Tallgrass Energy revealed that the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (DOE-NETL) awarded the company federal funding as part of a national effort to advance next-generation clean hydrogen technologies and support DOE’s recently announced Hydrogen Energy Earthshot initiative to reduce the cost and accelerate breakthroughs in the clean hydrogen sector.

The DOE award will fund Tallgrass’ study of CO₂ capture associated with producing hydrogen from natural gas via an auto-thermal reforming (ATR) facility. The study’s objective is to design a commercial-scale carbon capture unit capable of capturing 1.66 MM metric t/y of pure CO₂ with more than 97% total carbon capture efficiency. Over the coming months, Tallgrass will work with DOE officials to finalize terms and scope of the study, valued at $1.875 MM.

“Tallgrass is committed to playing a leadership role in advancing technologies that fully leverage resources such as hydrogen to deliver energy to people in a way that begins to decarbonize our world,” said Tallgrass CEO William R. Moler. “Tallgrass has made significant investments in building the technical and organizational expertise to become a global leader in emerging energy technologies like hydrogen and carbon sequestration. In time, these technologies will grow our company and make the global energy portfolio cleaner.”

Tallgrass is partnering with the DOE-NETL, the University of Wyoming, Technip Energies, BASF Corporation and Haldor Topsoe on this effort.

According to the study outcome, Tallgrass said it is evaluating the development of an ATR plant in Douglas, Wyoming for hydrogen production and carbon capture and storage on a commercial scale. The project will support DOE’s goal of producing hydrogen from natural gas with carbon neutral emissions, or blue hydrogen. As a fuel, hydrogen has the potential to play a major role in reducing emissions from the electricity and transportation sectors. It is also a critically important commodity for the agricultural and industrial sectors of our economy.