The idea of producing cleaner hydrogen to rid the world of fossil fuels is gaining traction in the most unlikely places: Alberta, home to the infamously dirty tar sands.
Best known for energy companies that have been blacklisted by the Church of England for their emission-intensive crude, Canada’s oil-rich province has attracted a growing group of researchers and entrepreneurs betting that the The region’s vast resources can make it one of the largest suppliers of hydrogen. And they are about to gain support from federal and local governments.
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As countries seek to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, hydrogen is emerging as a potential solution for hard-to-decarbonize sectors like industrial processes and freight. The heavy goods vehicles of the Schlumberger Ltd. oil service. and Baker Hughes Co. are already making forays into space. Europe plans to increase its capacity to produce renewable hydrogen six-fold by 2024. Japan, China, Korea and Australia are seeking to increase the use of this fuel.
Canada has the potential to become a major exporter of hydrogen and shed its reputation as a global warming offender. The fact that this vision is starting to gain traction in the heart of the country’s oilfield shows just how much the global energy transition is taking center stage with increasing pressure from consumers and investors – although it is still unclear how many. time it will take for cleaner sources to have sufficient scale to replace crude and other fossil fuels.
“If we turn our natural gas into hydrogen, then it’s now part of the long-term future of energy,” said Jackie Forrest, executive director of the ARC Energy Research Institute in Calgary. “There is no need to decrease our production because we have found a new product with increasing demand.”
For oil sands producers, it’s more about long-term survival than saving the planet. If they use hydrogen to reduce emissions, it could ensure they continue to have a market for their crude and funding from environmentally conscious investors. Canadian Natural Resources Inc., Cenovus Energy Inc. and MEG Energy Inc. are all committed to achieving zero net emissions from their operations. For Alberta, a hydrogen industry would strengthen the province against wild swings in crude prices like the current stock market crash caused by the pandemic, as well as the prospect of lower oil consumption.
“Hydrogen could be a lifeline for Alberta’s oil and gas industry,” said Simon Dyer, deputy CEO of the Pembina Institute, an environmental think tank. “Alberta has put in place many building blocks to compete in this space and develop a thriving hydrogen economy.
Alberta’s advantage may lie in its plentiful supply of fuels that hydrogen is supposed to replace. The province is ahead of the game and already produces about 5,000 tonnes of hydrogen per day to power its petroleum refining complex. The province also has 31 trillion cubic feet of conventional natural gas reserves that can be converted to hydrogen, as well as large underground geological formations to store emissions from this process.
A Calgary-based startup says it has found a way to avoid emissions altogether and produce gas at a fraction of current costs. Proton Technologies has patented a method of igniting an oil well and using a palladium alloy filter in the wellbore that traps carbon emissions in place while allowing pure hydrogen to s ‘flow to the surface.
This would solve one of the problems with hydrogen: while fuel burns cleanly, current production generates considerable pollution. To deliver around 70 million metric tonnes in a year, global hydrogen producers send 830 tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere, roughly the annual emissions of the UK and Indonesia combined, according to a report by 2019 from the International Energy Agency.
Proton is testing its zero-emission technology at a well in Saskatchewan that could produce up to 20 tonnes of hydrogen per day this fall, CEO Grant Strem said in an interview. A facility the company aims to build over the next two years could produce 500 tonnes per day at a cost of about 10 cents Canadian (7.6 cents) per kilogram, compared to $ 1 to $ 3 per kilogram for the current method. the cheapest, he said.
“As far as I know, this is the only route that can lead to the production of hydrogen on a gigajoule basis which is cheaper than natural gas,” Strem said.
Proton has had discussions with some oil producers who want to license the technology so that they can use hydrogen, instead of natural gas, to create the steam which they inject underground to flow to the surface of the heavy oil sands crude. Potential financial partners have approached Proton to finance the purchase of old oil wells to convert them to hydrogen production, Strem said.
Canada can already produce the cheapest hydrogen in the world after Russia, according to a 2018 study by the Asia-Pacific Energy Research Center which names the two countries as major potential exporters.
Alberta also has an extensive network of pipelines that can be used to transport fuel. Today’s gas pipes can circulate with up to 20% of their streams being hydrogen, and many home heaters could handle increased amounts of hydrogen, providing a ready market for fuel and a quick way to reduce. carbon emissions.
The Canadian Energy Systems Analysis Research Initiative, a program linked to the University of Calgary, is developing two hydrogen-powered trucks that will transport goods between Canada’s oil capital and Edmonton from the end of next year. The vehicles will use Ballard Power Systems Inc. fuel cell engines and hybrid electric drives from Nordresa Motors Inc., Praxair Inc. providing refueling services.
The aim is to prove the feasibility of hydrogen as a fuel for trucks and to help give producers another market.
“We see heavy freight transport as a bit of a key tenant in the Hydrogen Mall,” said David Layzell, the professor who runs the program.
Certainly, Canada’s nascent hydrogen industry will need a big boost before it becomes more relevant, and the federal government has said it is developing a national hydrogen strategy to be announced in the months. to come up. Alberta, which is also working on a hydrogen development plan, has so far committed a meager Can $ 10.8 million ($ 8.2 million) in project funding, including the mix of the element in a segment of the Atco Gas & Pipelines Ltd. distribution network. new method of converting natural gas to hydrogen developed by Ekona Power Inc. of Vancouver
But even if plans announced by Ottawa and the province take investment to a much higher level, using hydrogen to help power a low-carbon economy would require an entire global infrastructure to store and move it. , production costs drop dramatically and the amount of CO2 that its production emits must be significantly reduced or even eliminated altogether.
Time will tell if Proton and other startups are on the cusp of this change.
– With assistance from David Wethe, Sam Hall and David R Baker