Creating a viable blue hydrogen export project from Western Canada
At a glance
Conduct a feasibility study to determine the lowest price per tonne of blue hydrogen from Western Canada for export to a location in Asia.
The challenge
Undertake a feasibility assessment of all components of the export supply chain, including production of hydrogen, domestic transportation in Canada, storage, carbon capture and sequestration, setup and usage of the discharge port, and overseas transportation to a location in Asia offloading at the designated receiving port.
Our response
We delivered the feasibility for this mega project that would be a first-of-its-kind in Western Canada through our experience with numerous hydrogen production and export projects undertaken globally, our carbon sequestration knowledge and our local experience.
Hydrogen as an exported commodity is in its early stages of market formation and holds promise for a number of decarbonization opportunities around the world. Blue hydrogen is produced through steam reforming and carbon capture. There are only a select few blue hydrogen export projects in early development, globally.
Key feasibility analysis and resultant deliverables included:
- Site selection for inland production sites and tidewater locations
- Establish the components of the supply chain
- Production technology selection
- Carrier analysis and selection, including liquid hydrogen or ammoniaCarbon sequestration options: including concept level review of the requirements for recovery, compression, transportation, storage, including sub-surface review of locations and cost; identifying possible locations, estimates of costs and regulatory permitting considerations
- Transportation route analysis, including the concept of the route, determine the carrier, properties, and method through analysis of technical details, gaps, and costs, including where one is justified over the other
- Port-side discharge: assess and determine leading candidates, analyze feasibility and cost of construction; port setup and maintenance and storage options infrastructure analysis of requirements, technical specs, and conceptual level costs, including analysis between using and expanding facilities versus building new
- Sea transport: shipper specifications, days required for transport, analyze technical specs, technology gaps, distance, days, frequency, constraints, and cost; provided list of leading shipper candidates
- Concept level CAPEX and OPEX for each opportunity, broken out into the value chain components
The impact
We delivered the feasibility for this mega project that would be a first-of-its-kind in Western Canada through our experience with numerous hydrogen production and export projects undertaken globally, our carbon sequestration knowledge and our local experience.
Hydrogen as an exported commodity is in its early stages of market formation and holds promise for a number of decarbonization opportunities around the world. Blue hydrogen is produced through steam reforming and carbon capture. There are only a select few blue hydrogen export projects in early development, globally.