BAKER CITY, Ore. — Baker County could become a center for generating hydrogen as an alternative vehicle fuel that doesn’t produce pollutants as petroleum fuels do.

A Colorado company, using millions of dollars from the 2021 federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, hopes to build a hydrogen plant at the Ash Grove Cement factory near Durkee.

The plant could potentially start making hydrogen fuel by 2028, said Matt McMonagle, CEO and founder of NovoHydrogen of Centennial, Colo.

The company created a subsidiary licensed in Oregon called Express Ranch Hydrogen. The first post office in the Durkee area was called Express Ranch.

The basic concept, McMonagle said, is to build a facility on the Ash Grove property, on the hill above the cement plant just south of Interstate 84, that would generate hydrogen fuel.

The process, called electrolysis, uses electricity to split water into its constituent elements, oxygen and hydrogen.

McMonagle said the plan is to create “green” hydrogen by using electricity produced by wind turbines and solar panels, not from the burning of fossil fuels.

Using clean energy sources to generate hydrogen is a requirement of the Inflation Reduction Act grant, McMonagle said.

The water would come from an existing well on the property, he said.

Phillip Teintze, manager at the Durkee plant, sent the Baker City Herald an email statement about the proposed hydrogen plant on Wednesday, Sept. 25.

“The Ash Grove Cement Durkee plant is active in many opportunities to decarbonize our industry,” the statement reads. “Solutions for low carbon cement manufacturing are significantly challenging, in terms of processes and expense. The Durkee plant is excited to see the development of NovoHydrogen’s efforts with the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest Hydrogen Hub. As hydrogen becomes environmentally and economically viable, we believe our facility could act as a distribution site, and potentially utilize hydrogen as a fuel to displace traditional fossil fuels.”

The potential conversion to hydrogen isn’t the only project designed to reduce carbon emissions from the Durkee plant.

Ash Grove, which is a subsidiary of CRH, a company based in Dublin, Ireland, is building a new cement mill at the Durkee plant that the company says will reduce the plant’s “environmental footprint.”

“This state-of-the-art finish mill at our Durkee plant will strengthen Ash Grove’s position as a leader in low-carbon cement across the Western United States,” Ash Grove President Serge Schmidt said in a 2023 press release.

Teintze wrote in a Sept. 25 email that the new mill at the Durkee plant is under construction, with the foundations nearly finished.

Federal money

Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Energy awarded up to $27.5 million from that act to the Pacific Northwest Hydrogen Association for the first of a proposed four phases comprising the “PNWH2 Hub.”

That concept includes eight projects, known as “nodes,” in Washington, Oregon and Montana, with a goal of producing green hydrogen that would reduce carbon emissions from vehicles, according to the nonprofit.

In addition to the Baker County project, the Pacific Northwest hub includes two proposed projects in Boardman, one to produce hydrogen fuel and the other to generate electricity.

Phase 1 involves initial planning, which could take about a year, according to a spokesperson for the Pacific Northwest Hydrogen Hub.

The second, third and fourth phases, extending over several years, would include permitting, designing and building hydrogen plants, and beginning production of the fuel at various sites, including the Durkee project.

The Pacific Northwest hub could eventually receive up to $1 billion, according to its website, https://pnwh2.com.

McMonagle said the Northwest hub is one of seven the U.S. Department of Energy has approved and is supporting with money from the Infrastructure Act.

Janine Benner, director of the Oregon Department of Energy and vice chair of the Pacific Northwest Hydrogen Association, lauded the projects.

“New dedicated pipeline, above-ground storage, and hydrogen refueling stations for public and private use are key components of the node infrastructure proposed,” Benner wrote in an email to the Baker City Herald. “The end goal would be to produce and supply hydrogen as a zero-carbon truck fuel along this important transportation corridor.”

The goal of the Northwest hub is to remove 1.7 million metric tons in carbon emissions per year, equivalent to removing the emissions from roughly 400,000 gasoline-powered cars, Benner wrote.

Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek also praised the proposal and the award of federal dollars to the regional hydrogen hub.

“Mitigating climate change requires enormous effort and prioritization of resources,” Kotek said. “It takes a multi-state approach to get things done, like the Pacific Northwest Hydrogen Hub.”

Shane Alderson, chairman of the Baker County Board of Commissioners, said he’s intrigued by the concept.

“I like to see innovative ideas come here,” Alderson said. “I’m in support of it.”

Producing hydrogen

McMonagle said the plant he envisions on the Ash Grove property would look somewhat similar to an electric substation.

Hydrogen would be stored in metal tanks.

One part of the plan is to use the hydrogen to fuel trucks and other vehicles that Ash Grove uses at its Durkee plant, McMonagle said.

Hydrogen would also be sold to the public, possibly from a station in Baker City, although the location hasn’t been decided.

McMonagle said he expects that companies with fleets of heavy duty trucks, including those that use Interstate 84, would be the likely buyers of hydrogen fuel.

Hydrogen-powered passenger cars are relatively rare in the U.S. About 18,500 have been sold or leased in the country, according to the Hydrogen Fuel Cell Partnership.

Toyota, Honda and Hyundai sell cars fueled by hydrogen, but only in California, with Toyota’s Mirai model accounting for the majority of sales so far.

McMonagle said the hydrogen plant would use about as much electricity as is used to power approximately 400 to 1,000 homes.

In addition to potentially converting Ash Grove vehicles to run on hydrogen, McMonagle said the fuel could possibly be used elsewhere at the cement plant, including the kiln. Hydrogen has been tested as a fuel in cement plants elsewhere, he said.

McMonagle said building the hydrogen plant would employ about 50 workers.

Operating the plant itself would require a few full-time employees, he said.

Hydrogen vehicles

McMonagle said hydrogen can fuel vehicles in two ways.

The most common, and the type that Toyota, Honda and Hyundai have made, employ a hydrogen fuel cell that powers an electric motor.

The difference between a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle and a battery-electric car, such as various Tesla models, is that the hydrogen-fueled vehicle doesn’t have a battery pack that has to be recharged.

Instead, the hydrogen combines with oxygen from the air to generate electricity to power the car’s motor.

McMonagle said hydrogen can also fuel a conventional internal combustion engine, with hydrogen replacing gasoline or diesel as the fuel.

In either type of vehicle, hydrogen produces water vapor as a byproduct.