Flanigan's Eco-Logic

In this Crash Course, hosted by Sierra Flanigan, she and her father, Ted Flanigan, dig into the key issue related to the combustion of green hydrogen in peaker power plants. Ted learned of the adverse impact of burning hydrgoen last year from his friend and colleague, Jonathan Parfrey, Executive Director of Climate Resolve. Together they wrote a white paper to clarify the issue... the basis of this Crash Course.

There has been understandable concern that to meet the Los Angeles mandate of 100% clean energy generation by 2035, that green hydrogen will have to be used and that it will likely have to be used in peaker plants to keep the power on. Early studies on the combustion of green hydrogen make clear the great benefit of this carbon-free fuel, but note that its combustion may actually increase nitrogen oxide emissions. Why? Hydrogen burns hotter than natural gas, amplifying the "endothermic reaction" whereby air -- loaded with nitrogen - is drawn into the heat where it forms nitrogen oxides.

This finding of increased NOx, which is both a greenhouse gas, and a regional air pollutant causing smog and health issues, has alarmed the Los Angeles environmental justice community that had been looking forward to their neighborhoods' power plants being permanently closed. Now they face continued operations albeit with hydrogen, and the threat of local air quality hazards in the form of increased NOx.

The paper digs into ways to mitigate NOx emissions from combustion turbines and there are many. Some are before a power plant's combustion chamber, some are inside the chamber, and others outside. Hydrogen burns hot, but it can be lean, lowering the temperature. Inside the fire are adjustments to reduce NOx, and 70 - 95% of the NOx can be captured in selective catalytic reduction systems.

The Crash Course covers the big picture too. Electric utilities are electrifying mobility -- witness the EV explosion -- and decarbonizing buildings. These functions have huge CO2 and NOx reduction benefits. Furthermore, power plants contribute less than 1% of all NOx in our region. Bottom line: Los Angeles may well explore and can certainly justify limited green hydrogen combustion, until efficiency and fuel cells and other technologies can help meet peak demands on the hottest days of summer.

Past Crash Courses have focused on microgrids, net energy metering, electric vehicles, vehicle to grid, microgrids, offshore wind, climate action, energy storage... and Ted's experimental solar home in Colorado. The father/daughter duo works again in this sixteenth Crash Course to take a somewhat complex subject, and to make it clear and easy and  interesting to digest.

Flanigan's Eco-Logic
Episode 225
June 30, 2025

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