HOUSTON — The Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) announced on Friday, Jan. 10, 2025, that Port Houston was awarded nearly $25 million in grant funding as part of a public-private collaboration between Port Houston and Linde Inc. (Linde), a leading industrial gases company, with additional partners GTI Energy, Argonne National Laboratory, and Center for Houston’s Future.
This award will be used to construct and operate a hydrogen fueling station for heavy-duty trucks, a news release stated.
The project Bayport HRS will result in an innovative pipeline-based Hydrogen Refueling Station (HRS), which is supposed to offer high fueling throughput with accessible fueling options, further enabling supply chain development in Texas and the Gulf Coast region. Linde will design, construct, own and operate the new facility, creating a cost-effective heavy-duty (HD) truck hydrogen fueling station in Bayport, Texas.
“The project will be a coordinated public-private collaboration between the public agency leading the most important and busiest port in the United States (Port Houston), a major industrial leader in HRS and hydrogen supply (Linde), a worldwide leader in energy innovation (GTI Energy), a non-profit with extensive experience in energy transition in Houston (Center for Houston’s Future, CHF), and a global leader in modeling hydrogen delivery infrastructure (Argonne National Laboratory, ANL),” a news release stated.
The project supports the port’s Sustainability Action Plan and goal of net-zero emissions by 2050. It also reportedly aligns with national strategies for transportation decarbonization and clean hydrogen.
“The Houston Ship Channel is the busiest waterway in the nation,” said Port Houston CEO Charlie Jenkins. “As one of the channel’s leading advocates, Port Houston is committed to fostering sustainability, resilience, collaboration, and quality of life for the community and nation we serve.”
“Partnering with Linde, one of the largest hydrogen producers in the world and owner of a major pipeline complex that serves the Houston region, is in line with the Port’s strategy of engaging the Houston Ship Channel industry on projects that benefit the community, promote sustainability, decarbonization, and clean transportation” said Port Houston Chief Infrastructure Officer Rich Byrnes. “This project exemplifies Port Houston ‘walking the talk’ of sustainability and Net Zero. Port Houston’s sustainability roadmap and grants strategy is about accelerating and de-risking business decisions supporting decarbonization and energy transition.”
“Linde welcomes the opportunity to work with Port of Houston to develop key hydrogen infrastructure and support the future decarbonization of heavy transport in Texas,” said Richard Minter, President Hydrogen Mobility, Linde.
“We look forward to working with our partners, contributing Linde’s extensive experience, world-class technology and network of hydrogen production assets.” “The Houston/Gulf Coast’s regional clean hydrogen economy continues to gain momentum, including with announcements such as this,” said Brett Perlman, managing director at the Center for Houston’s Future. “We are excited to be part of this important work to build out a clean hydrogen transportation network. This is also another great example of collaboration among business, government and community to get things done.”
“Hydrogen has tremendous potential to reduce emissions in hard-to-abate sectors like heavy-duty trucking,” said Kristine Wiley, Vice President, Low Carbon Energy Solutions, GTI Energy. “The Bayport HRS project demonstrates how collaboration and innovative infrastructure can accelerate hydrogen’s integration into a low-cost, low-carbon future. We look forward to contributing to this project, leveraging the Houston area’s energy resources to drive tangible progress in decarbonization, energy security, and economic resilience.”
A goal of the collaboration is to support the U.S. National Blueprint for Transportation Decarbonization, the National Zero-Emission Freight Corridor Strategy, and U.S. National Clean H2 Strategy and Roadmap.
Last year, the port’s grants team reportedly secured nearly $57 million in grant funding.
“With this $25 million grant award, Port Houston’s highly effective grants program is off to a strong start in 2025” Jenkins concluded.
Source: Port Houston
