HyRes: Bridging the Gap by Building Trust in Hydrogen’s Future
How GTI Energy’s HyRes is uniting industry and academia for informed hydrogen development
This article was conceived with input from GTI Energy experts and project leads, Chris Moore and Ansh Nasta.
With the growing urgency of global decarbonization efforts, hydrogen’s promise as a clean energy solution is sparking intense interest and debate, revealing two distinct schools of thought:
- Enthusiasm: Hydrogen emits zero point source carbon when used to supply heat or energy and can leverage existing energy infrastructure and resources. It could be a climate game changer.
- Caution: There are many unanswered questions about hydrogen, which has an indirect effect on the climate when emitted into the atmosphere. How concerned should we be about hydrogen leaks? How and where will it be produced? We should proceed with caution until we know the net impact of a hydrogen-heavy energy economy.
Both perspectives are valid, which is why GTI Energy’s new HyRes initiative, a hydrogen emissions research consortium, was developed. HyRes aims to reconcile the potential benefits and risks of the hydrogen molecule by providing an objective, collaborative, and data-driven research platform for energy companies, climate researchers, community advocates, and policymakers. It’s more important than ever for the energy industry to understand the true climate impact of hydrogen emissions.
Catching Up to the Hydrogen Hype
Done right, a hydrogen economy promises plentiful, reliable, and climate-friendly energy that can be produced domestically. It’s that promise that has fueled $7 billion in public funding for hydrogen hub demonstration projects in the United States and billions more around the world.
But a key question remains: How will potential hydrogen emissions affect the climate?
Studies have shown that hydrogen has indirect global warming impacts due to its interactions with other molecules in the atmosphere. Through collaboration, technology, and scientific investigation, we must explore the impact the hydrogen molecule has across its entire life cycle, from production to end-use. High-resolution data on leakage rates from infrastructure, along with understanding the emissions profiles of different production methods, will help evaluate hydrogen’s true climate impact accurately.
By addressing these knowledge gaps, we can make informed decisions about transitioning to a decarbonized energy economy where hydrogen plays a viable role. Through HyRes, GTI Energy aims to foster consensus, objectivity, transparency, and confidence in hydrogen emission research.
Building out the HyRes Team
GTI Energy brings more than 60 years of experience in hydrogen technology research, emission measurement and verification, and climate mitigation. As we have done with our Center for Methane Research, our Veritas methane measurement initiative, the Open Hydrogen Initiative (OHI), and the Low-Carbon Resources Initiative (LCRI), we will focus on developing trusted technology and standards that can produce a verifiable hydrogen emission inventory and be used to compare the impacts of various hydrogen scenarios.
But we don’t intend to do it alone. As was the case with Veritas, OHI, and LCRI, our first order of business is building the coalition of experts and stakeholders that will drive the HyRes roadmap. We’re recruiting energy companies, academic researchers, emission detection technology companies, and climate-focused research organizations to help refine our approach and develop our research agenda.
We’re extremely confident in our vision for HyRes. But we’re equally confident that its success will rest on our ability to build a robust coalition of experts from every side of the hydrogen equation: the experts who produce and move it and the climate scientists who are searching for a better understanding of its potential and risks. Simply put, we need everyone on the boat. The challenges and opportunities are too big to go for it alone: follow our journey as we lay out the foundation or join this journey with us. Learn more about the initiative and how you can partner with our team here.
