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

GCR：天然气生产地区向绿色能源转型：工程、社会科学和地球科学的融合如何实现无碳氢气技术

• 批准号: 2317726
• 负责人: Dimitrios Papavassiliou
• 金额: $ 360万
• 依托单位: University of Oklahoma Norman Campus
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-10-01 至 2028-09-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2317726&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: GCR; Transition; green; energy; gas

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.

该项目的愿景是利用独特的主张，实现天然气生产地区向绿色能源的过渡：让当地社区参与共同制定与氢能转型相关的研究目标。这项工作将涉及利用天然气生产氢气的尖端能力，并且不会产生污染环境的含碳气体。该项目将根据农村社区的问题、感知风险和利益，利用社会科学来指导工程和地球科学研究，这些问题预计将立即受到向氢能过渡的影响。通过确定并明确阐明包括原住民社区成员在内的农村社区的需求，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，该项目将探索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产生绿色能源。使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，有助于创建多元化和强劲的自由市场经济，不易出现繁荣和萧条周期。它还可以帮助发展氢气生产、储存和分配方面的高科技、技能密集型新产业。如今，大多数氢气是在炼油厂或燃煤发电厂通过具有百年历史的蒸汽甲烷重整（SMR）工艺生产的，该工艺会排放大量二氧化碳。为了在 SMR 期间实现零碳排放，必须捕获并封存二氧化碳，但这种方法会增加成本，并且并非在所有领域都可行。真正的绿色氢可以仅使用可再生能源的电力通过电解来生产，但该技术也相当昂贵，并且需要清洁的水和稀缺的材料作为电极。该项目侧重于另一种更适合美国天然气生产地区的替代途径：催化剂辅助甲烷热解，其中甲烷直接分解为氢气和固体碳（二氧化碳产量为零）。固体碳副产品可用于其他行业。然而，由于化石燃料行业的历史以及对新技术的潜在阻力，任何可行的研究和开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，考虑到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？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交叉社会和经济因素，包括解码潜在的新脆弱性或脱碳可能产生的其他负面影响。该项目将调查当地对能源转型的看法，并利用这些发现来微调研究目标，以解决关注的问题。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。