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

该项目的愿景是通过一个独特的提议，使天然气生产地区向绿色能源过渡：让当地社区参与与氢能源过渡相关的研究目标的共同发展。这项努力将涉及从天然气中生产氢气的尖端技术，这种技术不会产生污染环境的含碳气体。该项目将利用社会科学指导工程和地球科学研究，以问题、感知风险和农村社区的利益为基础，这些社区预计将立即受到向氢能源过渡的影响。通过确定并明确阐明包括土著社区成员在内的农村社区的需求，研究人员将开发出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生产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建立以氢为基础的经济，有助于建立一个多元化和强大的自由市场经济，不容易出现繁荣与萧条的周期。它还可以帮助在氢气的生产、储存和分配方面发展高科技、技能密集型的新产业。今天，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）过程生产的，该过程会排放大量的二氧化碳。为了实现SMR期间的零碳排放，必须捕获和隔离二氧化碳，但这种方法增加了成本，并且并非在所有领域都可行。真正的绿色氢可以通过电解产生，只使用可再生能源的电力，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。该项目侧重于另一种途径，一种更适合美国产气地区的途径：催化剂辅助甲烷热解，甲烷直接分解成氢和固体碳（二氧化碳排放量为零）。固体碳副产品可用于其他工业。然而，由于化石燃料工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校准。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？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交叉社会和经济因素，包括解读脱碳可能产生的潜在新脆弱性或其他负面影响。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。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值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.