GCR: Transition to green energy in gas-producing regions: How the convergence of Engineering, Social Sciences and Geoscience can enable carbon-free H2 technologies

该项目的愿景是使用一个独特的提议，使天然气生产区能够向绿色能源过渡：让当地社区参与共同制定与氢能过渡有关的研究目标。这一努力将涉及从天然气中生产氢气的尖端能力，这种方法不会产生污染环境的含碳气体。该项目将使用社会科学来指导工程和地球科学研究，基于预计将立即受到氢能过渡影响的农村社区的问题、感知到的风险和利益。通过确定和明确说明农村社区，包括土著社区成员的需求，研究人员将开发可行的方法来进行氢气生产和储存研究。通过这种方式，该项目将发现如何利用像俄克拉荷马州这样拥有大量石油和天然气产量的州的资源来生产绿色能源。使一个化石燃料资源丰富的地区能够利用这些资源创建以氢为基础的经济，可以帮助创建一个多元化和强大的自由市场经济，不太容易出现繁荣和萧条周期。它还有助于在氢气的生产、储存和分销方面发展高科技、技能密集型的新兴产业。目前，大多数氢气是由炼油厂或燃煤发电厂通过已有百年历史的蒸汽甲烷重整(SMR)工艺生产的，该工艺排放大量二氧化碳。对于SMR期间的零碳排放，二氧化碳必须被捕获和隔离，但这种方法增加了成本，并不是在所有领域都可行。只有使用可再生能源的电力，才能通过电解生产真正的绿色氢气，但这项技术也相当昂贵，需要清洁的水和稀缺的材料作为电极。该项目专注于另一条更适合美国天然气产区的路径：催化剂辅助甲烷热解，甲烷直接分解为氢和固体碳(二氧化碳排放量为零)。固体碳副产品可以在其他工业中利用。然而，由于化石燃料行业的历史以及对新技术的潜在阻力，任何可行的研发计划都需要根据当地的地质、社会和经济条件进行调整。我们如何制定一个以氢为重点的研究模型，考虑一个依赖石油和天然气生产的国家的特殊社会和经济条件？要解决这一具有挑战性的问题，需要深入了解能源转型中涉及的相互交错的社会和经济因素，包括破译潜在的新脆弱性或脱碳可能造成的其他负面影响。该项目将调查当地对能源转换的看法，并利用这些发现微调研究目标，以解决担忧的点。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The vision of this project is to enable the transition to green energy in gas-producing regions using a unique proposition: To engage local communities in the co-development of research goals related to hydrogen energy transition. This effort will involve cutting-edge capabilities in producing hydrogen from natural gas in a way that does not produce carbon-containing gases that pollute the environment. The project will use social science to guide engineering and geoscience research, based on issues, perceived risks, and interests of rural communities that are expected to be immediately impacted by a transition to hydrogen energy. By identifying and clearly articulating the needs of rural communities, including members of Indigenous communities, researchers will develop viable ways to pursue hydrogen production and storage research. In this manner, the project will discover how to utilize the resources of a state like Oklahoma, which has significant oil and gas production, to generate green energy. Enabling a region rich in fossil-fuel resources to use these to create a hydrogen-based economy can help create a diversified and robust free market economy, less prone to boom-and-bust cycles. It can also help develop high-technology, skill-intensive new industries in the production, storage, and distribution of hydrogen.Most hydrogen today is produced in oil refineries or coal power generation plants through the century-old steam methane reforming (SMR) process that emits large amounts of carbon dioxide. For zero-carbon emissions during SMR, carbon dioxide would have to be captured and sequestered, but this approach adds cost and is not feasible in all areas. Truly green hydrogen can be produced with electrolysis using power only from renewable sources, but this technology is also quite costly and requires clean water and scarce materials as electrodes. This project focuses on an alternative path, one more appropriate for gas-producing regions in the US: catalyst-assisted methane pyrolysis, where methane decomposes directly into hydrogen and solid carbon (with zero carbon dioxide production). The solid carbon byproduct can be utilized in other industries. Yet, because of the history of the fossil fuel industry and because of potential resistance to novel technologies, any viable research and development program will need to be calibrated to local geological, social, and economic conditions. How can we formulate a hydrogen-focused research model that considers the special social and economic conditions of a state that depends on oil and gas production? Addressing this challenging question requires a deep understanding of intersecting social and economic factors involved in an energy transition, including decoding potential new vulnerabilities or other negative impacts that could be created by decarbonization. This project will investigate local perceptions of the energy transition and use these findings to fine tune research goals to address the points of concern.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.