June 5, 2023 • 11 mins
Groundbreaking June 6th on a new hydrogen plant near Mulberry in Polk County. Its operators say it uses natural gas but also captures more than 90 percent of carbon dioxide produced, making it a clean process. They hope to become part of a regional hydrogen hub that the federal government is forming to encourage use of the fuel. We speak with Hani Banoub, a VP for one of the companies involved, Ocean Green Hydrogen of Tampa.
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(00:00):
Gordon Bird here with Beyond the Newsgroundbreaking set for Tuesday morning, June sixth
on a new clean hydrogen carbon capturefacility in Mulberry. Hanny Banoub is the
vice president of Ocean Green Hydrogen thatis a Tampa based company and one of
two behind that project, and HonneyBanoub, welcome to Beyond the News.
(00:23):
Thank you very much, Gordon.I'm happy to be here and answer any
of your questions. Well, there'sa lot of ground to cover, I
guess first of all, for ifyou could explain to us what is clean
hydrogen and what makes the process cleancompared to other means of producing or extracting
hydrogen. Clean hydrogen is simply reallyproducing hydrogen with the minimization of carbon emissions.
(00:53):
So currently the world uses hydrogen.It's what you call gray hydrogen,
but it's harmful to the environment.Meant for because for every pound of hydrogen
you produced from natural gas, youare producing ten pounds of carbon dioxide.
That technology that we are adapting fromKorea is unique to the sense that we
(01:14):
could produce hydrogen in a conventional way. However we're capturing nine to the carbon
emissions. So this plant that's goingto be employing that process in Mulberry.
Are there any other plants in theUS that are currently employing clean hydrogen technology?
(01:37):
Small plants, Everything is in thetesting stage, but they are mostly
using hydrolysis, which is separating thewater, you know, from the oxygen,
I mean separating the hydrogen from theoxygen in the water by using solar
energy. It's a very expensive process, unreliable, and inconsistent depending on the
(02:01):
whether and the wind forces and soforth. So where I find this is
very unique is that we're utilizing naturalgas fossil fuel as the feedstock for the
production of hydrogen. However, weare eliminating ninety percent of the emissions of
(02:23):
the emissions, which makes it environmentallyfriendly and definitely will meet and exceed the
net zero goals which are way inthe future by twenty thirty. So let
me ask and make sure that Iunderstand this that you're using your process is
us that involves natural gas that isactually cleaner than a process that involves extracting
(02:50):
the hydrogen from water. I wouldn'tsay it's cleaner, I would just say
it's more reliable. It's the oldconvention of I have a way of producing
hydrogen and natural gas is abundant inthe States, and we have one of
the best natural gas is cleaner naturalgas is better than the ones are in
(03:14):
Europe and Russia and so forth.We have forty four percent cleaner natural gas,
and utilizing that natural resource is definitelya plus and very strategic to our
energy independence and to the future ofhydrogen and the hydrogen economy. So it's
(03:35):
cleaner than the natural gas processes thatmight be used in other parts of the
world and easier to scale up thanhydrolysis. Would that be a correct way
of describing it, exactly, Gordon? All Right, So this plant that
in Mulberry is special because you've kindof scaled up our process that produces a
(03:57):
cleaner hydrogen in a way that theother options have not been able to accomplish
so far. So this is groundbreakingin that sense. Yes, you know,
I've been an oil and gas industryfor a very long time, and
I started focusing on renewable energy fora while. I came across this technology
(04:18):
from Korea by a company called lowCarbon, and they have a very unique
technology which is basically they capture thecarbon dioxide and they utilize it into what
you call calcium carbonate. Calcium carbonateis a powder that is used in the
concrete manufacturing as well as they canalso produce from the carbon as a second
(04:44):
process soda ash, which is bakingsoda. So I found that to be
very very interesting. I basically studiedthe technology. I visited Korea multiple times
in the past couple of years andseeing that this technology is utilized working there,
they have you know, capitalized onthat with some of the power plants
(05:08):
in Korea, the carbon capture whichis very successful, and it was my
mission to you know, to tryto bring that to the States and especially
my home state Florida. How didyou come to select the site in Mulberry
for this? Was the state involved, with the local authorities involved, What
(05:30):
factors led the company to place theplant in Mulberry. Just as common sense,
we wanted a plant to be inthe central part of the states.
