The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) is reviewing an application filed by SoCalGas on March 1 to initiate a hydrogen blending demonstration project at UCI’s Anteater Recreation Center (ARC). The project aims to generate data about this method of renewable energy production and begin implementing statewide hydrogen blending standards.
The project plans to mix up to 20% of hydrogen into SoCalGas infrastructure at the ARC. Solar powered electrolyzers — machines that split water into its respective components of hydrogen and oxygen — are proposed to make hydrogen gas to fuel existing appliances. This is intended to reduce greenhouse gas and nitrogen oxide emissions from the ARC’s infrastructure.
If CPUC approves the project proposal, it will be monitored by an administrative team and a student advisory committee. These teams will send feedback to the campus oversight committee responsible for the project throughout its development.
The project is estimated to take five years to complete and is organized into four main phases. A CPUC decision is expected at the end of 2024 to initiate Phase 1 of the project, focused on planning and design throughout 2025. The second phase, a demonstration, is expected to last until the end of 2027. Phases 3 and 4 are set to begin in 2028 and will involve dismantling the project, along with detailed data analysis of the project’s scientific findings.
The proposal was reviewed by a faculty committee comprised of UCI chemistry professor Reginald Penner, civil and environmental engineering professor Efi Foufoula-Georgiou and materials science and engineering professor Diran Apelian. They submitted seven recommendations for the proposed project in February 2024. The recommendations include that the proposal be approved by UCI given proper safety protocols are instilled, that UCI central facilities be engaged in the third party engineering firm hired by SoCalGas and a website is created to track data generated for hydrogen leak testing and performance metrics.
In making these recommendations, Apelian highlighted it is “to make sure that there’s transparency for the student body, so that you know everything is up front, nothing hidden, and broadly convey information about the proposed blending project.”
Apelian noted that the project is “about the health of our planet and the health of the people who live on our planet” and UCI being involved in the project is sensical “with our initiatives in hydrogen and the hydrogen hub.”
Apelian also addressed concerns regarding hydrogen embrittlement failure — when metals become too brittle during the absorption of hydrogen atoms, subsequently lose ductility, and fracture.
“In this case, the experiment that is being considered to be carried out at UCI, it’s in polymeric based conduits. There’s no steel involved,” Apelian explained.
UCI’s history of alternative energy methods began with 1995 chemistry Nobel Laureate and UCI professor Sherwood Rowland whose research revealed the destructive impact of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) on the ozone layer.
Rowland’s work led to Irvine becoming the first city to call for a ban on CFCs by 1992, followed by other municipalities and eventually by the U.S. in 1994.
Hydrogen blending is seen as an eco-friendly alternative energy source by the U.S. Department of Energy and other scientific organizations. Hydrogen releases water vapor instead of carbon dioxide during combustion — a chemical process used to generate power and electricity. The process of hydrogen blending involves mixing hydrogen into existing gas pipelines and networks for “a cleaner energy mix in the short term and a fully decarbonized energy carrier in the long term.”
In the U.S., hydrogen blending has already happened in Hawaii and Utah. Other university systems outside of the U.S., such as Keele University in the United Kingdom, have incorporated pilot trials of hydrogen blending into their efforts to cut out carbon emissions. Canada and various European countries have implemented the process for decades.
On the UCI campus, the project was originally proposed for the Mesa Court dorms, but after protests regarding its safety and the unnecessary testing site of student housing, it was moved to the ARC.
Protocols are set to review the safety of the project before, during and after its development. These include “extensive hydrogen safety training for personnel” and “development of blending protocols and emergency response plans,” among numerous other regulations.
The implementation of hydrogen blending is unsupported by some community members involved in local climate policy. Ayn Craciun, chair of the City of Irvine Sustainability Commission and OC Policy Manager of the Climate Action Campaign, submitted a letter of protest to CPUC on behalf of Southern California’s Climate Action Campaign Organization in September 2022.
Craciun criticized the project’s costs, including a projected “$200 million in rate payer money on hydrogen experiments in residential homes and college campuses” that Climate Action Campaign signed on to a joint motion to dismiss the application for in July. Craciun also objects to the proposal of hydrogen blending in Orange Cove — a Latino-based farming community with high rates of air pollution.
“[SoCalGas is] proposing exposing the residents of that community to this disproportionate risk exposure with this open blending project there, where they’re going to just [go] into 10,000 homes and businesses in the community of Orange Cove,” Craciun told New University.
Craciun urged CPUC to prioritize “real climate solutions” and environmentally friendly alternatives to hydrogen blending. She poses electrification as a potential decarbonized method — one that is “readily available right now without any experimentation or waste of ratepayer funding required,” she said.
According to Craciun, burning hydrogen poses health and safety concerns for nearby residents.
Burning hydrogen is “known to produce indoor and outdoor air pollution by emitting nitrogen oxide, which is a key ingredient in smog, which has the potential to exacerbate respiratory and heart problems right in people’s own homes, or in the case of the Anteater Recreation Center, in an important recreation facility on campus,” Craciun explained.
“In addition, blending hydrogen into existing pipelines is known to make pipes brittle and vulnerable to cracking, which is an alarming risk considering hydrogens flammability,” Craciun said. “Our health and safety need to come before monopoly profits and that needs to be the first consideration in this decision, both by decision makers At UC Irvine and by the CPUC.”
“This is a lose-lose proposition for both the climate and all of the communities that these proposals will be built in. They’ve broken the public’s trust numerous times in the past with this kind of activity,” she said, referencing the 2015 Aliso Canyon gas leak that SoCalGas was also involved in.
Despite the raised concerns regarding the hydrogen blending proposal, Apelian said he remains optimistic for change.
“I’m personally very proud of our community at UCI where people are concerned, they’re conscious about the issues, they’re engaged and involved. By discourse, by listening, by talking, and by hearing each other, those fears not only are mitigated, but a much more constructive path forward is then chartered.”
Inga Chilingaryan is a News Staff Writer. She can be reached at chilingi@uci.edu.