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Company Overview
Solar Hydrogen Energy Corporation (SHEC) is based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan Canada, and was incorporated in 1996. Since that time, its mandate has been to develop and commercialize hydrogen production technologies that can take advantage of renewable energy sources and dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions at costs competitive with conventional hydrogen production.
SHEC began with a theoretical breakthrough in 1996. Tom Beck, the founder and CEO, devised a theory for a process for the commercial scale production of hydrogen from water using sunlight. With this breakthrough, enough interest was generated to incorporate the company.
In 1998, SHEC constructed the required components of a complete 250KW demonstration solar simulator, and proved that water could be split at high temperatures. This process exposed problems such as extreme high energy inputs to attain the temperatures required as well as material problems caused by these high temperatures. By 2000, the company developed a catalyst that lowered the temperature at which these reactions occurred, and by October of that year the improved process was verified by Wardrop Engineering in Saskatoon.
In 2001, Giffels Associates Limited had conducted an independent validation study on the bench scale unit of the entire process train. The study showed that the technology could be successfully scaled up 100 times from the lab study, and that hydrogen could be produced.
By 2002, SHEC made advancements with proprietary design and electronics that dramatically reduce costs. This would allow the company to competitively harness solar energy for applications such as large-scale distillation, power generation and solar thermo chemical hydrogen production. SHEC also developed a catalytic process for the dry reformation of methane into hydrogen, and by December had signed a financial participation agreement with the Canadian Federal Government, Department of Natural Resources Canada to further enhance the catalyst.
In 2004, SHEC completed long term testing on its "Dry Fuel Reformation" technology in conjunction with its anti-coking fuel reformer. After nearly 1,000 hours, test results showed that the entire process was operating at 96% of theoretical conversion efficiency. SHEC then designed and built the first solar reactor and in Phoenix, Arizona successfully demonstrated that hydrogen can be produced from methane (Natural Gas) using a mirror array to concentrate the sun's rays to generate the temperatures required to drive the reaction.
By the end of 2004, SHEC had announced some significant strategic partnerships:
Giffels Associates Limited
Giffels Associates
has joined the project as the Engineering Firm of Record, and will provide project management and engineering and architectural design services.
Clean 16 Environmental Technologies Corporation
Clean 16 will design the gas cleaning systems for the project, and work with the University of Toronto would also provide research assistance related to the cleaning and separation of landfill gas that will be used for hydrogen generation.
The University of Toronto Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry
The University of Toronto has agreed to provide laboratory facilities and assist with research.
With the addition of these companies to the process train, SHEC is currently negotiating potential partnerships with SaskEnergy as a source of natural gas, and the City of Regina for the use of their landfill as a demonstration site.
In October 2005, SHEC was approved for a $2 million grant from Sustainable Development and Technology Canada to support a portion of the Regina Fleet Street landfill solar hydrogen project. The company has completed an Offering Memorandum that will allow for private investment and raise the capital necessary to begin building a demonstration facility at the Fleet Street Landfill in Regina, Saskatchewan .
SHEC in 2007 formed additional associates with other universities and partners to diversify its Solar Concentrator and Solar Receiver technologies for the production of other alternative fuels, electricity and district heating for green communities.
SHEC in 2008 has received expressions of interest from around the world for the use of its technology for the production of hydrogen from biomass, the potential production of other fuels, electricity and for industrial and district heating for green communities.
