German multinational Thysenkrupp has won the contract to build and operate a huge hydro-electrolysis facility in Quebec, which will use one of the world's most powerful electrolyzers to produce some 11,100 metric tons of green hydrogen annually.
Canada's mountainous terrain offers exceptional opportunities for clean hydroelectricity generation, and the country has worked to maximize its advantages. Some 61 percent of the country's total electricity generation comes from hydro plants totaling some 82 GW of production capacity, and this country of just 37.5 million people ranks fourth in the world in total hydro production, trailing only the USA, Brazil and China.
Now, it's looking toward hydrogen. Government-owned power company Hydro-Quebec, the biggest energy producer in the country, has commissioned a CAD200 million (US$159 million) electrolysis plant in Varennes, near Montreal, which will use hydroelectricity to power a giant electrolyzer, converting water into 11,100 metric tons of green hydrogen and 88,000 metric tons of oxygen a year.
This will not initially be for export; the 88-MW plant's output will supply clean energy and oxygen to a nearby recycling plant, where it'll be used to convert non-recyclable waste into biofuels instead of sending it to landfill.
But eventually, Canada hopes plants like this can convert its enormous hydro potential into a clean energy export business, powering tomorrow's fuel cell vehicles and aircraft, feeding into more integrated hydrogen economies and industrial use cases, and selling as a feed stock from which carbon-neutral synthetic fuels can be manufactured.
Hydro-Quebec says it's also looking into green H2 as a potential bulk energy storage medium, although that'll present some challenges – we wonder if it'd be more efficient to simply plonk the water back up the hill with a pumped hydro energy storage system.
The new hydro-electrolysis plant is due to be commissioned in 2023.
Source: Thysenkrupp
I think the main support for a hydrogen economy is from people who think they can form a new monopoly to exploit. Battery technology has less fixed assets (pipelines, pumps, etc) to form a strong monopoly on. Before I went offgrid, my electrical bill was mostly charges for infrastructure, administration, and so forth.
Are we seriously thinking never there will be any leaks/ruptures of hydrogen gas tanks (which could easily cause massive explosions)?
& why we need hydrogen exactly?
All kinds of (light) gasoline vehicles are already well on their way to become fully electric!
& all kinds of heavy trucks & trains & ships & agriculture/construction/mining/military diesel vehicles could easily switch to biodiesel fuel (which maybe produced from many kinds of industrial/agricultural/forestry waste & maybe even from trash & sewage)!
(& biodiesel could be easily turned to jet fuel!)
Hydrogen is not only used as a power source in electric vehicles, or as a source for electricity, but can also be used for iron ore reduction, and steel manufacturer, both as reduction agent as well as energy source for the process. Giving truly green steel. It can be used to replace natural gas in heating.
In fact in ten years time, the world will need about 10 to twelve times as much hydrogen as what is currently manufactured.
There is nothing wrong with old plastic and wood products in landfills. It is a form of carbon sequestration. This "progress" makes me want to cry.
As for the waste of water, most of this runs off to the ocean and is recycled as rain and snow which ends up back where it started. The extra oxygen could be used to supply hospitals, who in times of respiratory viruses like covid-19 need all they can get.
When hydrogen is used it combines with oxygen to produce heat and recombines as water so back to it's original state.