The
The project would reduce
"That's actually one of the joys of this is that by combining the potential demand on the natural gas system with demand that we have for our refinery in
"At 300,000 tonnes a year of hydrogen, this is a world-scale project ... I do think ultimately
There's no capital cost estimate yet for the project but Atco chair and CEO
The project as presented is a "positive" step by industry but it's difficult to weigh its benefit against other choices with the available information, said
"We really need to find ways to reduce the emissions in a significant way on an absolute basis from oil and gas and that will either happen through carbon capture and storage like this kind of project or simply reduced production, which is inevitable if the world continues to go down this track of substituting other forms of energy for transportation fuels," he said.
Suncor is to build and operate the hydrogen production and carbon dioxide sequestration facilities and Atco would construct and operate the associated pipeline and hydrogen storage facilities.
About 65 per cent of the hydrogen would be used by Suncor in refining processes and cogeneration of steam and electricity, reducing emissions by up to 60 per cent at its
Another 20 per cent would be added to the provincial natural gas grid to reduce emissions from uses such as home and business heating. The rest will be sold to various users.
"We think there's going to be tremendous demand from transportation, the agriculture fertilizer industry, large heavy-haul trucking," said Southern.
"We see that there's going to be significant demand for the additional excess 15 per cent of the hydrogen."
Atco announced a
The project announced Tuesday would easily supply the blending project, Southern said.
The hydrogen production facility would be located at Atco's Heartland Energy Centre near
The partners hope to access provincial and federal financial and other support but say there are many regulatory and fiscal unknowns, such as availability of carbon sequestration rights, emissions reduction compliance credits, regulations to allow hydrogen blending into natural gas and investment tax credits for carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS).
Bringing the project forward now in the midst of a 90-day consultation period for the federal government's CCUS support promised in its recent budget is expected to sharpen focus by presenting a "real project" to discuss, Little said.
In the budget announcement,
Both
This report by
Companies in this story: (TSX:SU, TSX:ACO.X)
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