Many Pennsylvanians are not aware of the dangers we face from the expansion of blue hydrogen hubs, or their connection to fracking. Speaking as a retired physician who has assisted in the medical care and chronic pain management of many children who were diagnosed with diseases associated with exposure to the toxins produced by fracking, I care about the expansion of blue hydrogen hubs in Pennsylvania; they are a very serious threat to public health.
Hydrogen, by itself, is not an energy source. What has been studied and proposed for decades is combining hydrogen with oxygen in fuel cells to product energy as the two elements combine to become water. Sounds good, right? We get energy and the only by-product is water. Doesn’t sound bad at first, right? But the devil is in the details with hydrogen fuel cells. In order to combine hydrogen and oxygen, you first need to separate them, and that takes (you guessed it) energy. So energy has to be put into the separation of hydrogen and oxygen, so that later, energy can be released by the combination of the two elements. Now it doesn’t sound so perfect, does it? Just what kinds of energy are used to separate the two elements? Lots, it turns out.
The different ways of producing hydrogen are defined largely by the energy source used, and they have been distinguished by using color-names (though they don’t really look like these colors; hydrogen is colorless). One of the most common, Grey Hydrogen is made from methane using fossil fuels and releasing CO2 into the air. Blue Hydrogen is produced just like Grey Hydrogen, but the industry tries to capture as much CO2 as possible, to keep it out of the air. Green Hydrogen is made from water by electrolysis using renewable sources of energy. Pink Hydrogen is made from water by electrolysis using nuclear energy. Note that producing both Blue and Grey Hydrogen produces carbon dioxide because fossil fuels are used to separate out the hydrogen. The use of nuclear energy to produce Pink Hydrogen has the byproduct of nuclear waste. Green Hydrogen, however, is often regarded as the most environmentally friendly way to separate out hydrogen, but it is currently one of the least used methods.
The proposed Hydrogen Hubs would be designed for Blue Hydrogen and would require a way to transport the captured carbon dioxide to underground storage. Sounds good at first, right? The process, however, is inefficient and expensive. Furthermore, the transportation of CO2 in pipelines is dangerous because of the corrosive nature of CO2 when it meets water, and the high pressure of liquefied CO2 in the pipelines, both of which can lead to dangerous leaks. Liquid carbon dioxide is dangerous because when it is not under high pressure and kept at a very low temperature, it rapidly expands. This decreases oxygen in the air to levels that will not support internal combustion engines or our lives. So people trying to drive away from a cloud of CO2 from a pipeline leak cannot turn on their cars to leave. When liquid carbon dioxide contacts water it produces strong acid, so any water on our skin or eyes can become acidic. All of this is detrimental to our health.
But there’s more. Because Hydrogen Hubs aim to use Blue Hydrogen, and because the fossil fuels used to power Blue Hydrogen production include gasses from fracked wells, the process produces more fracking waste. Wastewater produced by fracking contains toxins. Toxins introduced into the water & air by fracking, etc. include: Volatile organic compounds (including benzene, toluene, methanol, ethylene glycol, and other ethanols), radioactive particles (including Radium, Uranium, Thorium), fine particulate matter (PM 2.5) and other hazardous substances (including PFAS) see
https://breatheproject.org/news/fracking-chemicals-detected-in-pennsylvania-drinking-water/
and their source, doi/full/10.1073/pnas.1420279112
also see https://www.epa.gov/radiation/technologically-enhanced-naturally-occurring-radioactive-materials-tenorm Prevention, that is, reduced exposure to these toxins, is much better than attempting to cure or palliate the diseases they cause.
B.W. Brandom, M.D.
Concerned Health Professionals of Pennsylvania, part of Physicians for Social Responsibility
Climate Reality training, 2020.
For more insights: https://www.environmentalhealthproject.org/post/blue-hydrogen-a-threat-to-public-health
(In our next issue, Dr. Brandom will look more closely at the dangers and health risks that come with all elements of Hydrogen Hubs, including the most well documented account of a CO2 pipeline leak, so far, in Satartia, Mississippi.)
CampfireDispatch2023 