Newsroom

Emily Houston photo in the middle of the print version of women in asphalt january 2024 Asphalt Pro article

Meet a Woman of Asphalt: Modern Hydrogen’s Emily Houston

Emily Houston has been instrumental in developing and deploying Modern Asphalt as an engineering technician at Modern Hydrogen, Bothell, Washington. Emily has worked on developing Modern Hydrogen’s material characterization capabilities and asphalt products. This has included designing/performing experiments at various scales, creating new asphalt product integrations for multiple product categories, authoring lab standard operating procedures, and leading Modern Hydrogen’s asphalt lab safety program. Houston has a background in laboratory research with GC-MS, LC-MS, and TLC practices, and years of laboratory management experience. In her free time, Emily enjoys watercolor painting, cooking and video games. Modern Hydrogen CTO and Co-Founder Max Mankin describes her as a world-class problem-solver. “Her technical skills, willingness to troubleshoot problems without giving up, and eagerness to learn new things have enabled the creation of this revolutionary product,” he said.
Blue background with bold white lettering for Seattle Inno+ Logo

Seattle Inno picks 24 startups to watch in 2024

Our news team has selected 24 startups poised to keep making headlines this year. Read why Modern Hydrogen is a startup to watch!
future of green hydrogen podcast art with tony pan's photo

The future of green hydrogen

EPISODE SUMMARY In this episode, the hosts speaks with the CEO of Modern Hydrogen, Tony Pan, about green hydrogen production and sequestering carbon in roads. EPISODE NOTES Topics: Tony’s background- Stanford, Harvard, Goldman, Gates Foundation, WEF, Fellow/EIR, Modern Hydrogen What made Tony want to start Modern Hydrogen and take on such an audacious task What’s wrong with infrastructure and permitting today, in relation to our climate goals What Modern Hydrogen Does today Distributed Pyrolysis at the source Built environment solutions- sequestering carbon in asphalt and the business round it Potential for carbon negative hydrogen production The changes we need to hit our climate goals
mothusi holding example asphalt going into public roads

San Antonio becomes first city to use Modern Asphalt on public roads

Behind a pair of orange barricades on Old Fredericksburg Road, a small crowd of local stakeholders gathered this week to watch what seemed like an ordinary pothole repair job. Cameras flashed as a public works crew took turns pouring buckets of asphalt into potholes and smoothing it over with large brooms. But this wasn’t just any repair job: Instead of using traditional asphalt, the crews used asphalt mixed with solid carbon – in what project leaders say is the first demonstration of using sequestered carbon on public roads. “This is a demonstration that the rest of the country is going to look to,” said Mothusi Pahl, Modern Hydrogen’s vice president of business development and government affairs.
eu portal story image jpeg

The Potential of America’s Natural Gas Delivery System in Decarbonization Efforts

Dedicated hydrogen infrastructure offers further possibilities. This can involve the construction of pure hydrogen pipelines or innovative approaches that minimize the need for new infrastructure. Modern Hydrogen, for instance, employs a pyrolysis process that converts natural gas into hydrogen at the point of use. This efficient method enables utilities to skip extensive infrastructure changes and instead add a specialized box that removes carbon from the natural gas, leaving clean hydrogen for end-users. The removed carbon can even be sequestered in roads, providing an all-around sustainable solution. Improving energy efficiency is a vital aspect of decarbonization. Tightening the gas delivery system and promoting energy-efficient homes can significantly reduce energy consumption. American gas utilities are already investing $4.2 million per day in programs that facilitate energy-efficient upgrades and appliances, particularly for lower-income customers. These initiatives not only support decarbonization but also alleviate the financial burden of energy costs for vulnerable communities. In the pursuit of decarbonization, America’s gas utilities are exploring various pathways. The diverse range of options available ensures that all ideas can be tested, allowing individual utilities to adopt approaches that align with their unique systems and customers. By harnessing the potential of the natural gas delivery system, significant progress can be made towards a more sustainable and decarbonized energy future.
blue and green logo

Leveraging Existing Gas Infrastructure for Decarbonization

Dedicated hydrogen infrastructure can take two forms. The first is new infrastructure, such as pure hydrogen pipelines from hydrogen hubs to industrial customers. There are other projects in the work that minimize how much new infrastructure is needed, while maximizing the utility of existing infrastructure. One company working in this space is Modern Hydrogen, which uses a process called pyrolysis to convert natural gas into hydrogen at the point of use. The value proposition is summed up well by a quote from Tony Pan, CEO and Co-Founder of Modern Hydrogen: “Our biggest value is speed of decarbonization, because we can skip infrastructure changes. Instead of changing all their pipes to become compatible with pure hydrogen, utilities can add our box at the end of the pipe, and the box strips out the carbon (C) as a solid out from the natural gas (CH4) molecules, leaving only clean hydrogen (H) for the end user. Then we sell and permanently sequester that solid carbon in roads.” The proposition that the easiest way to transport hydrogen is to simply transport natural gas instead is an intriguing one. Lindsey Motlow, a Senior Research Associate and Physicist on the Sustainability and Energy Transition team with Darcy Partners, effectively summarizes many of the potential advantages of this approach and the progress being made on implementing it. “The Preliminary Acceptance test and implementation of Modern Hydrogen’s methane pyrolysis technology with Northwest Natural represents a pioneering milestone with distributed pyrolysis technology directly integrating with an operating gas system. Methane pyrolysis produces what is known as “turquoise” hydrogen; it is a hydrogen production pathway with the potential of low-to-negative carbon intensity. This hydrogen production method takes advantage of existing asset bases and workforces by use of hydrocarbon feedstock. Given the engineering and cost hurdles associated with large scale hydrogen production, storage, and transport, the commercial maturation of distributed “turquoise” hydrogen presents a compelling solution for on-site decarbonization, especially to customers connected to existing natural gas infrastructure.”
biz journal image used jpg

