UW Releases New Publication Exploring Production of Low-Carbon Hydrogen from Wyoming Coal

Researchers at the University of Wyoming have published a new modeling study exploring the production of low-carbon hydrogen by using Wyoming’s coal resources.

Published in the peer-reviewed journal Energy Conversion and Management, the article, titled “Unlocking Wyoming’s coal resources for low-carbon hydrogen production,” finds that supercritical water gasification of coal with carbon capture can produce low-carbon hydrogen at a competitive cost, with the Powder River and Green River basins as the strongest candidate sites.

Gisella Mena Terán, a UW Ph.D. student in chemical and biomedical engineering, was the lead author of the piece, along with UW authors Haibo Zhai, the Roy and Caryl Cline Distinguished Chair in Engineering and a Wyoming Excellence Chair in the Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering and Construction Management; Randolph Pfeiffer, a professor of practice in the Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering; and Occidental Chair in Energy and Environmental Technologies Saman Aryana, who serves as associate dean for the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences and a professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering.

Bryan Medina-Rodriguez of Yachay Tech University in Ecuador also contributed to the study.

“This study provides a unique blueprint for how Wyoming can bridge its energy heritage with a low-carbon future,” says Aryana, who also serves as Mena Terán’s adviser. “By utilizing supercritical water gasification, we aren’t abandoning our state’s abundant coal resources; instead, we are transforming a legacy asset into a foundational feedstock for cutting-edge, low-carbon hydrogen production.”

Funded through a Phase 2 proposal request from the School of Energy Resources’ Hydrogen Energy Research Center, the initiative promotes and facilitates research on hydrogen production and transportation among current UW faculty members and researchers, with applications in Wyoming.

The study further identifies Wyoming’s Powder River and Green River basins as the strongest candidate regions for low-carbon hydrogen production due to their abundant coal feedstocks, existing transport infrastructure, access to carbon dioxide pipelines, enhanced oil recovery opportunities and high geologic carbon dioxide storage capacity. The modeled supercritical water gasification of coal with carbon capture system achieves an energy efficiency of 42 percent, remains electrically self-sufficient and identifies temperature as the most critical factor for maximizing hydrogen yield.

Environmentally, the integration of carbon capture reduces the carbon footprint by about 70 percent while, economically, the process delivers hydrogen at a competitive cost, though still higher than natural-gas-based blue hydrogen. Federal tax credits can further reduce the modeled cost, with the study finding that the 45Q carbon storage credit provides a strong economic benefit.

As a natural extension of the coal gasification study, work within the research group will continue in the Green River Formation on oil shale samples, which Mena Terán will lead in characterizing to assess their potential as a hydrogen feedstock. That future work will adapt the broader analytical framework established in the coal study to evaluate other regional energy feedstocks.

“Gisella has done an extraordinary job demonstrating how cutting-edge engineering can address real-world energy challenges,” Aryana says. “The framework she established in this paper can readily be adapted to other regional energy feedstocks, offering Wyoming’s research community an invaluable tool to map out and accelerate the state’s broader research initiatives."