Landfill methane to fuel Saskatchewan solar hydrogen pilot
SHEC Labs (Solar Hydrogen Energy Corporation) in Saskatoon is building a pilot plant that will use energy from the sun to power a process that converts methane to hydrogen. It’s apparently more efficient than traditional steam methane reformation and releases fewer greenhouse gases and other pollutants.
“To add even greater value, the process has the ability to use a renewable source of methane and carbon dioxide, such as biogas from municipal wastewater plants and landfill gas. Renewable methane generated from biomass results in no net increase in carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere when the methane is converted into hydrogen by SHEC’s solar hydrogen generator,” according to a report from Renewable Energy Access.
SHEC Labs is looking for capital for deploying its first commercial scale plant. It figures that once this first plant is operational, it can replicate it in other regions with biomass/biogas resources.
If you’re among those who think a hydrogen economy will never emerge — at least in our lifetime — you may be tempted to dismiss this company. The reality, however, is that a mini hydrogen economy is already here, and has been for decades. We need hydrogen today for all sorts of industrial applications, and this is why companies such as Mississauga-based Stuart Energy (recently purchased by Hydrogenics) have been so successful. Fact is, if SHEC can come up with a better and cheaper way of producing hydrogen, there will be great industrial demand for this product. If a more mainstream hydrogen economy emerges, the company will be even better positioned.
Tyler Hamilton is editor-in-chief of Corporate Knights magazine and a business columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. In addition to this Clean Break blog, Tyler writes a weekly column of the same name that discusses trends, happenings and innovators in the clean technology and green energy market. This blog is a personal project started in April 2005. It is not an official blog of the newspaper.