This way we could serve the Jacksonvillemarket, Miami market, Tampa market.
As a basis and part of oursearch, we were really looking to be
(05:51):
very close to a huge supply sourceof natural gas. So we identified three
pipelines that are coming into the stateof Florida, Gulf Stream Pipeline and Florida
Gas Transmission pipelines. These are comingfrom Houston and Louisiana. They supply natural
gas to the power plants. Andwe found a substation close to the site
(06:15):
that we will be able to drawnatural gas from those major pipelines to you
know, as the feedstock for ourhydrogen. And we found that, you
know, Mulberry. They were welcomingwith the project, and the entire state
actually was you know, during ourmeetings with Enterprise Florida and the Business Development
(06:40):
Council that everybody was welcoming and itwas just a personal choice as this is
a Korean investment on where to buythe land. You know, we weren't
given any pieces of land or anything. How many jobs and what kinds of
jobs? If you could tell usabout this bringing to the area. Um,
(07:01):
well, it's actually you know,it's as a start. They are
the Koreans are planning to build aplant that produces ten tons per day,
which is considered a small quantity comparedto what the state needs. But they
wanted to do a sample plant forthe state and they're hoping that they can
duplicate that and you know, theycan be part of what you call the
(07:28):
Hydrogen Hub efforts that the federal governmentis trying to select several states to be
in the jobs that it's going tocreate. I would say at least one
hundred to one hundred and fifty jobs, you know, varying from you know,
engineering and technical support and also butthe majority of employment is going to
(07:49):
be US citizens, you know,residents of Florida. Only a few management
positions you know, from Korea alongwith management positions from the US. And
the only thing that we are bringingfrom Korea is the actual technology and the
patterns that we have for the carboncapture. Everything else is American. So
(08:11):
all the scrubbers, all the pipings, all the reactors that we're gonna be
using for the plants are all goingto be American made in San Antonio,
Texas. Are there any obviously peopleknow about the properties of hydrogen. Are
there any special safety concerns with ahydrogen facility. I'm sure that there will
(08:33):
be those dealt with internally. Whetherare there any issues that could should concern
the general public. The general publicreally shouldn't be concerned. I've seen this
technology firsthand, you know, beingutilized in Korea. Germany, Australia.
You know, I've been in thehydrogen bus. I've been in the hydrogen
(08:54):
cards. Very impressive. You don'tfeel the difference between that and I guess
consumption vehicle or a diesel consumption vehicle. And the hydrogen is usually transport on
the highways at very low pressure,so that would be the concern by DOT
(09:16):
and stuff like that worldwide. Andit's transported at seventy or adpsi, which
is very very low pressure, andthen when it reaches the charging stations,
they have boosters in the chase inthe stations to charge it up until it
goes to the dispensing facility that fillsup the hydrogen cars or trucks or buses.
(09:39):
Now, Space Florida is one ofthe parties that is mentioned in this
process. I think that we canprobably fill in the gaps in our minds.
But if you could tell us howall this is connected to the Space
program, well, very simply.My understanding is that the space program has
been in very very deep search forreliable hydrogen supply that is clean. And
(10:07):
you know the rockets that are beinglaunched on weekly basis are utilizing hydrogen,
some of them at one hundred percenthydrogen. Some of them are blending the
hydrogen with the liquefied natural gas thatpowers the rockets and also the space program.
You know, they have a lotof crafts, unmanned crafts that they
(10:30):
are looking to to to repower themas hydrogen or recreate those crafts with hydrogen.
