News & Reviews News Wire Bakken Energy announces alliance with BNSF Railway

Bakken Energy announces alliance with BNSF Railway

By Trains Staff | January 5, 2023

| Last updated on February 6, 2024


BNSF to join the Heartland Hydrogen Hub design team

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BISMARCK, N.D. – Bakken Energy, a developer of affordable clean hydrogen, announced a memorandum of understanding with BNSF Railway to collaborate on the design of the Heartland Hydrogen Hub. In collaboration with the states of North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Montana, Bakken Energy is working on the design of the Heartland Hydrogen Hub, a regional clean hydrogen hub competing to obtain federal funding through the Department of Energy’s $7 billion Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs program as part of the larger $8 billion hydrogen hub program funded through the bipartisan infrastructure law. Bakkan Energy is working toward clean hydrogen production using natural gas that would otherwise be flared, including carbon capture and sequestration (flaring is the controlled combustion of volatile hydrocarbons and venting is the direct release of natural gas into the atmosphere, typically in small amounts).

“It is a privilege to be partnered with BNSF,” Bakken Energy Founder and Chairman Steve Lebow says in a news release. “Railways could play a critical role in distributing our clean hydrogen production, and could also be consumers as railroads transition from diesel. BNSF is the ideal partner to work out the role of railways in our Heartland Hydrogen Hub.”

“Part of the equation is production, but the other part is distribution and that’s where BNSF will be invaluable. Being able to transport our hydrogen by rail would dramatically reduce our distribution costs and therefore the cost to consumers,” says Bakken Energy CEO Mike Hopkins.

“We see our work with Bakken Energy and the Heartland Hydrogen Hub as part of our commitment to a more sustainable energy and transportation system, including exploring the role railways can play in a hydrogen economy,” says John Lovenburg, Vice President of Environment and Sustainability at BNSF.

5 thoughts on “Bakken Energy announces alliance with BNSF Railway

  1. This activity is the reason why and example of how the stock portfolio of Berkshire Hathaway continues to soar.

    1. Especially when the economics don’t make any sense. If it’s not economic to collect gas from the wells where it’s being flared how would it be economic to collect it for ‘green’ hydrogen? People mistakenly think hydrogen is a source of energy. It’s not, it’s only a means of transmitting energy from a real energy source (natural gas, solar,…) because pure hydrogen doesn’t exist in nature (hydrogen atoms/molecules are too reactive).

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