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A material 3M has been working on for decades could be key to unlocking cost-effective production of green hydrogen, a promising but expensive renewable fuel source.

The product — 3M nanostructured-supported iridium catalyst powder — was unveiled last month at Climate Week NYC. The powder is used when separating hydrogen molecules from water with renewable electricity, a process known as electrolysis.

Every 10 grams of the powder can help make 10 tons of hydrogen and prevents 100 tons of carbon emissions, said 3M senior research scientist Andy Steinbach. It also reduces the amount of iridium — a rare and expensive metal that trades for $4,000 an ounce — needed for the electrolysis process.

"There's a lot of need to reduce the cost of these systems, and we think we've found a really good solution," Steinbach said. "It's not only an opportunity for 3M but more importantly for addressing climate change."

Green hydrogen is so-called because it is made with renewable energy and does not emit carbon when burned as a fuel source — but it is very costly to produce this way and as such has remained frustratingly out of reach.

"Green hydrogen has all this promise, but it has not come up to scale," said Brian Ross, vice president for renewable energy at the Great Plains Institute. "Changes in incentives and policy … are making a more sustainable business case."

The U.S. Department of Energy has a goal to bring green hydrogen production costs down to $1 per kilogram by the end of the decade — at least an 80% reduction — which would make it as costly or even cheaper than conventionally produced hydrogen. The recently passed Inflation Reduction Act has a $3 per kilogram tax credit that is expected to jump-start green hydrogen production.

"It worked with solar and wind," Ross said of government incentives for clean energy. "We'll see in the marketplace how different technologies play out."

3M's catalyst powder is still in the early stages of commercialization, and the Minnesota-based company is working with the Department of Energy to bring it to market. Globally, green hydrogen is expected to grow ten-fold to a $4.3 billion industry by 2026 as producers scale up.

"There's a lot of momentum in this market," said Tim Yamaya, a corporate entrepreneur at 3M Ventures. "We can solve for some of those pain points that are preventing scale, and manufacture it right here in the U.S."

Most hydrogen used today is made from natural gas ("gray" hydrogen), diminishing its positive environmental attributes. "Blue" hydrogen seeks to capture carbon emissions when it is made from natural gas.

CenterPoint Energy and Xcel Energy, Minnesota's largest natural gas providers, have launched green hydrogen pilot projects that put the gas into existing pipelines alongside natural gas — though existing infrastructure and appliances could not handle a switch to 100% hydrogen.

"This high-value and limited fuel really needs to be paired with that 10-15 percent of the economy that would be very hard to decarbonize otherwise," said Margaret Cherne-Hendrick, senior lead for innovation and impact at Fresh Energy.

Those uses include energy-intensive industries like steelmaking, ammonia production for fertilizer and transportation — or even in fossil fuel refining itself, where a majority of industrial hydrogen is used.

The International Energy Agency estimates ambitious adoption could eliminate the use of 14 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year and 360,000 barrels of oil per day by 2030.

"We need to be very careful where we are pairing green hydrogen with end uses across the economy, and whenever possible we should be co-locating production with consumption," Cherne-Hendrick said. "It is still resource-intensive, with high needs for water and electricity."

Last year saw the first demonstration of steel produced using green hydrogen, and a fleet of trains running on hydrogen cells has recently begun operating in Germany.

"As someone who has been in this space for a long time, it's heartening to see the momentum," Steinbach said.

The root invention behind the catalyst powder came from a 3M scientist's work in the 1980s, Steinbach said, and about a decade ago its use in electrolysis was discovered.

If the powder can help substantially bring electrolysis costs down, green hydrogen can continue its climb.

"Cost is one of the key barriers," Steinbach said. "We're seeing a lot of progress made toward that barrier."

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Emergency management officials say six of the 10 victims in a floatplane crash in Puget Sound have been recovered and five have been identified. The Seattle Times reports Island County Emergency Management deputy director Eric Brooks confirmed Friday that four additional victims had been identified along with 29-year-old Gabby Hanna, whose body was found shortly after the Labor Day weekend crash near Whidbey Island. Officials are still working to identify the sixth victim. Brooks didn’t name the identified victims and said the coroner would be meeting with victims’ families. Officials also are investigating whether human remains that washed ashore at Dungeness Spit nearly two weeks after the crash is the seventh victim.

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The bodies of some of the 10 victims and most of a floatplane that crashed in Washington state’s Puget Sound earlier this month have been recovered. The Seattle Times reports Island County Emergency Management confirmed Thursday that multiple bodies were recovered, but officials weren't yet able to confirm the number. National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy said Thursday that about 80% of the plane, including the engine, was recovered and brought to the surface using remotely operated vessels. Recovery efforts started Tuesday in a shipping channel near Whidbey Island. The Sept. 4 flight was traveling from San Juan Island to suburban Seattle when it crashed.

A University of Idaho memo warning staffers not to refer students to abortion or birth control providers has placed the school at the center of a debate over First Amendment rights and access to reproductive health care. But UI Provost Torrey Lawrence says the school was just trying to protect employees from punitive state laws. One of the laws bars the use of state funds to promote or endorse abortion or emergency contraception. Another makes it illegal for non-health care providers to advertise abortions or birth control. It's not clear exactly how the laws apply to the rest of Idaho's approximately 900,000 state employees, or if they affect others who get state funds like foster parents.

WASHINGTON — Federal officials warned that Russia is working to amplify doubts about the integrity of U.S. elections while China is interested in undermining American politicians it sees as threats to Beijing's interests.

Federal authorities have issued a warning about a part of the tail in the type of seaplane that crashed in Washington state’s Puget Sound last month, killing 10 people. The Seattle Times reports that the Federal Aviation Administration issued an emergency airworthiness directive concerning Otter seaplanes. It warned of potential cracks and corrosion in a part called the elevator, a movable surface of the horizontal tail that controls the plane's pitch. The newspaper reported the warning was not the result of the investigation into the Sept. 4 crash off Whidbey Island. The directive said officials received “multiple recent reports” of cracks in that particular part.

As awareness grows around the world about the problem of food waste, one culprit in particular is drawing scrutiny: “best before” labels.

LOS ANGELES — Judy Tenuta, a brash standup who cheekily styled herself as the "Goddess of Love" and toured with George Carlin as she built her career in the 1980s golden age of comedy, died Thursday. She was 72.

Authorities have confirmed the identities of seven people whose bodies have been found after the crash of a floatplane that killed 10 people in Washington's Puget Sound last month. KING-TV reports the Clallam County Coroner’s Office confirmed the identity of remains found washed ashore at Dungeness Spit Friday as Patricia Hicks of Spokane Valley. Island County Emergency Management says her body is one of seven recovered since the crash. Officials also on Friday said the bodies of Jason Winters, Sandra Williams, Ross Mickel, Luke Ludwig and Rebecca Ludwig were recovered during the National Transportation Safety Board’s recovery operation in September. Gabrielle Hanna's body was recovered Sept 4. The bodies of Joanne Mera, Remy Mickel and Lauren Hilty remain missing.

Planned Parenthood officials on Monday announced plans for a mobile abortion clinic — a 37-foot RV that will stay in Illinois but travel close to the borders of adjoining states that have banned the procedure since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade earlier this year.

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