Solar is not really very reliable foryou know, drones and unmanned crafts
might understand me. Anny Bloob,vice president of Ocean Green Hydrogen, which
(10:52):
is a company out of Tampa andone of two behind a project to build
a new clean hydrogen and carbon capturefacility in Mulberry, partnering up with a
Korean firm. Annie Benow, thankyou very much for joining us on Beyond
the News. Thank you Gordon verymuch. Thank you, byebye,
Gordon Bird here with Beyond the Newsgroundbreaking set for Tuesday morning, June sixth
on a new clean hydrogen carbon capturefacility in Mulberry. Hanny Banoub is the
vice president of Ocean Green Hydrogen thatis a Tampa based company and one of
two behind that project, and HonneyBanoub, welcome to Beyond the News.
(00:23):
Thank you very much, Gordon.I'm happy to be here and answer any
of your questions. Well, there'sa lot of ground to cover, I
guess first of all, for ifyou could explain to us what is clean
hydrogen and what makes the process cleancompared to other means of producing or extracting
hydrogen. Clean hydrogen is simply reallyproducing hydrogen with the minimization of carbon emissions.
(00:53):
So currently the world uses hydrogen.It's what you call gray hydrogen,
but it's harmful to the environment.Meant for because for every pound of hydrogen
you produced from natural gas, youare producing ten pounds of carbon dioxide.
That technology that we are adapting fromKorea is unique to the sense that we
(01:14):
could produce hydrogen in a conventional way. However we're capturing nine to the carbon
emissions. So this plant that's goingto be employing that process in Mulberry.
Are there any other plants in theUS that are currently employing clean hydrogen technology?
(01:37):
Small plants, Everything is in thetesting stage, but they are mostly
using hydrolysis, which is separating thewater, you know, from the oxygen,
I mean separating the hydrogen from theoxygen in the water by using solar
energy. It's a very expensive process, unreliable, and inconsistent depending on the
(02:01):
whether and the wind forces and soforth. So where I find this is
very unique is that we're utilizing naturalgas fossil fuel as the feedstock for the
production of hydrogen. However, weare eliminating ninety percent of the emissions of
(02:23):
the emissions, which makes it environmentallyfriendly and definitely will meet and exceed the
net zero goals which are way inthe future by twenty thirty. So let
me ask and make sure that Iunderstand this that you're using your process is
us that involves natural gas that isactually cleaner than a process that involves extracting
(02:50):
the hydrogen from water. I wouldn'tsay it's cleaner, I would just say
it's more reliable. It's the oldconvention of I have a way of producing
hydrogen and natural gas is abundant inthe States, and we have one of
the best natural gas is cleaner naturalgas is better than the ones are in
(03:14):
Europe and Russia and so forth.We have forty four percent cleaner natural gas,
and utilizing that natural resource is definitelya plus and very strategic to our
energy independence and to the future ofhydrogen and the hydrogen economy. So it's
(03:35):
cleaner than the natural gas processes thatmight be used in other parts of the
world and easier to scale up thanhydrolysis. Would that be a correct way
of describing it, exactly, Gordon? All Right, So this plant that
in Mulberry is special because you've kindof scaled up our process that produces a
(03:57):
cleaner hydrogen in a way that theother options have not been able to accomplish
so far. So this is groundbreakingin that sense. Yes, you know,
I've been an oil and gas industryfor a very long time, and
I started focusing on renewable energy fora while. I came across this technology
(04:18):
from Korea by a company called lowCarbon, and they have a very unique
technology which is basically they capture thecarbon dioxide and they utilize it into what
you call calcium carbonate. Calcium carbonateis a powder that is used in the
concrete manufacturing as well as they canalso produce from the carbon as a second
(04:44):
process soda ash, which is bakingsoda. So I found that to be
very very interesting. I basically studiedthe technology. I visited Korea multiple times
in the past couple of years andseeing that this technology is utilized working there,
they have you know, capitalized onthat with some of the power plants
(05:08):
in Korea, the carbon capture whichis very successful, and it was my
mission to you know, to tryto bring that to the States and especially
my home state Florida. How didyou come to select the site in Mulberry
for this? Was the state involved, with the local authorities involved, What
(05:30):
factors led the company to place theplant in Mulberry. Just as common sense,
we wanted a plant to be inthe central part of the states.
