The Houston project is being developed by HyVelocity Hub, a group that includes Exxon Mobil, the University of Texas at Austin, French gas supplier Air Liquide, Texas-based oil major Chevron, the nonprofit Center for Houston’s Future and GTI Energy, a research and development company based in the Chicago area.
The Gulf Coast already possesses the bulk of the nation’s hydrogen infrastructure, converting natural gas to hydrogen through a carbon-intensive process necessary for the refining of oil and other industrial processes.
The Houston hub aims to clean up those facilities by capturing their emissions and storing them in underground aquifers beneath the Gulf of Mexico. They also plan to build new wind and solar-powered hydrogen facilities, which would convert water into hydrogen fuel.