A new FortisBC hydrogen production program also captures carbon in the form of synthetic graphite
FortisBC is well known for its advancement of low-carbon energy strategies, and the Canadian energy provider’s latest program, the first of its kind in North America, will produce zero-carbon hydrogen in Port Moody, British Columbia.
The pilot project—a partnership between FortisBC, Suncor Energy and Hazer Group Limited—will use methane pyrolysis technology to produce hydrogen from natural gas, a method associated with lower life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions than other hydrogen production techniques that use natural gas.
Producing no carbon when burned, hydrogen is considered an important part of the transition to a cleaner, low-carbon energy system. A recent study found that the potential for hydrogen production in British Columbia could exceed 200 petajoules by 2050, roughly enough to replace current natural gas volumes.
“We were the first company in North America to offer renewable natural gas to our customers, so we’ve been looking at how we can reduce our carbon footprint since about 2008,” David Bennett, FortisBC’s director of renewable gas and lowcarbon fuels, told American Gas. “We see hydrogen as just another way of doing that.”
Though several methods of producing hydrogen exist, making it in a way that is economical—or in a way that actually captures the carbon—is very difficult. According to Bennett, the FortisBC project introduces iron ore to methane in an oxygen-deprived reactor to create hydrogen and capture solid carbon in the form of synthetic graphite. That graphite could later be sold for manufacturing or industrial use, potentially lowering emissions in those sectors.
“We’re looking for opportunities for what to do with the carbon, but even if it has no value, the hydrogen itself would be useful to us,” Bennett said.
A small prototype reactor is expected to go into service in 2023. If continued to commercial build-out, the plant would be expected to go online in 2025 and produce up to 2,700 metric tons of hydrogen per year, which is enough to replace the equivalent annual natural gas usage of approximately 3,300 British Columbia households.
The project is being funded directly from the partner companies and by the provincial government’s CleanBC Industry Fund, which supports innovative solutions for industry greenhouse gas emissions.
