As CEO with the Center for Houston’s Future, Brett Perlman has devoted the last five years of his life to "trying to pull together industry and community stakeholders, and others, to work on building a hydrogen ecosystem in and around the Gulf Coast."
Matias Saettone, GM of Hydrogen Products with Chevron, supports Perlman in that quest. Hydrogen is a "critical component" on the road to low carbon, Saettone said. In fact, without hydrogen, "zero carbon is impossible," he added.
Joining Perlman on a panel at the Hydrogen North America 2023 conference, presented by Reuters Events recently in Houston, Saettone also stated that collaboration among stakeholders is equally essential in the effort to get to net-zero carbon.
"There is an old saying that goes, ‘If you want to go fast, go alone. But if you want to go further, go together.’ That’s the philosophy under which we approach this," Saettone said.
Chevron: Hydrogen economy unachievable without broad collaboration
Pictured from left are Matias Saettone, GM of Hydrogen Products with Chevron and Brett Perlman, panel moderator and CEO with the Center for Houston’s Future.
"As you look at these value chains that can help connect supply and demand, we look at different partners across the value chain that can make these a reality," Saettone said. "We recently announced our participation in ACES Delta, our partnership with Mitsubishi Power, which is a very important concept for us."
ACES Delta is an advanced hydrogen production, storage and utilization project that advances lower carbon intensity solutions underway in Utah.
Saettone said Chevron has partnerships not only "on the supply side," but also on the demand side, "which are very important in different sectors like transportation, power generation and industry."
The critical concept behind Chevron’s myriad partnerships is how "everyone can contribute in these value chains that we can make in an economical way," Saettone said, adding that "partnerships with public entities, as well as governments, are also very critical."
Citing social and community considerations, Perlman noted the DOE is interested in not only supporting economically attractive industry projects, but also in making sure that communities benefit from industry’s progress to reach net zero.
"It goes back to the concept around partnership and collaboration," Saettone reiterated. "This has to be a movement for all, so development of the communities plays a critical role."
Both federal and state governments play a vital role in this community collaboration, "enabling policies that will hopefully help jump-start the market," Perlman noted.
"The role of government is critical because, in my view, policy gaps result in economic gaps in these value chains. There is a role in government, and there has been a lot of progress," Saettone said. "But there’s not a single company, a single industry sector or a single country that can organize regulation. We have to work together. This is why it’s also very important for governments to work globally — the United States government working with European governments working with South Korean and Japanese governments in the creation of standards which can be common for all."
This level of collaboration, Saettone said, "can help set clear rules for participation of these value chains, because we also think these can grow into global commodities. If we want to trade ammonia globally, we have to have global standards."
Saettone encouraged regulators to also "focus on the intensity of molecules, not on their colors. Not all blue hydrogen has the same carbon intensity. That is the type of conversation we are having with different governments.
"Again, there’s a lot of work that has to be done together. The important thing behind this work is an open, transparent and very interactive dialogue, because that openness can help us understand what needs the different sectors may have," Saettone concluded. "With that understanding, there is the ability to form policies and regulations that will help incentivize those needs to close the economic gaps."
