Beyond The Bridge

The ultimate objective of climate-change policy is to stabilize the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at a level that will “prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the earth’s climate system”. To achieve this goal, the world must decarbonize the global energy system and reduce carbon emissions to a “net-zero level” as quickly as practical, and in no event later than 2050.

This global transition to a low-carbon economy (LCE transition) will require much more than replacing fossil fuels with renewable sources of energy. It will require the complete transformation of the electric power, transportation, industrial and building sectors.

If the LCE transition is to be successful, we must acknowledge two important realities. First, the LCE transition is not one, uniform transition, but a collection of many different transitions, each with its own starting point, unique obstacles to overcome and pathway to success. Second, how quickly a country (or region within a country) decarbonizes its energy system will depend on how successful the country/region is in mitigating the risks the LCE transition poses to its economy, its energy security and its ability to provide affordable energy to its citizens (transition risks). Each country/region must develop a decarbonization strategy based on its own circumstances and tailored to address its most pressing transition risks.

What makes the Beyond the Bridge Strategy unique is that it is a collaboration of environmental, economic development, natural gas and capital market participants with a common objective: to decarbonize the region’s natural gas resources and transform the region into a global manufacturing center based on advanced manufacturing technologies, circular economy principles and low-carbon energy.  

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The core concept of the Beyond the Bridge Strategy is to capture and retain the value of the region’s natural gas resources for the benefit of the region’s economy, and transition the methane-based energy source to a hydrogen-based energy source.  Instead of exporting its low-cost, low-carbon energy to China, India and other global demand centers, the region would retain its “energy advantage” and bring the demand to them; demand in the form of “reshored” manufacturing jobs.

The Beyond the Bridge Strategy will utilize several complimentary decarbonization technologies, but a strong focus will be on methane pyrolysis. Methane pyrolysis is a technology that splits methane into hydrogen and solid carbon (there is no CO2 to deal with).  By producing two marketable products (hydrogen and solid carbon), the net cost of producing hydrogen is reduced and the carbon (in the form of graphite, carbon fibers, and other carbon-based products) can be used as a low-cost feedstock in advanced manufacturing applications. 

Another advantage of the methane pyrolysis technology is that pyrolysis units can be installed anywhere (e.g. the LDC city-gate). This flexibility will allow the US to utilize a large portion of its existing natural gas infrastructure and dramatically reduce the cost of the LCE transition.

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