This 25 passenger crew bus is one of the vehicles powered by a hydrogen fuel cell used at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in a demonstration of hydrogen as an alternative fuel source. (U.S. Air Force photo by J. Brian Garmon)
Canada has the potential to become a top hydrogen exporter and shake off a reputation of global warming offender. That this vision is beginning to gain traction in the heart of the country’s oil patch goes to show how the world’s energy transition is taking centre stage with growing pressure from consumers and investors — even if it’s still unclear how long it will take until cleaner sources will have enough scale to displace crude and other fossil fuels.
“If we turn our natural gas into hydrogen, then it is now part of the long-term future for energy,” said Jackie Forrest, executive director of Calgary-based ARC Energy Research Institute. “There is no need to decline our production because we found a new product that has growing demand.”
For oilsands producers, it’s more about long-term survival than saving the planet. If they use hydrogen to cut emissions, it could ensure they continue to have a market for their crude and funding from environmentally minded investors. Canadian Natural Resources Inc., Cenovus Energy Inc. and MEG Energy Inc. all have vowed to achieve net zero emissions from their operations. For Alberta, a hydrogen industry would buttress the province against wild crude price swings like the current pandemic-driven market crash, as well as the prospect of declining petroleum consumption.
“Hydrogen could represent a lifeline to Alberta’s oil and gas industry,” said Simon Dyer, deputy executive director of the Pembina Institute, an environmental think tank. “Alberta has a lot of the building blocks in place to be able to compete in this space and develop a thriving hydrogen economy.”
Hydrogen Generated From What?
In an ideal world the answer would be from surplus electricity generated from renewable sources and used to electrolyse water to create hydrogen and oxygen with zero emissions. This “green” hydrogen could provide energy for industrial processes, for power generation (largely as a back-up to renewables when the wind is not blowing or the sun not shining) and even for residential and commercial use. Unfortunately, although this outcome would be perfect in theory, the practical reality is that it is highly unlikely to provide sufficient energy by 2050 to be a viable solution on its own.
This is the key argument discussed by Ralf Dickel in this paper on Germany’s hydrogen strategy, which he uses as an excellent case study of the potential future role of hydrogen more broadly. He argues that although the production and consumption of green hydrogen should certainly be a long-term goal, there must be a role for “blue” hydrogen (produced by the reforming of methane into hydrogen plus CO2) as an enabler of a future hydrogen economy. The technology is already available, CO2 storage is becoming more viable and the gradual expansion of hydrogen use can allow new infrastructure to be built that can ultimately be used to enable the development of a green hydrogen business. However, without this interim step the aspirations for hydrogen could falter due to unrealistic expectations based on political, rather than commercial and technical, reality.
Ralf Dickel explores the logic behind this debate in a clear and logical fashion in this paper, and we would recommend it to policy-makers, energy companies and interested observers of the European energy market as a thorough and well-argued analysis of the key issues which need to be addressed if hydrogen is to play a major role in the decarbonisation of the European energy economy.
Home of the oil sands eyes cleaner future as hydrogen superpower
Kevin Orland, Bloomberg News, reports the idea of producing cleaner-burning hydrogen to rid the world of fossil fuels is gaining traction in the unlikeliest of places: Alberta, home of the infamously dirty oil sands.
One Calgary-based startup says it has found a way to avoid emissions altogether and produce the 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 well bore that traps the carbon emissions in place while allowing pure hydrogen to flow to the surface.
That would solve one of the problems with hydrogen: While the fuel burns cleanly, current production generates sizable pollution. To supply about 70 million metric tons in a year, the world’s hydrogen producers send 830 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere, roughly the annual emissions of the U.K. and Indonesia combined, according to a 2019 report from the International Energy Agency.
Canada already can produce the cheapest hydrogen in the world after Russia, according to a 2018 study from the Asia-Pacific Energy Research Centre that points to the two countries as potential major exporters.
Alstom’s hydrogen train Coradia iLint completes successful tests in the Netherlands
The world’s first hydrogen fuel cell passenger train takes its first steps abroad after commercial success in Germany
6 March 2020 – Alstom has performed ten days of tests of the Coradia iLint hydrogen fuel cell train on the 65 kilometres of line between Groningen and Leeuwarden in the north of the Netherlands. The tests follow 18 successful months of passenger service on the Buxtehude–Bremervörde–Bremerhaven–Cuxhaven line in Germany, where total of 41 Coradia iLint have already been ordered. The latest tests make the Netherlands the second country in Europe where the train has proven itself a unique emissions-free solution for non-electrified lines.
Last October, Alstom and the Province of Groningen, local operator Arriva, the Dutch railway infrastructure manager ProRail and the energy company Engie signed a pilot project agreement to test the Coradia iLint, the world’s first passenger train powered by hydrogen fuel cells, in the Netherlands. DEKRA, an independent testing inspection and certification company, has been appointed test leader. This series of tests is being performed at night at up to 140 km/h without passengers. For the purpose of the tests, a mobile filling station has been erected by Engie for refuelling the Coradia iLint with completely green – sustainably produced – hydrogen.
Source: Alberta eyes cleaner future as hydrogen superpower | Carbon & Sustainability | JWN Energy
