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Road worker repaves road with steam, Encino Drive, Oak View, California. (Photo by: Joe Sohm/Visions of America/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

A Bothell carbon-capture company is changing the way we pave roads

A Bothell-based company, Modern Hydrogen, is on the leading edge of finding a cost-effective way to turn natural gas emissions into clean-burning hydrogen. Modern Hydrogen said they have engineered a way to take carbon out of natural gas in order to create decarbonized gas, which releases significantly less carbon dioxide into the atmosphere when burned. Company co-founder Tony Pan explained removing the carbon from the fuel itself is a lot easier than trying to capture the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The captured carbon is also a lot more useful than the carbon dioxide, which is mainly just injected into the ground to be sequestered away.
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Clean Hydrogen on Demand

In this episode of Hardware to Save a Planet, Max Mankin, CTO and Co-founder of Modern [Hydrogen], and Mothusi Pahl, Vice President of Business Development at Modern [Hydrogen], join Dylan Garrett to discuss an innovative technology that decarbonizes natural gas use by converting gas to clean hydrogen at the point of use without CO2 emissions. Modern [Hydrogen] is a cleantech company focused on heat and hydrogen. Its first solution decarbonizes gas use by converting customers’ gas to clean hydrogen onsite without CO2 emissions. Its second solution provides efficiency by transforming heat into power, saving money, reducing carbon footprint, and providing resiliency in blackouts.
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He Raised $100 Million From Bill Gates And Other Top Investors To Unleash The Power Of Clean Energy By Harnessing Hydrogen

In this captivating episode of the Dealmakers’ Podcast, we embark on an extraordinary voyage with Tony Pan, a visionary entrepreneur determined to combat climate change through groundbreaking technology. From his early days growing up as the son of a Taiwan Navy officer to founding Modern Hydrogen, Tony’s journey has been nothing short of inspiring.
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Decarbonizing natural gas

Modern Hydrogen strips carbon from natural gas, preventing those molecules from becoming carbon dioxide. Called “pre-combustion carbon capture,” this technology can be paired with existing gas networks to decarbonize them at stages upstream during gas transmissions, at utility gate stations, or directly at an operator’s point of use. The full article is published in Gas Technology Magazine 2023
Workers in yellow vests stand at NW Natural facility on pavement in a circle wearing white hard hat discussing on-site hydrogen blending.

Flexible Process, Clean Result

Natural gas and air are producing hydrogen in a NW Natural pilot.
Mike shows a bag of sequestered carbon to asphalt workers

Sherwood shows carbon sequestration success

Modern Hydrogen demonstrated the application of a technique that makes road construction and maintenance more cost-effective with a reduced impact on the environment. On the outskirts of the Portland metro area, the road to a cleaner future is being paved… literally. Modern Hydrogen is a leading player in the quest to “sequester avoided CO2 emissions effectively and sustainably in the built environment.” Recently, it demonstrated this application at a customer site for the first time, infusing captured carbon with “hot mix asphalt” [in Seattle] and a pigment sealer in Sherwood, Oregon.
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-and-energy/hydrogen-subsidies-contracts-in-spotlight-as-us-weighs-demand

Hydrogen Subsidies, Contracts in Spotlight as US Weighs Demand

Along with sectors like steel and chemicals, utilities could be a major source of demand given the scale of their distribution networks. But they answer to regulators and rate-payers sensitive to any hike in monthly bills, so hydrogen costs must gradually fall in order for utilities to blend greater volumes, said Ben Wilson, chief strategy and external affairs officer and interim president at National Grid Ventures, a unit of the London-based electric and natural gas utility that operates in New York and Massachusetts. National Grid is exploring hydrogen investments and is partnering with a Seattle-based startup, Modern Hydrogen, that is working on distributed hydrogen production technology that serves to “disrupt us,” Wilson said.
About 85,000 gallons a day of cow manure and food waste flow into the pit at Werkhoeven Dairy in Monroe, Washington. The digester captures methane that powers a generator, producing enough renewable energy for nearly 700 homes. This is an example of one of the uses of hydrogen that can come from RNG.

Tribes and dairy farmers made a model renewable energy program. It’s about to get even better

Tour participants got a close look at a sample of the carbon that will soon be captured at the dairy digester. A Bothell, Wash.-based company called Modern Hydrogen will extract granulated carbon from methane to produce pure hydrogen. “So this technology lets them take that methane that’s getting delivered to them and convert it to hydrogen so that they can burn the hydrogen and then collect the carbon instead of spewing it in the air,” Robinson said. The only emissions from burning hydrogen is water vapor. It’s about the cleanest fuel out there. And methane is just about the dirtiest, before it’s burned. It’s more than 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. The technology comes from Modern Hydrogen, previously known as Modern Electron. The Bothell, Wash.-based company is focused on reducing emissions from biogas, like what Qualco Energy produces from cow manure, within the existing gas infrastructure.
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Hydrogen to decarbonize industry with existing infrastructure

This podcast, powered by the Stanford Hydrogen Initiative, aims to shine some light on top-notch innovators in hydrogen across academia and industry.
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Meet founders to watch from 23 Seattle-area companies

Bothell-based Modern Hydrogen co-founder and CEO Tony Pan guided his company through a $32.8 million fundraise this year. The company makes devices to decarbonize natural gas. These devices work on site and don’t require clients to replace existing pipes. Pan said the company will be shipping a handful of unites out to customers next quarter as a pilot, after which Modern Hydrogen aims to scale up its production.
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Utilities try out new hydrogen production methods, tee up midstream transport

Northwest Natural Holding Co. is preparing to start a project with Modern Hydrogen Inc. — previously known as Modern Electron Inc. — to pilot hydrogen and solid carbon production from natural gas through methane pyrolysis, sometimes called turquoise hydrogen. Northwest Natural is also evaluating another turquoise hydrogen technology under a nondisclosure agreement, Chief Marketing Officer and Senior Vice President for Operations Kim Rush said during a May 4 conference call.
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Tech innovator Tony Pan on making ‘clean’ natural gas: ‘Have your cake and eat it too’

Modern Hydrogen co-founder and CEO Tony Pan discusses the company’s mission to decarbonize natural gas into clean energy.