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LONDON, Aug. 25, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The U.S. government has announced a proposed $7 billion (for starters) on desperately needed breakthroughs in clean hydrogen production. The Department of Energy's (DoE) biggest bet is on nuclear power plants, which they are hoping to convert into North America's premier clean hydrogen producers.  Companies mentioned in this release include:  Ballard Power Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: BLDP), Plug Power Inc. (NASDAQ: PLUG), Linde plc (NYSE: LIN), Shell (NYSE: SHEL), BP (NYSE: BP).

Those billions of dollars are being poured into technological innovation, lowering costs and scaling up the production of clean hydrogen, including through the use of nuclear power plants in New York, Ohio, Minnesota and Arizona.

For now, the majority of hydrogen in the United States is produced by natural gas reforming in large central plants—an important step in the energy transition. The end goal, however, is to produce hydrogen without creating carbon emissions, and that's what the federal government's $7billion spend is all about.

At four nuclear plants across the country, scientists are trying to perfect a process called 'electrolysis' to create pure, clean hydrogen. The process involves splitting water into pure hydrogen and oxygen using high temperature electrolyzers.  For now, however, the process is prohibitively expensive and energy intensive.

That could make this recent breakthrough all the more significant …