Quebec set aside in its last provincial budget $152.4 million over five years to stimulate the production and distribution of hydrogen and biofuels. The Quebec strategy, expected any day now, should promote the regional deployment of these fuels, which have one goal in mind: to rid industries that cannot be electrified of their excessive dependence on oil.
Fossil fuels are responsible for the majority of Quebec’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. They are present in road, rail and maritime transport. They are also widely used in the mining sector, in metallurgy and in other heavy industries which are often at the heart of economic activity in regions farther from major urban centres.
If it wants to achieve its environmental targets, Quebec must reduce its CO emissions by 20302 80 million tons. It’s ambitious. The government is mainly banking on generalized electrification of everything that can be electrified: cars, heating, etc. Where electricity does not go, hydrogen could be considered. The promoters of this energy vector believe that it would make it possible to avoid emitting the equivalent of 5 million tonnes of GHGs each year.
In 2050, when Quebec hopes to be able to achieve carbon neutrality, 15 to 20% of its energy consumption could come from hydrogen.
Hydrogen green
Hydrogen is not an “energy source” as such. It itself needs a good dose of energy to be produced. It is how it is created that determines the nature of hydrogen. Quebec obviously wants to become a champion of green hydrogen, that which is produced exclusively from renewable resources.
The government and representatives of this nascent industry believe this is the best way to attract foreign companies to the province eager to decarbonize.
The way in which hydrogen will be consumed in Quebec will therefore depend on the eagerness of companies to adopt it. The Quebec mining sector is already interested in it. Sept-Îles has set up a pilot project to transport hydrogen fuel ore. Swiss mining giant Glencore is trying to cut 4.4 million tonnes of annual emissions from its Raglan nickel mine in Nunavik using a mix of wind power and hydrogen.
In Baie-Comeau, the German company Hy2Gen unveiled an ammonia production project last February — ammonia is the simplest way to transport hydrogen at low cost — with a total capacity of 200 megawatts which will could attract major shipping companies. Shipping giants like Maersk have promised to phase out oil from their ships within the next two decades.
“There is great expertise in Quebec and Canada to make hydrogen more accessible to this type of business,” says Marie Lapointe, who heads the sector organization Hydrogène Québec. Mme Lapointe is eagerly awaiting the Quebec strategy, as she hopes it will turn cities like Sept-Îles and Baie-Comeau into major industrial hubs by the end of the decade.
“The main condition for this strategy to be successful is if it leads to the creation of regional hubs like these and like Sorel, Bécancour or even Gatineau, to sell hydrogen in all regions of Quebec,” says- she.
A matter of cost
Accessibility is the key to lowering the cost of hydrogen and making it more attractive to more businesses. For equivalent use, it currently costs twice the price of fuel oil or diesel. Officially announced last February, the new Canada Research Chair in Green Hydrogen Production at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières has set itself the goal of halving the cost of production by 2030.
Bruno Pollet, who directs the Chair, believes that it is possible to make electrolyzers more efficient by relying, among other things, on more efficient nanomaterials. But Mr. Pollet goes further: the water used in the production of green hydrogen cannot only come from the same reserves of drinking water that are needed for agriculture and food.
According to him, finding a way to produce hydrogen from wastewater or outright seawater will be the next step in creating a decarbonized and cheap energy resource. “Especially as sea water, we’re not about to run out,” he says. “Using wastewater or saline water would ultimately reduce production costs. In some regions, drinking water is worth gold…”
Like many, Bruno Pollet dreams of seeing Canada become an exporter of green hydrogen. “All Western countries are currently in crisis and hydrogen is part of the solution,” he believes.
And on the road?
The Quebec strategy for hydrogen and green energy should make no mention of light vehicles. In the opinion of all the experts consulted, Quebec will do better to electrify light transport and reserve biofuels for other applications.
The absence of points of sale where motorists are located largely explains this decision. However, hydrogen could help eliminate thermal engine vehicles where we have not yet succeeded in effectively deploying charging stations for electric cars: in dense urban neighborhoods such as those of Montreal and Quebec.
It seems simpler to add a hydrogen pump to an existing service station than to convert public parking lots in each of these neighborhoods to make them charging stations… In any case, that’s what the engineer believes. American Jackie Birdsall, who is responsible for the hydrogen program for North America at Toyota.
The former employee of Ballard Power Systems in Vancouver has no trouble extolling the merits of hydrogen cars since the manufacturer for whom she works is one of the few to sell one. The Mirai is a sedan that Toyota Canada would like to see adopted, if not by the public, at least by the companies that manage large car fleets.
“The best performance we will have with hydrogen is in heavy transport, but having more light hydrogen vehicles on the roads is necessary if we want to make this technology more affordable,” she says. “But it doesn’t matter: what we need is more stations. »
Mme Birdsall invites Quebec to take inspiration from California, which created a system of credits rewarding service stations that add hydrogen to their pumps. “It is the best way to date to accelerate access to hydrogen,” she says.
One thing is sure, it would be one more step towards a Quebec hydrogen society.