Jan 24, 2006
Company makes strides in solar hydrogen project
The Saskatoon StarPhoenix
Paul Hanley
A demonstration project that aims to make environmentally-friendly
hydrogen from the environmentally-damaging methane produced in
Regina's landfill is the latest project for Saskatoon's Solar
Hydrogen Energy Corporation (SHEC Labs).
In 1996, SHEC Labs began developing technologies to produce hydrogen
using solar energy. Making hydrogen with solar is a kind of Holy
Grail of alternative energy and many were skeptical it could be
done economically. Whether it can be remains to be seen, but SHEC's
technology appears to be gaining credibility.
SHEC Station No. 1 at the Regina landfill will feature the world's
first commercial-scale renewable solar hydrogen "Dry Fuel
Reformation" (DFR) reactors. The project, which received the
unanimous support of Regina's city council in December, will
benefit from $2 million in funding from Sustainable Development
Technology Canada (SDTC), a federal foundation that supports green
technologies. The facility will cost $6 million, including $1.9
million from the City of Regina.
Abundant and clean burning, hydrogen is often touted as the fuel of
the future. Currently, it takes more energy to separate hydrogen
from source materials like water, methane, gasoline or natural gas
than burning the resulting hydrogen produces. However, if "free"
solar energy can be used to strip the hydrogen from parent
materials, a net energy gain would be achieved. What is more,
hydrogen burns without producing greenhouse gases and air
pollutants.
SHEC has found a catalyst that makes it possible to produce hydrogen
at lower temperatures, which they hope will eventually make
solar-powered production feasible. SHEC's consortium partners,
including Giffels Associates Limited (Ingenium), a major Integrated
Consulting, Design-Build, and Asset Management Company, Clean 16
Environmental Technologies Corporation, and University of Toronto
Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry, recognize
the potential of the technology.
According to information on the Giffels website, the current market
for hydrogen is about 42 billion kilograms per year and growing.
Hydrogen is used primarily in ammonia fertilizer manufacturing, for
hydrogenation in the food and beverage industry, and in petroleum
refining to reduce the sulpher content of fossil fuels.
Hydrogen can also be used as a fuel. When consumed by a fuel cell,
its only significant emissions are water and heat. It can also be
burned directly as a fuel, and the Saskatchewan Research Council
has produced the world's first hydrogen-powered trucks.
Most hydrogen is produced today by Steam Methane Reformation (SMR)
of fossil fuels such as oil, coal, and natural gas, a process that
releases massive amounts of carbon dioxide and other pollutants to
the atmosphere. The SMR process results in a net energy loss of 30
to 35 per cent when converting methane into hydrogen, since a great
deal of fossil energy or electrical power is required to operate
the process.
Hydrogen is also produced by electrolysis, a process that uses
electricity to convert water into hydrogen and oxygen. Although
electrolysis itself can be quite efficient in converting
electricity into hydrogen, the electricity used for electrolysis is
often primarily generated from fossil fuels. Therefore,
traditional hydrogen production methods result in a net increase in
air pollution and are highly inefficient from an energy conversion
perspective.
Solar hydrogen production provides a net energy gain when converting
methane into hydrogen, since the energy used to drive the process
is from the sun. Since SMR is not typically cost-effective at small
to moderate production levels, SHEC's DFR technology is
particularly attractive for smaller and distributed hydrogen
production, such as the project proposed for Regina.
Tom Beck, President and CEO of SHEC Labs, says SHEC Station No. 1 in
Regina will have the capacity to produce 1.2 million kg of
renewable hydrogen per year and will prevent 81.1 kt of carbon
dioxide equivalent emissions from entering the atmosphere every
year for over 40 years.
SHEC reports that a prototype solar hydrogen generator it has
operated for about 1,200 hours has had no noticeable coking or
degradation of the catalysts. Hydrogen production is near the
theoretical maximum at about 66 per cent in the product gas stream
with a 98.2 per cent mol conversion of the feed methane.
For more on SHEC's technology visit www.shec-labs.com
