Ontario Construction News staff writer
The federal and Alberta governments have signed an agreement with Air Products Canada to build a $1.3-billion hydrogen plant near Edmonton.
“This is a very concrete step toward one of the first facilities that will help make Canada, Alberta and Edmonton global leaders in growing the clean hydrogen sector,” said Francois-Philippe Champagne, minister of innovation, science and industry.
Air Products Canada operates three hydrogen facilities in Alberta and one in Ontario. According to a news release from the company, the new deal is “subject to final completion of the agreements contemplated in signed memorandums of understanding between Air Products and Canadian authorities, and with appropriate permit approvals.”
“We will be working out details of potential support and incentives for this project,” said Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, adding that Air Products has received $15 million from the province’s carbon levy through Emissions Reduction Alberta.
Air Products CEO Seifi Ghasemi, based in the company’s Pennsylvania head office, praised the federal and provincial politicians.
“I can’t think of a better place to invest our money for the long term than Canada,” he said. “You are leading the world in the vision for energy transition.”
If built, the plant would produce hydrogen-fuelled electricity and liquid hydrogen for transportation. It could be running by 2024 and would create about 2,500 jobs in the construction and engineering phase, said Rachel Smith, the company’s Canadian general manager.
Air Products would take natural gas produced in Alberta and remove 95 per cent of the carbon. That carbon, in the form of carbon dioxide, would be injected underground using already existing infrastructure. Its own operations would be carbon neutral.
It is estimated that the new plant would capture three million tonnes of CO2 yearly and produce 1,500 tonnes of hydrogen a day.
At least one environmental group called the proposed plant “greenwashing.”
“Rather than prioritizing renewable energy and putting Canada on a pathway to net-zero emissions, public funding is being put towards finding new revenue streams for oil and gas companies,” Environmental Defence wrote on Twitter.