Hydrogen technology key to reaching net-zero emissions targets: U of C report
Hydrogen will play a critical role in Canada's goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050, according to two reports from the University of Calgary released on Thursday.
The reports explore how energy produced from hydrogen can be used to help bridge today's fossil fuels-based systems and complement renewable power sources like wind and solar.
"We know now that energy efficiency is a key strategy, clean electrification is a key strategy, but they're not enough together," Chris Bataille, an industrial decarbonization specialist and one of the reports' authors, told CTV News Edmonton.
"We know we need to switch to other fuels and biofuels and a couple of other things," he said. "But hydrogen is a key strategy as well."
Bataille said hydrogen can do a lot of the same things natural gas can, but can be made using two clean methods.
"You can make it from methane and bury the CO2 underground, or you can make it from clean electricity using electrolysis."
The Simon Fraser University adjunct professor said Alberta industries like chemical production, fertilizer production and upgrading of crude oil would be the first practical applications for hydrogen technology.
"But eventually you want to start thinking about taking it into the electricity sector," said Bataille. "Blending it with natural gas in the combustion turbines that are used to make electricity and eventually completely switching them."
ALBERTA ADVANTAGES
One of the two reports that were co-authored by Bataille states that "Alberta has many advantages that make hydrogen feasible as a pathway to decarbonizing its power grid."
"First, the steam and combustion turbines that are powered by natural gas today to produce electricity in Alberta can be adapted to use hydrogen. Second, Alberta has vast amounts of natural gas that can be used to produce hydrogen, and ample geology for underground carbon capture and storage for the greenhouse gases emitted in producing hydrogen," the report reads in part.
"And third, in periods where the province’s renewable energy sources produce excess electricity, that power can be used to produce hydrogen, which can be stored for later use when renewable energy is less available."
In June, a major hydrogen production company, Air Products Inc., signed a memorandum of understanding with all three levels of government to invest $1.3 billion to build a net-zero hydrogen energy complex just east of Edmonton.
The site would produce hydrogen-fueled electricity and liquid hydrogen for international markets.
According to Air Products Inc., if all goes to plan, the "landmark" site would be operational by 2024.
PROVINCIAL PROJECTS
Last year, the Alberta government released its plan "to become a global supplier of clean, responsibly sourced natural gas," with its Natural Gas Vision Strategy.
The province's strategy includes the goal of exporting hydrogen globally by 2040.
"Absolutely critical in my mind to a clean and stable transition for Alberta and Saskatchewan is get your fugitives under control," said Bataille.
"It's the methane that's leaking at the well, that's leaking from the pipelines, that's being flared and incompletely combusted."
Bataille pointed out that methane that is not combusted is a 30 to 100 times more powerful greenhouse gas than CO2.
He said the process of reducing methane emissions is labour intensive but technically speaking easily done.
"One of the key things the Alberta government could get into right away, probably fairly uncontroversially, is to dramatically reduce those fugitives."
With files from CTV News Edmonton's Amanda Anderson
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Lanny McDonald and a few old Flames take the Stanley Cup on a surprise visit to the man who saved his life
The Stanley Cup was passing through town Friday, and Lanny Legend took it upon himself to take it for a surprise visit.
Bathroom break nearly derails $22 million project at city council meeting
A brief break during Wednesday's city council meeting in Saskatoon nearly cost the city dearly.
Chad Daybell sentenced to death for killing wife and girlfriend’s two children in jury decision
Jurors resumed deliberations Saturday on whether a man should be sentenced to death after being convicted days earlier of the murders of his wife and his girlfriend’s two youngest children in Idaho.
Robert Pickton stabbed with toothbrush and broken broom handle: victim's family
The family of one of Robert Pickton's victims says the convicted serial killer suffered an incredibly violent death at the hands of another inmate.
Father who killed one-year-old son with axe may be allowed to travel in southwestern Ontario
A Mennonite father who killed his one-year-old son with an axe may be allowed to travel to parts of southern Ontario in the coming months
'It feels like freedom': Why some Albertans like going nude in nature
Few people can say they accidentally purchased a nude beach — but Shelley can. When she saw a piece of land she could fondly remember camping on was up for sale, she inquired about it and ended up purchasing it. She soon found that there were already inhabitants on it.
This Calgary home has a giant tree in the middle, and it's for sale
There's a luxury 'tree home' for sale in Calgary.
China lands spacecraft on the moon amid growing space rivalry with U.S.
A Chinese spacecraft landed on the far side of the moon Sunday to collect soil and rock samples that could provide insights into differences between the less-explored region and the better-known near side.
Pedestrian dies after being hit by train in Brockville, Ont.
Brockville Police says a pedestrian has died following a collision with a train that was heading to Toronto.