White paper by ERA and Alberta Innovates analyzes the province's hydrogen export opportunity

Source: | · EMISSIONS REDUCTION ALBERTA · | April, 2023

ERA and Alberta Innovates have co-written and published a white paper titled Hydrogen as an Alberta Export Opportunity: Gap Analysis. The paper is authored by ERA's Grace Meikle, Murray Gray (Alberta Innovates), and Dave Van Den Assem (Alberta Innovates).  

Some key takeaways include:

• Hydrogen and ammonia present promising export opportunities for Alberta, but trade-offs must be considered between energy delivery efficiency, lifecycle emissions, and cost. 

• Ammonia looks more promising than liquid hydrogen if it can be used directly instead of being converted back to hydrogen near point of end use (e.g., coastal power plants in Asia Pacific).

• To make ammonia and hydrogen truly 100 per cent net zero fuels across their lifecycles, emissions from upstream production and processing of natural gas in Alberta must be addressed.

• Significant gaps remain in export infrastructure and stakeholder engagement before Alberta will be able to export these fuels; some initial efforts in this area are underway.  

Hydrogen as an Alberta Export Opportunity: Gap Analysis was published during the 2023 Canadian Hydrogen Convention in Edmonton. Meikle, ERA's Technology Strategy Lead, spoke to the findings at the conference’s Technical Courses Program.