Federal Reserve and Alberta Government to Fund New Blue Hydrogen Energy Complex

tomtidgewellNovember 8, 2022

The Government of Alberta is contributing $161 million from the Alberta Petrochemical Incentive Program and an additional $15 million through technology, innovation and emissions reduction programs funded by the project’s carbon tax on industrial emitters .

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November 8, 2022 • 17 minutes ago • Read in 3 minutes • join the conversation

Air Products Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Seifi Ghasemi speaks with reporters in Edmonton on Monday, November 7, 2022. Photo by David Bloom /post media

Federal and provincial governments are investing $476 million in alignment with a new blue hydrogen energy facility in Alberta’s Industrial Heartland.

The funding is for the first phase of a $1.6 billion blue hydrogen facility by US-based multinational Air Products, hailed as an opportunity to make Edmonton the center of Western Canada’s hydrogen economy. I’m here.

Air Products CEO Seifi Ghasemi said: Post-media interview.

“The hydrogen that we are making is really the energy of the future. We are very focused on expanding our business to

The Government of Alberta is contributing $161 million from the Alberta Petrochemicals Incentive Program and an additional $15 million through the Technology, Innovation and Emissions Reduction program funded by the project’s carbon tax on industrial emitters.

$300 million will come from the federal Strategic Innovation Fund, first announced in June 2021. The original price was $1.3 billion. Mr Ghasemi said prices have risen due to new technology to make the facility net-zero emissions.

Goal of net zero emissions

Cheap to produce, blue hydrogen is made from natural gas using carbon capture and storage. The Air Products facility aims to capture 95% of its carbon emissions. To be what the company calls net-zero, it needs to offset 5% of the carbon it emits, use hydrogen to generate “clean power” for the facility, and feed extra power to the grid. , compensates for the carbon put into the facility, Ghasemi said. air.

Air Products has been in the hydrogen business since the 1960s. Ghasemi said the facility, which will be built at the Aurum Industrial Park north of Yellowhead adjacent to Sherwood Park, will be the first in the world to use this kind of technology that has been in development for many years.

“We are very excited not only for the technology, but also for building and developing a hub in Alberta to expand our facilities and provide added value,” he said.

Ghasemi said the company has an “aggressive schedule” to open the facility by the end of 2024. Once operational, he is proposed to generate 1,500 tons of hydrogen production per day and achieve more than 3 million tons of carbon capture per year. .

The complex is also expected to create 2,500 construction and engineering jobs and ultimately provide liquid hydrogen for fuel.

“When we liquefy hydrogen, we can use liquid hydrogen to replace everything that currently uses diesel fuel or gasoline. says Mr.

“Some argue that hydrogen can also be used in passenger cars … but I think a more practical application would be buses and trucks, which cannot be electrified because of the manageable size of the batteries required to power passenger cars.” But having a battery to power a 10-meter truck is cumbersome, so we have to use hydrogen.”

The next step in the project is to break ground and bring the facility into operation.

“By that time, about two or two and a half years from now, we hope to be able to look further ahead in terms of additional demand and execute Phases 2 and 3 of the project,” Ghasemi said. increase. .

“It is clear that by that time, we had built a liquid hydrogen plant and installed hydrogen fueling stations at various locations to use the liquid hydrogen as fuel for our trucks.”

ajunker@postmedia.com

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