Blue Hydrogen: Does It Pose a Threat to Public Health?
By Alison L. Steele
Executive Director, Environmental Health Project
As part of the clean energy plan recently passed by Congress, the U.S. Department of Energy has invited proposals for funding of energy generation projects that reduce greenhouse gases and slow climate change. One such technology the DOE is promoting is called blue hydrogen—what the DOE and many in the industry arecuriouslycalling “clean hydrogen.”Certain state governments are already committing big taxpayer dollars and other incentives
to bring blue hydrogen facilities to their states. But before investing in new infrastructure, we need to ask whether this technology is such a good idea.
A closer look at blue hydrogen shows that it’s far from the grand solution some would make it out to be. While energy experts have raised real questions about this industry’s environmental footprint and business model, it’s clear that, if blue hydrogen generation ramps up, it will be accompanied by higher risks to public health.
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What is blue hydrogen?
Hydrogen can be a clean fuel thatproduces virtually no pollution. That’s true when electricity from renewable energy sources is used to extract hydrogen from water molecules, with hydrogen and oxygen being the only outputs of this process. The hydrogen can then be used as a light and highly reactive fuel, typically in hydrogen fuel cells (HFCs). HFCs operate like batteries and can be used in cars, laptops, backup power systems, or even power plants. The only byproducts of HCFsare oxygen and water, and minimal harmful emissions are generated in the process of producing, transporting, and dispensing hydrogen fuel.
When hydrogen generation makes use of renewable energy, itis called green hydrogen. Experts say that green hydrogen technology is still some years away from being economically viable. Eventually, though, green hydrogen may serve as an environmentally sound fuel source for many years to come.
Blue hydrogen, by contrast,is produced through a complex and energy-intensive process that mixes methane gas with water and heat to create hydrogen and carbon dioxide. While the hydrogen is used as fuel, the carbon dioxide emissions are captured and storedin underground wells. This underground storage process is called “carbon capture and storage” or “carbon capture and sequestration” (CCS).
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A lot of energy must beexpended to extract the methane feedstock and then to isolate, process, and stockpile usable hydrogen. A lot more energy is spent to capture the CO2 byproduct,pump it overland, and store it underground. So much energy must be used in the process that some researchers say that the carbon footprint to create and burn blue hydrogen is significantly greater than using either oil or gas directly to heat your home or business.
Is blue hydrogen good for public health?
Business viability aside, the generation of blue hydrogen raises the risk of public health impacts and the related healthcare costs in several critical ways.
First, blue hydrogen generation requires the extraction of fossil fuels—typically shale gas, composed primarily of methane—as feedstock, demanding many more hydraulically fractured gas wells in areas already overburdened by this heavy industry. Increased well production means greater emissions of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) as well as toxic chemicals—such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), glycol, and radium—into local communities. Studies have found that these emissions may raise the risk of asthma and other respiratory illnesses, heart disease and heart attacks, birth defects and pre-term deliveries, mental health issues, and cancer for people living near these operations.
Also, the generation of blue hydrogen itself raises the same elevated health risks for people living near these large-scale industrial complexes. With thesefacilities come greater emissions and greater risks of spills, leaks, or other contamination events. Given the right atmospheric conditions, pollution can travel for miles, impacting residents far from the source of emissions.
Public health may also be impacted by the transportation and storage of gas feedstock, used wastewater, gas byproducts, and the hydrogen itself once generated. Whether these products or byproducts are transported by diesel trucks, trains, ships, or pipelines, potentially harmful pollution releasescan andwilloccur at every stage of the process. The risks of accidents and explosions will increase, too.
While blue hydrogen might be considered cleaner than some other available fuel options (think coal and oil), it’s not without a carbon footprint. Burning hydrogenas a mixture with methane gas, as some utilities have discussed doing, can produce dangerously high levels of nitrogen oxides (NOx). Two studies found that burning hydrogen-enriched methane gas can lead to NOx emissions up to six times that of burning methane gas alone. NOx plays a major role in the formation of smog—a major contributor to asthma and other respiratory issues.
Further, a large-scale blue hydrogen industry would facilitate more releases of climate-altering methane, which carries a heavy public health burden, as lethal storms, fires, heat waves, floods, and other extreme weather events impact people’s physical and mental health worldwide.
How can we protect public health from blue hydrogen production?
If blue hydrogen projects go forward, as they appear to be, robust and comprehensive public health protections are needed:
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When public health becomes part of the blue hydrogen conversation, only then can we truly begin to limit the serious risk to human health this industry poses.
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Kusnetz, N. (March 9, 2022). Carbon Capture Takes Center Stage, But Is Its Promise an Illusion? Inside Climate News. https://insideclimatenews.org/news/09032022/carbon-capture-and-storage-fossil-fuels-climate-change/
Howarth, R.W., Jacobson, M.Z. (August 12, 2021). How green is blue hydrogen? Energy Science & Engineering. 9: 1676–1687. https://doi.org/10.1002/ese3.956
Environmental Health Project. (March 2019). Illustrated Stages of Shale Gas Development: Examining the potential for ground/surface water and air contamination. https://www.environmentalhealthproject.org/_files/ugd/a9ce25_5304290ec6594c08954db6ce83075b4a.pdf
Environmental Health Project. (January 2021). What Is PM and Why Should You Be Concerned? https://www.environmentalhealthproject.org/_files/ugd/a9ce25_ab5fa37038d94686ad6459027e203035.pdf
Environmental Health Project. (February 2020). Health Outcomes Associated with Exposure to Shale Gas Development from Peer-Reviewed Epidemiological Literature. https://www.environmentalhealthproject.org/_files/ugd/a9ce25_4b70c65d66ae4d9381beb97c1122a803.pdf
Milford, L., Mullendore, S., Ramanan, A. (December 14, 2020). Hydrogen Hype in the Air (blog). Clean Energy Group. https://www.cleanegroup.org/hydrogen-hype-in-the-air/
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