Hydrogen and Carbon Capture

ARCH2  (Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub) 

Have you heard about the industry’s new plans to continue to frack for gas in the region, this time using the cloak of “clean hydrogen” to mask the truth? We have recently learned of a new threat – not just to Appalachia, but the entire state and region – the Appalachian Regional “Clean” Hydrogen Hub (ARCH2 is the term that they are using). The industry scheme was first proposed in 2023. They want to create hydrogen from fracked gas (methane), and use it to do various things like power hydrogen fuel cell buses and heat homes. Which areas would be impacted?

  • Needed frack pads, pipelines, compressor stations, and carbon capture and storage wells (class VI wells) all across the state and region, including Appalachian Ohio, where most of the fracking takes place.
  • Facilities in various stages of development would be located in Boston Heights, Ohio near Canton, Ashtabula, and Etna and North Randall, Ohio. 
  • Additionally, SARTA (Stark Area Regional Transit Authority) in Canton will utilize hydrogen in their fleet of buses (fuel cell buses are ridiculously expensive, while electric buses are less expensive and cheaper to operate). 
  • Injection wells would be needed and those are cited across Ohio.

This “clean” hydrogen scheme is a wide-arching, uneconomic, unhealthy, and polluting nightmare that would affect all of Ohio in one form or another, and ultimately the earth’s climate.

What can you do about it? 

Carbon Capture and Sequestration

There is a nation-wide push to inject massive, unprecedented volumes of industrial carbon dioxide (CO₂) beneath our homes and communities using carbon capture and sequestration (CCS). In order for the industry to create hydrogen as fuel, they would need to utilize CCS, however CCS is promoted to be used for a variety of technologies. Make no mistake, the whole process poses serious risks to human health and the environment and raises questions about economic viability, and it isn’t a solution to our carbon problem.

Companies claim they will capture carbon emissions from heavy emitters like power plants and other industrial facilities, then pressurize it, and inject it deep underground. They allege that the carbon dioxide, an asphyxiant, will remain secured underground indefinitely. However, the feasibility of successfully containing these carbon waste streams presents a spectrum of serious risks at not just the final sites of injection, but also in the transportation process. As other communities have learned, the hazardous stakes of an accidental blowout or explosion are just too high.

Read the letter that was sent to all Ohio legislators on Feb. 13th, 2025 by 13 Ohio groups. 

 

Technical issues related to CCS

CO₂ needs to be pressurized to 1000 PSI, transforming it into a supercritical fluid, wherein it is then injected into Class VI wells. CO₂ storage has to be monitored indefinitely and can induce earthquakes and cause groundwater to become acidified as CO₂ combines with H₂O to react and form carbonic acid (H₂CO₃). Pipelines can rupture and release concentrated gases at ground level, making it harder to breathe and risking acute incidents of mass community asphyxiation. 

CCS has also been proven to be ineffective and noncompetitive at scale, maintaining an 80% failure rate for projects seeking commercialization. Across the US, tens of thousands of miles of carbon dioxide pipelines would need to be built and would cost hundreds of billions of dollars. Carbon dioxide gas must also be purified before entering pipes or it will cause corrosion. 

Critically for Ohio, the very geologic formations that have been targeted for carbon injection wells are already overburdened and under immense pressure from approximately 300,000 previously drilled oil and gas wells that have been accumulating on top of each other for more than a century. Considering all the joints, faults and fractures that also exist, abandoned and improperly plugged wells could act as conduits through which injected carbon could leak or migrate between geologic formations. If allowed to migrate, pressurized carbon could impact already precarious groundwater supplies, threatening nearby communities and other aspects of the local economy that are reliant on stable sources of groundwater.