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The energy industry is facing major challenges, such as the need for clean energy, new business models, emerging technologies, and the reallocation of oil and gas professionals to low carbon or renewable energy. These challenges are driving the requirement for new skills and competencies. To better serve the industry and its customers, PetroSkills is expanding into The Competency Alliance, building on the methodology we used to become the Oil & Gas industry’s leading alliance and expanding it to the Net Zero and Renewable sectors. [Keep reading]

Low or no carbon hydrogen production, distribution and consumption is thought to be one of the primary solutions to reaching net zero for heavy industry, possibly power generation, residential use for heating and cooking, as well as transportation. Hydrogen has a high heating value, and the combustion reaction does not produce CO2. According to H2 Tech, there are currently 876 green hydrogen projects, and 245 blue hydrogen projects ongoing. An example of the level of attention, in 2021 the U.S. passed the Infrastructure, Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) which contains $9.5 billion in funding for hydrogen1. $8 billion of that is dedicated to the development of hydrogen hubs (H2Hubs) in the U.S.. In 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) contained two tax provisions that will subsidize clean hydrogen production2. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) defines H2Hubs as a network of clean hydrogen producers, potential consumers, and connective infrastructure that are all located in close proximity to one another. The DOE will release the funding to six, and possibly up to ten, clean hydrogen hubs around the country. The interest in clean hydrogen is not just a U.S. trend. The U.K. has developed a Hydrogen Strategy3. Japan4, Australia5 and other countries are also looking to hydrogen as a key part to the solution of combatting climate change. The EU commission also plans on subsidizing “green” hydrogen to the tune of €800 million and will offer a “fixed premium” per kg of “green” hydrogen produced, subsidizing this production over a 10-year period6. Given the amount of investment and interest in hydrogen, we have decided to publish a series of “Tips of the Month” to explore the opportunities, challenges, and potential solutions to hydrogen applications and uses; this is the first paper in the series. As such, we will start this exploration from the beginning – what are the colors of hydrogen? How are they produced? What are their technical challenges for deployment? After that we will review the USE case for hydrogen. Why is there such an interest and focus for these investments? Our future tips will explore the possible end uses and benefits of hydrogen, thermodynamics of natural gas use versus hydrogen in industrial applications, safety considerations, transportation challenges and opportunities, storage, and end use capabilities. In addition, we will take a look at some cost comparisons, where possible of the different hydrogen production options. We hope you enjoy taking this journey with us. Our aim is to take a thermodynamically balanced non-biased view of possible applications, costs, and implications. [Keep reading]

The U.S. recently passed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022 which “doubles down” on environmental justice and renewable energy [1]. The newly created Clean Electricity Investment Tax Credit (CEITC) is available for any investment in qualified electric generators and storage facilities that are placed in service after December 31, 2024, that have a life cycle greenhouse gas emissions rate of zero or less. Renewables, wind and solar generators, do not have a net-zero greenhouse gas emission level if one considers their cradle to grave life cycle; from the sourcing of the raw materials to transportation to the site, construction and maintenance activities required. In addition, there are many physical realities with wind and solar generation that have negative environmental and social impacts that are often overlooked or disregarded as a necessary evil in the quest for net-zero. The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) reported in their 2022 State of Reliability Report, that “Electricity and natural gas interdependencies are no longer emerging risks but require immediate attention, including implementation of mitigating approaches”. Natural-gas-fired generators are now necessary balancing resources for reliable integration of the growing fleet of variable (intermittent) renewable energy resources and can be expected to remain so until new storage technologies are fully developed and deployed at scale to provide balancing. Given the trend on electrifying the gas gathering, processing and transmission facilities, reliable electric power supply is critical to ensure uninterrupted delivery of natural gas to these back-up generators. This is particularly important in areas where renewable generation resources have high penetration rates [2]. The current technology for baseload battery storage is cost prohibitive at the capacities required to maintain grid viability. The recent trend is to provide some nominal amount of battery backup (4 hours) for intermittent generation sources, but that is clearly not sufficient in extreme weather events or outages that last more than 4 hours. Thus, the need for fossil-fueled thermal power generation peak shavers for the foreseeable future. [Keep reading]

This Tip of the Month will discuss energy issues in the U.S, and highlight why there must be an “all of the above” approach to electricity generation technologies to ensure availability and reliability. The type of technology selected should be based upon what the local resources and environment can provide as there is no silver bullet, or one size fits all solution. Energy density of the various electricity generation technologies will be covered, and some examples of current performance will be examined. [Keep reading]

This tip of the month focuses on possible options for transportation fuels and how they compare in terms of reliability, cost and carbon footprint. [Keep reading]

This tip of the month explores some of the current options being investigated to provide a clean energy solution in light of the global concerns over climate warming. Learn about viable energy sources other than wind and solar power. [Keep reading]