An innovative clean hydrogen production facility is coming to Alberta
August 28, 2024Nu:ionic Technologies and HybriGenix Futures are collaborating on a new project.
Natural gas turbines are broadly used throughout Alberta’s power sector, but this may soon change due to a recent collaboration between Nu:ionic Technologies and HybriGenix Futures Inc., which is to result in an innovative clean energy and hydrogen production facility in the Canadian province.
This facility will address the decarbonization challenges faced by the power industry.
The clean power and hydrogen production facility will be a demonstration project that will showcase the integration of Nu:ionic’s Teal Hydrogen™ technology. The technology features the Nu-X Smart Reformer SM with gas turbine power production solutions.
Teal Hydrogen™ is yet another hydrogen “color”. This H2 color has been introduced by the New Brunswick-based company and represents creating cleaner hydrogen fuel from natural gas using a combination of electrical equipment and carbon capture.
The collaboration between Nu:ionic and HybriGenix became official after the companies signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). According to a recent news release, the collaboration aims to show “a feasible and scalable approach for pre-combustion carbon capture” that leads to a substantial drop of greenhouse gas emissions in relation to generating energy by using hydrogen to power gas turbines.
Key points about the hydrogen production project.
The gas turbine power production plant will be located on a 146-acre site near Edmonton and will utilize advanced hydrogen ready gas turbine tech with a combined energy generation capacity of 100 MW of electricity.
The hydrogen production demonstration facility will use the Nu-X Smart Reforming tech, which is capable of generating 1,200 kg a day of high purity hydrogen and utility integration into the energy generating unit.
The initial blend rate of the produced hydrogen as fuel for HybriGenix’ gas turbine will be up to 8%, with HybriGenix also planning to eventually diversify the energy generation at its site to include renewables.
A promising solution to the decarbonizing challenge.
The project can help repurpose existing gas turbines to function on hydrogen blends, allowing for continued use of infrastructure that still has value. The solution also offers a practical transition path for energy producers seeking to meet environmental regulations that grow ever stringent.
Ultimately, the project is meant to provide a proof-of-concept for a new generation of “flexible” clean power plants that can aid in the balancing of electrical grid infrastructure that is relying on intermittent renewable energy sources more and more.
In the long run, Nu:ionic and HybriGenix expect to expand their collaboration, with the goal of fully decarbonizing the power generated on site by increasing the blend rate of hydrogen. The aim is to boost hydrogen production capacity up to 96 tons daily and capture up to 200,000 tons of associated CO2 annually.
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So, basically hydrogen from methane with carbon capture, although the means for carbon capture, which is probably the hardest part is not explained. It sounds like they’ll be producing hydrogen from a reformer and capturing the hydrogen from that, rather than just burning it in a turbine and capturing the the CO2 in the exhaust – looks complex and thus less efficient. Still requires methane as the input, with all of the issues of methane losses to atmosphere between well and power generator. Is this really geen (or should I say ‘teal’)?