ARCH2 Open House for Western Pa. Residents Postponed

A community open house to learn more about the Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub (ARCH2), originally scheduled for Jan. 7, has been postponed due to inclement weather. A new date will be announced.

The open house will allow Western Pennsylvania community members to learn more about the ambitious plan to develop a regional network of clean hydrogen production, transportation, and end uses, as well as connective infrastructure.

While ARCH2 in based in West Virginia it also includes partners in Pennsylvania and Ohio, and will focus on production and use of so-called “blue hydrogen”. Members of the ARCH2 team will be on hand to discuss the ARCH2 vision, and allow community members to meet the partners in the project and share their thoughts on what matters to them as the plans move forward.

ARCH2 is one of seven hydrogen hub projects around the country selected in October 2023. It is set to receive a $925 million share of $7 billion in federal clean energy funding over the coming years to create a national clean hydrogen network. As currently proposed, it will include 12 proposed projects that will produce hydrogen for a range of end uses including residential fuel cells, materials handling equipment, and industrial uses.

Hydrogen is seen as a clean energy source that can help to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from hard-to-decarbonize industrial sectors and long-distance transportation and help the U.S. meet its climate goals. The H2Hubs are expected to produce three million metric tons of hydrogen annually, reaching nearly a third of the 2030 U.S. production target, and reduce 25 million metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from end-uses each year.

When burned, hydrogen emits only water vapor, but it must be produced in one of several ways. The most common is through steam reformation of natural gas, or methane, but this method results in CO2 emissions. In order to be considered clean, the “blue hydrogen” production process must be coupled with carbon capture and sequestration, where those emissions are captured and storage in underground geologic formations. Hydrogen can also be produced by splitting water atoms using large amounts of electricity. If renewable energy sources are used, this is called “green hydrogen.”

The ARCH2 project will focus on production of blue hydrogen from the abundant Appalachian natural gas supply in the Marcellus and Utica shale formations. However it will also include technologies such as biomass pyrolysis and green hydrogen production.

A similar community open house for the Ohio community will be held Jan. 9 in Canton, Ohio. An open house for West Virginia residents was held in December.

The U.S. Department of Energy also moving forward with preparing an environmental impact statement to assess potential environmental impacts of the project under the National Environmental Policy Act. As part of that process, one virtual public scoping meeting to gather comments from 6 to 8 p.m. Jan. 16. A registration link is available here. Three in-person scoping meetings are also being planned and dates will be announced.