Hydrocarbon Processing - April 2021 - GP-11

EXECUTIVE VIEWPOINT

GTI's Hydrogen Technology Center makes
big strides in H2 projects, advocacy
K. WILEY, Executive Director, Hydrogen Technology Center, GTI

To address the many challenges and
opportunities in the world's energy future, the U.S.-headquartered, global-focused GTI recently launched a Hydrogen
Technology Center with world-class research and development capabilities. Gas
Processing & LNG spoke with Kristine
Wiley, Executive Director, about the Center's ongoing and upcoming initiatives
and projects, as well as projected technology adoption and use amid the worldwide
expansion of H2 infrastructure.
For extensive coverage of advances in
H2 technology, applications and trends,
please consult Gulf Energy Information's
new publication, H2Tech. Visit www.H2Tech.com for more information.
As the Executive Director of GTI's Hydrogen
Technology Center, KRISTINE WILEY works
across the organization to synchronize deep
industry knowledge and technical expertise,
as well as large-scale labs and test facilities to
integrate the use of H2 into the energy system.
Addressing economy-wide decarbonization, the
Hydrogen Technology Center brings together
public-private partnerships to facilitate R&D
to enable clean H2 generation, transport, storage and utilization at scale while leveraging
the existing robust energy infrastructure to
facilitate the transition to a low-carbon future.
Ms. Wiley's career spans nearly two
decades at GTI. Prior to her current role,
she served as an R&D Director responsible
for GTI's Environmental, Risk and Integrity
Management programs. With a focus on reducing environmental impacts, she led collaborative research directly working with industry to
develop solutions for the detection and mitigation of methane emissions from natural gas
operations. At GTI, she has held positions of
increasing responsibility in managing research
addressing utility operations and environmental compliance to advance the use of lowcarbon fuels, such as renewable natural gas.
Ms. Wiley holds a BA degree in biological
sciences from the University of Chicago, as
well as an MBA degree from the University
of Chicago Booth School of Business.

GP&LNG: Last year, GTI and the
Electric Power Research Institute
(EPRI) announced the formation
of the $100-MM Low-Carbon
Resources Initiative (LCRI),
which aims to bring low-carbon
power generation technologies
to commercial scale by 2030.
Can you share an update on the
Initiative and the projects and
strategies coming out of it?

KW: The LCRI is bringing together
industry stakeholders to accelerate development and demonstration of lowcarbon energy technologies through
transformative, clean energy research
and development. We launched LCRI
in the autumn of 2020 with 18 anchor
sponsors, and as of February 2021 have
grown the membership to 35 sponsors
and exceeded our goal of $100 MM in
funding. It is a true demonstration of the
energy industry's commitment to striving toward deep decarbonization across
all sectors of the economy.
The LCRI intends to launch a set of
initial projects that demonstrate key decarbonization pathways, providing resiliency, reliability and affordability while

also reducing emissions. It is very important that we begin putting real technologies into operation as soon as possible.
Another key focus is our integrated
energy systems analysis, which will help
us evaluate scenarios for emissions reductions, identify low-cost technology pathways and quantify the impact of economy-wide decarbonization policies. This
will be a key input to the LCRI roadmap,
which will identify research and development (R&D) gaps, technology commercialization opportunities and investment
needs, all of which will guide long-term
R&D activities. The roadmap is expected
to be released in Q2 2021.
GP&LNG: From your background in
the midstream sector, can you talk
a bit about the different ways that
H2 and renewable natural gas (RNG)
can be blended or utilized in existing
midstream operations, and how that
will help reduce carbon footprint for
midstream and LNG operators?

KW: Renewable natural gas and H2
will both play important roles in transitioning to a low-carbon energy system.
RNG is already being introduced into
the existing natural gas system and is a
key component to decarbonization strategies for gas companies. RNG facilities
are taking waste from landfills or dairy
farms, for example, and converting it into
pipeline-quality gas for injection into the
natural gas grid. In some cases, the RNG
can be a carbon-negative fuel, depending
on the initial feedstock used.
There are more than 100 operational
RNG production facilities in the U.S., and
that number is expected to grow as decarbonization commitments increase at the
state, regional and even corporate levels.
The benefit of RNG-assuming it has
been processed to meet gas quality specifications-is that it is quite similar to the
composition of natural gas, so the same
Gas Processing & LNG | MARCH/APRIL 2021

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Hydrocarbon Processing - April 2021

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