US utility secures funding for hydrogen project
A US utility company with a footprint in mostly southern states said August 3 it had received federal funding to support a project meant to source hydrogen from food waste.
Southern Company Gas, along with its partners at Electro-Active Technologies and T2M Global, secured $1mn in funding from the US Department of Energy to examine what it said was “next-generation” clean hydrogen technology.
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“The project seeks to de-risk, develop and demonstrate high-efficiency, low-cost renewable hydrogen generation for use in transportation and distributed energy applications,” it said. “Its long-term goal is to remove barriers to commercialisation of this clean, renewable fuel.”
Project partners envision the distribution of hydrogen sourced from food waste, which they said would not only cut down on waste in landfills but also minimise emissions from the food value chain. Biological and electrochemical processes could break down that waste to eventually yield hydrogen.
The utility company said it's committed to reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and sees hydrogen as an integral part of that goal.
The utility company services costumers in the states of Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Mississippi, Tennessee and Virginia.
US utility companies in general are searching for their niche in the energy transition. In July, Illinois energy company Nicor Gas secured approval from state regulators to run a pilot program for renewable natural gas (RNG). RNG is sourced from the decomposition of organic waste, usually in the form of methane emitted from landfills.