US oil giant Chevron’s New Energies division has announced the development of a 5MW solar-to-hydrogen production project in California’s Central Valley.

The project aims to create lower-carbon energy by utilising solar power, land and non-potable produced water from Chevron’s existing assets at the Lost Hills oilfield in Kern County. 

According to the company, the low-carbon-intensity electrolytic hydrogen will be produced through electrolysis, which uses electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen.

Thermal procedures used for hydrogen production generally involve steam reforming, a high-temperature process where steam reacts with a hydrocarbon fuel to generate hydrogen. Hydrocarbon fuels such as natural gas, diesel, renewable liquid fuels, gasified coal or gasified biomass can be reformed to produce hydrogen. According to the US Department of Energy, approximately 95% of all hydrogen in the US is currently produced through steam reforming of natural gas.

“Hydrogen can play a vital role in our journey toward a lower-carbon future,” said Austin Knight, vice-president for hydrogen at Chevron New Energies. “Chevron already offers lower carbon fuels like sustainable aviation fuel, renewable diesel and others, and this project is expected to expand the portfolio of solutions Chevron could supply to the region.”

The project is estimated to take several years to develop. The company said the commencement of commercial operations will rely on supportive legislative and regulatory energy policies, final engineering design, timely permitting and acquiring the necessary materials.

“However, our ability to meet growing hydrogen demand and help build hydrogen fuelling infrastructure in California to a commercial scale with more widespread adoption will be strongly led by state and federal energy policies that promote new lower-carbon energy solutions,” Knight added.

Chevron seeks to achieve a hydrogen fuel production capacity of 150,000 tonnes annually through this project. The hydrogen fuel will cater to industrial, power and heavy-duty transportation customers.

“This project will help develop key technical and commercial proof points as Chevron New Energies assesses concepts for future scale-up and new lower-carbon-intensity hydrogen production opportunities,” said Richard Chapman, president and CEO of Kern Economic Development Corporation.

Currently, California law requires at least one-third of all hydrogen produced or dispensed by refuelling stations that receive state subsidies to be renewable hydrogen. The California Assembly Bill 1550, proposed by US democratic assembly member Steve Bennett, aims to increase this requirement to 100% by 2045, with no set targets in between. 

The bill also proposes that all hydrogen produced and used for power generation and transportation in the state should be made through electrolysis, using newly built renewable or biomass-fired power. This effectively means that producing and using blue and grey hydrogen made with fossil gas will be banned in those segments by 2045.