Clean energy company Modern Hydrogen to move HQ out of Bothell

The hydrogen heating startup, which rebranded from Modern Electron in May, plans to complete the move to its new HQ location during the first quarter of 2024.
science news logo

Explainer: The hydrogen rainbow

Turquoise hydrogen also comes from natural gas. But this H2 is split from methane’s carbon atoms in a different way. It’s known as pyrolysis. Here, high heat breaks down methane into H2 and solid carbon. The solid carbon would not go into the air. So it would not add to global warming. And the carbon could be used for other things, like making tires or parking lots. Pyrolysis can be done in an industrial setting as natural gas comes into a facility. So it wouldn’t need new pipelines, says Mack Hopen. He’s at Modern Hydrogen in Bothell, Wash. There, he works to get turquoise hydrogen into commercial markets. However, there would still be some methane leaks from getting methane to an industrial plant. And the process still is costly. But some say the technology could act as a bridge from fossil fuels to a H2 economy. A team at the Max Planck Institute in Mülheim, Germany, shared that view in 2021.
Contractors test workability

Wash. Company Captures Carbon from Natural Gas for Building Roads

A Washington company says it has developed a way to capture carbon from natural gas and use it to make asphalt to build roads. Modern Hydrogen uses a process called methane pyrolysis that produces clean hydrogen out of methane and captures the carbon from that gas before it reaches the atmosphere. Methane, which is four parts hydrogen and one part carbon, is the largest component of natural gas. The captured carbon is a solid carbon byproduct called “carbon black” that can be used as binder in hot-mix asphalt, cold patch and asphalt sealers, the company says. The carbon-captured asphalt has already been used for sealing an asphalt parking lot in Portland, Oregon, and for paving a driveway with hot-mix asphalt in Seattle (see the video at the end of this story). The product has also been used in private parking lots and driveways in California, New Mexico, Florida and in Alberta, Canada, the company says. Road Recyclers, an Austin, Texas-based designer of asphalt binders for the road recycling industry, has signed on to be “the first to incorporate carbon stripped from natural gas in public roads,” according to Modern Hydrogen. Road Recyclers has been testing Modern Hydrogen products and says it is now ready to begin field trials with partner municipal and state transportation agencies.
EE LEader logo black background

Amazon, ExxonMobil, EQT Among Companies to Get Hydrogen Hub Money

“Modern Hydrogen is thrilled to see a broad collection of hub approaches, regions, and companies, including ourselves, be selected by the Department of Energy to continue building out the hydrogen hubs,” said Mack Hopen, commercialization manager at Modern Hydrogen. “The Hubs are a crucial first stage of development for the hydrogen economy, and this investment by the Energy Department will help make that happen,” he added. “As these plans become reality, we are excited to be able to put our mission into practice — making energy cleaner and cheaper. But, the Hub model is not the end-all-be-all solution. The majority of prospective hydrogen users are located outside these geographic areas, and our distributed pyrolysis approach will ensure that they can still get affordable, clean hydrogen without being located at or near one of these Hubs.” The company uses methane pyrolysis to decarbonize natural gas, which is abundant and cheap in the United States. That process splits the hydrogen and the carbon. In other words, natural gas is 80% hydrogen, and the focus is on removing the one pesky carbon atom. The technology heats natural gas to 1,000 degrees Celsius without oxygen. That allows Modern Hydrogen to crack the natural gas and decarbonize it, thus isolating the carbon atom — not burning it and sending it to the atmosphere. That avoids 10 gigatons of CO2 yearly. Public and private enterprises have invested millions of dollars in this technology, which former Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz applauds. It’s called turquoise hydrogen because it mixes blue and green. Blue hydrogen occurs when the carbon is captured and buried, and green hydrogen refers to using wind or solar power to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen. The primary focus is on producing clean hydrogen for the hard-to-decarbonize industries or things that cannot quickly electrify. That applies to planes, trains, ships, and long-haul trucks. Electric generators can also run on a blend of hydrogen and natural gas.
biden makes annoucement at a podium in front of Biden Investment signs

US announces $7 billion in hydrogen hub funding

The administration is funding several different hydrogen production technologies, an approach backed by Tony Pan, co-founder of the methane pyrolysis start-up Modern Hydrogen. “So far, the government deserves a big kudos for how they’re supporting clean hydrogen. Instead of picking winners and losers directly, most of the incentives are technology agnostic,” Pan says. Some hubs will use water electrolysis powered by renewable or nuclear energy, some will upgrade biomass or waste into hydrogen, and some will pair fossil fuel-derived hydrogen production with carbon capture.
Nik Sears wears safety gear and welds work for Modern Hydrogen's technology

How Utilities Might Decarbonize And Avoid A Climate Breakdown

Tony Pan came to the United States from Taiwan in 2004 to study physics at Stanford University before getting his Ph.D. in the same subject area from Harvard University. Now, the 37-year-old is the chief executive of Washington State-based Modern Hydrogen, making energy cleaner and cheaper with a formula endorsed by a former U.S. energy secretary and Microsoft Founder Bill Gates. We’ll get into that in a moment. But utilities have invested in and bought the technology — a potentially humongous market in the pilot phase. The chief executive says it will go commercial in 2025 and gradually scale up. “Right now, it is like Tesla in 2008,” CEO Pan told me in a virtual interview. “Utilities are the target audience, which serve millions of customers — residential and business. They have pressure to reduce carbon emissions. Otherwise, they could do nothing. They want to switch to hydrogen because it burns cleanly. It is about decarbonization — quickly and at scale.”