Mitsubishi Corporation and Shell Canada Limited have signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the production of low-carbon hydrogen in Alberta, Canada. The production will be undertaken using carbon capture and storage (CCS) in the region of Edmonton, which was announced as Canada’s first hydrogen hub earlier this year.
The low-carbon hydrogen facility will be built by Mitsubishi Corporation close to the Shell Energy and Chemicals Park in Scotford. The location has been chosen due to the availability of rich natural gas resources and well established CO2 storage capacity. Locating the facility close to Shell’s facility will also enable the companies to explore shared infrastructure opportunities and create synergies in land use and integration with utilities. The project is expected to be built towards the latter half of this decade, keeping communication with all stakeholders as key priority throughout the development of the facility.
Shell is likely to deliver CO2 storage through the proposed Polaris CCS project. Contingent on the final go ahead for investment in the project, Polaris CCS would have the capacity to provide storage for over 10 million tons of CO2 each year. The low-carbon blue hydrogen would be produced via steam methane. The first phase of the project has a target to yield approximately 165,000 tons of hydrogen per annum. As ammonia is an efficient hydrogen-carrier, the hydrogen would be converted to low-carbon ammonia for export to Asian markets. It will primarily be exported to Japan, to facilitate the country to meet its clean energy targets.
REGlobal’s Views: Many large companies across the globe are partnering to develop massive hydrogen facilities and capture large market shares in various geographies. Oil and gas companies that have ready transport infrastructure are undertaking large projects in order to export hydrogen to emerging markets.