This way we could serve the Jacksonvillemarket, Miami market, Tampa market.
As a basis and part of oursearch, we were really looking to be
(05:51):
very close to a huge supply sourceof natural gas. So we identified three
pipelines that are coming into the stateof Florida, Gulf Stream Pipeline and Florida
Gas Transmission pipelines. These are comingfrom Houston and Louisiana. They supply natural
gas to the power plants. Andwe found a substation close to the site
(06:15):
that we will be able to drawnatural gas from those major pipelines to you
know, as the feedstock for ourhydrogen. And we found that, you
know, Mulberry. They were welcomingwith the project, and the entire state
actually was you know, during ourmeetings with Enterprise Florida and the Business Development
(06:40):
Council that everybody was welcoming and itwas just a personal choice as this is
a Korean investment on where to buythe land. You know, we weren't
given any pieces of land or anything. How many jobs and what kinds of
jobs? If you could tell usabout this bringing to the area. Um,
(07:01):
well, it's actually you know,it's as a start. They are
the Koreans are planning to build aplant that produces ten tons per day,
which is considered a small quantity comparedto what the state needs. But they
wanted to do a sample plant forthe state and they're hoping that they can
duplicate that and you know, theycan be part of what you call the
(07:28):
Hydrogen Hub efforts that the federal governmentis trying to select several states to be
in the jobs that it's going tocreate. I would say at least one
hundred to one hundred and fifty jobs, you know, varying from you know,
engineering and technical support and also butthe majority of employment is going to
(07:49):
be US citizens, you know,residents of Florida. Only a few management
positions you know, from Korea alongwith management positions from the US. And
the only thing that we are bringingfrom Korea is the actual technology and the
patterns that we have for the carboncapture. Everything else is American. So
(08:11):
all the scrubbers, all the pipings, all the reactors that we're gonna be
using for the plants are all goingto be American made in San Antonio,
Texas. Are there any obviously peopleknow about the properties of hydrogen. Are
there any special safety concerns with ahydrogen facility. I'm sure that there will
(08:33):
be those dealt with internally. Whetherare there any issues that could should concern
the general public. The general publicreally shouldn't be concerned. I've seen this
technology firsthand, you know, beingutilized in Korea. Germany, Australia.
You know, I've been in thehydrogen bus. I've been in the hydrogen
(08:54):
cards. Very impressive. You don'tfeel the difference between that and I guess
consumption vehicle or a diesel consumption vehicle. And the hydrogen is usually transport on
the highways at very low pressure,so that would be the concern by DOT
(09:16):
and stuff like that worldwide. Andit's transported at seventy or adpsi, which
is very very low pressure, andthen when it reaches the charging stations,
they have boosters in the chase inthe stations to charge it up until it
goes to the dispensing facility that fillsup the hydrogen cars or trucks or buses.
(09:39):
Now, Space Florida is one ofthe parties that is mentioned in this
process. I think that we canprobably fill in the gaps in our minds.
But if you could tell us howall this is connected to the Space
program, well, very simply.My understanding is that the space program has
been in very very deep search forreliable hydrogen supply that is clean. And
(10:07):
you know the rockets that are beinglaunched on weekly basis are utilizing hydrogen,
some of them at one hundred percenthydrogen. Some of them are blending the
hydrogen with the liquefied natural gas thatpowers the rockets and also the space program.
You know, they have a lotof crafts, unmanned crafts that they
(10:30):
are looking to to to repower themas hydrogen or recreate those crafts with hydrogen.
Solar is not really very reliable foryou know, drones and unmanned crafts
might understand me. Anny Bloob,vice president of Ocean Green Hydrogen, which
(10:52):
is a company out of Tampa andone of two behind a project to build
a new clean hydrogen and carbon capturefacility in Mulberry, partnering up with a
Korean firm. Annie Benow, thankyou very much for joining us on Beyond
the News. Thank you Gordon verymuch. Thank you, byebye,
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