See also:

Hydrogen Information Webpage

Governments of Canada and Saskatchewan invest in hydrogen production pilot project at the University of Regina

Western Economic Diversification

Enterprise Saskatchewan

Leader-Post: $2.7M for hydrogen plant

The Canadian Press: University of Regina gets hydrogen plant, researches fuel applications (at Winnipeg Free Press)

The federal and provincial governments announce new funding to commission a new hydrogen production pilot plant at the University of Regina...

 

Clean burning, and producing only water vapour as a byproduct, hydrogen is considered the ideal fuel to replace fossil fuels like gas, coal, and oil.  However, switching from fossil fuels to hydrogen presents a number of challenges.

For starters, hydrogen (H₂) does not occur in free form on earth. It must be produced by separating it from other substances, called hydrogen carriers, such as water or hydrocarbons like fossil fuels.  

Separating H₂ from its carriers requires a lot of energy.  Essentially, there are two ways to accomplish the separation – the application of heat or electricity. 

When electricity is used, in a process called electrolysis, the energy to produce the electricity is expensive, and unless a clean energy source is used, such as hydroelectric, wind, or solar power, the process generates greenhouse gas emissions, reducing the environmental savings gained from using the clean-burning H₂ produced. 

Of course, in areas where hydroelectric power is available, the production and use of hydrogen through electrolysis as a clean energy alternative, though somewhat expensive, is achievable. But there are many parts of the world, including Saskatchewan, that do not have ready access to sufficient and reliable clean energy sources such as hydroelectric power.  

However, new hydrogen production technology developed by University of Regina researchers offers the ideal solution to hydrogen production in fossil fuel-reliant areas like Saskatchewan.  This breakthrough technology utilizes a newly developed catalyst to help transform hydrogen carriers into H₂. The catalyst does part of the work that normally requires a significant amount of heat, reducing the amount of energy it takes to produce hydrogen.  But what is truly exceptional about the new catalyst is that it works with almost any sort of feedstock. 

“For the first time, we are able to build a single hydrogen production plant that is able to convert nearly any type of feedstock into hydrogen.  We do not need separate plants for different types of feedstock, and we do not need to disrupt the plant operations to switch between different types of feed sources,” explains Dr. Raphael Idem, the lead developer of the new technology.

In addition to fossil fuels such as natural gas, bio-based feed sources such as biofuel, biomass, crude ethanol, fusel oils (higher alcohols like propanol, butanol, and pentanol), and glycerol can also be used.  The benefits of using these bio-based sources are two-fold. Firstly, many of them are waste products or byproducts from other industrial processes that are often difficult to dispose of. Secondly, as renewable resources, they represent a means of actually reducing CO₂ in the atmosphere.  The process can also convert waste gas such as the biogas produced from landfills into hydrogen, making it an ideal means of managing the greenhouse gas emissions created from such sources.

An additional benefit of the new technology is that it will enable H₂ plants to be built on a smaller scale, allowing cities and small communities to produce H₂ from local feedstocks and use it to supply local transportation and heating fuel and to generate electricity locally.  “This represents an important step in creating sustainable, distributed energy supplies in the future,” concludes Idem.

The new catalyst and H₂ production process were developed by Dr. Raphael Idem of the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science and his research team, including Dr. Hussameldin Ibrahim, also of the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, and Dr. Ataullah Khan, as well as their graduate students. 

The federal and provincial governments have announced that the team will receive $2.7 million in funding through the Western Economic Partnership Agreement (WEPA) to build a pre-commercial pilot plant that will serve not only as a testing facility but also as the first working prototype of the new H₂ production plants that are projected to reach commercialization within the next two years.  The pilot plant will be housed in the University of Regina’s Greenhouse Gas Technology Centre, which also houses the International Test Centre for CO₂ Capture.

For more information about the technology, how it works, its benefits, and other related research, development, and services, visit www.uregina.ca/engineering/hydrogen.