on this project are looking good. And I’m excited to see how this project builds out.
All right, that’s it for me, everyone. If you have a second, I would really appreciate it. If you could leave a good review on whatever platform it is that you listen to Apple podcasts, Spotify, Google, YouTube, whatever it is, that would be a tremendous help to the show. And as always, if you ever have any feedback, you’re welcome to email me directly at info@thehydrogenpodcast.com. And as always, take care. Stay safe.
I’ll talk to you later. Hey, this is Paul. I hope you liked this podcast. If you did and want to hear more, I’d appreciate it if you would either subscribe to this channel on YouTube, or connect with your favorite platform through my website at www.thehydrogenpodcast.com. Thanks for listening. I very much appreciate it. Have a great day.
