Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs
Installation of a Modern Hydrogen methane pyrolysis device at NW Natural, a natural gas public utility in Portland, Ore. (Modern Hydrogen Photo)
As President Trump is disrupting clean energy deployments, Modern Hydrogen aims to navigate a less controversial middle path that provides climate benefits while allowing for continued use of natural gas.
The Woodinville, Wash., company announced a partnership Wednesday with Puget Sound Energy (PSE), a major Seattle-area utility, in which the two are collaborating to find industrial customers interested in Modern Hydrogen’s climate friendly technology. That could include steel and cement makers and pulp-and-paper manufacturers that use processes requiring ultra-high temperatures that are difficult to reach through low-carbon means.
“Industrial decarbonization is really, really hard. A lot of things cannot be electrified, not economically,” said Modern Hydrogen CEO Tony Pan.
Modern Hydrogen has developed methane pyrolysis reactors that crack natural gas molecules, producing hydrogen for fuel and a product known as solid carbon that has a variety of applications, including as a component of asphalt. The outcome is a fuel that doesn’t warm the planet.
An industrial customer would plug the pyrolysis device into their system, replacing some or potentially all of the natural gas that they use with the clean-burning hydrogen. Some industries also use hydrogen as an ingredient in manufacturing.
“[Modern Hydrogen’s] technology has the potential to help our largest gas customers accelerate their decarbonization programs and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions,” said Josh Jacobs, vice president of energy strategy and planning for PSE, in a statement.
The memorandum of understanding (MOU) between Modern Hydrogen and the utility includes partnering on market analysis and working with potential customers.
Modern Hydrogen has already teamed up with utilities in Oregon and Florida, and is about to launch deployments in Texas.
“The reason why the utilities love what we do is we’re not telling them to get rid of natural gas, where there’s a few trillion dollars and millions of miles of infrastructure invested in the ground. We’re saying keep all that infrastructure… But we have a way to fix it and then make it clean,” Pan said.
Some advocates on the climate side have in general raised concerns about technologies and policies that facilitate the ongoing use of fossil fuels.
Others argue that it’s too expensive to quickly shut off oil and gas, and that there aren’t sufficient alternatives currently available.
Pan thinks they’ve struck the right balance.
“Our solution is super middle of the road and pragmatic,” Pan said.
Modern Hydrogen got its start in 2015 at Intellectual Ventures, an innovation hub created by former Microsoft researcher Nathan Myhrvold with backing from Bill Gates. The business, which was originally called Modern Electron, initially focused on devices that paired with home furnaces and hot water tanks to capture the appliances’ wasted heat and turn it into electricity.
GeekWire reported last month that Modern Hydrogen raised $25 million in new funding. The company has raised about $125 million in total.
