Transportation Hubs and spokes: Extending the reach of hydrogen hubs through clean transportation corridors

The policy brief advocates for linking the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs with clean transportation corridors for heavy-duty trucking and marine shipping. It argues that while hubs provide localized production, corridors act as 'spokes' that expand the market beyond industrial off-takers and improve the economic viability of zero-carbon fuels. The author suggests that coordinating these programs will create a synergistic ecosystem, reduce conventional air pollutants in environmental justice communities, and position the U.S. as an exporter of low-emissions ammonia.

• Low-emissions hydrogen and ammonia are essential for decarbonizing 'hard-to-abate sectors' where electrification is either 'commercially impossible or prohibitively expensive', specifically long-haul heavy-duty trucking, marine shipping, and ironmaking.
• The 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) provided $8 billion for the DOE to establish between 4 and 10 Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs to demonstrate production and end-use technologies and reduce costs.
• Clean transportation corridors—including hydrogen-fueled truck routes and ammonia-powered shipping lanes—are necessary to transform isolated H2 Hubs into a network, providing a steady demand base and allowing resources to move between hubs.
• Integrating transportation corridors with H2 Hubs provides demand-side certainty by expanding the market beyond industrial off-takers typically located near production sites and extending geographic reach via 'spokes' like highways and shipping routes.
• The transition to hydrogen-fueled corridors can improve public health by reducing conventional air pollutants from diesel trucking, which 'disproportionately affect environmental justice communities across the country'.
• Initial awardees of the DOE and DOT clean transportation corridors grant program include projects such as the East Coast Commercial ZEV Corridor (CALSTART), the I-80 Midwest Corridor (Cummins Inc.), the Houston to Los Angeles I-10 Hydrogen Corridor (GTI Energy), and the Wasatch Front Multi-Modal Corridor Electrification Plan (Utah State University).
• For the shipping sector, the viability of ammonia-fueled vessels depends on the development of low-emissions ammonia bunkering facilities in both U.S. ports and global markets such as Singapore, Shanghai, Antwerp, Rotterdam, Jebel Ali, and Alexandria.

APA

Lewis, J., & Menke, A. (2023). Transportation Hubs and spokes: Extending the reach of hydrogen hubs through clean transportation corridors. Clean Air Task Force. https://www.catf.us/2023/06/hubs-spokes-extending-reach-hydrogen-hubs-clean-transportation-corridors/

Chicago

Lewis, Jonathan, and Anna Menke. Transportation Hubs and spokes: Extending the reach of hydrogen hubs through clean transportation corridors. Clean Air Task Force, 2023. https://www.catf.us/2023/06/hubs-spokes-extending-reach-hydrogen-hubs-clean-transportation-corridors/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Lewis |first1=Jonathan |last2=Menke |first2=Anna |title=Transportation Hubs and spokes: Extending the reach of hydrogen hubs through clean transportation corridors |publisher=Clean Air Task Force |date=5 June 2023 |url=https://www.catf.us/2023/06/hubs-spokes-extending-reach-hydrogen-hubs-clean-transportation-corridors/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{lewis2023transportation, author = {Lewis, Jonathan and Menke, Anna}, title = {{Transportation Hubs and spokes: Extending the reach of hydrogen hubs through clean transportation corridors}}, institution = {Clean Air Task Force}, year = {2023}, month = jun, url = {https://www.catf.us/2023/06/hubs-spokes-extending-reach-hydrogen-hubs-clean-transportation-corridors/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }