Why Air Liquide chose Canada for its first industrial production of green hydrogen
Two years after announcing it, Air Liquide is embarking on the industrial production of green hydrogen and inaugurates in Bécancour, Quebec, the largest PEM (proton exchange membrane) electrolyser in the world. There are three main reasons for choosing this site.
January 26, 2021 New plant
Air Liquide is embarking on the production of carbon-free hydrogen by electrolysis of water using renewable electricity. And it is in Canada, at its Bécancour site in Quebec, that the French chemist has set up its first industrial production unit. Air Liquide inaugurated there on January 26, 2021, the largest PEM (Proton Exchange Membrane) electrolyser in the world, a new technology that dislodges conventional alkaline electrolysers, which are less flexible to use.
A Canadian supplier
With a capacity of 20 megawatts (MW), it must produce "8 tonnes of carbon-free hydrogen per day," said Pierre-Etienne Franc, director of the Hydrogen energy activity of Air Liquide at the Usine Nouvelle during the announcement of the project in February 2019.
This increases the hydrogen production capacity of this site by 50%, currently around 16 tonnes per day. By way of comparison, the four hydrogen refueling stations that Air Liquide has installed in Île-de-France can each produce 200 kg per day. Compared to the fossil fuel-based process, this new unit will prevent the emission of 27 tonnes of CO000 per year (ie those of around 2 sedan cars), according to Air Liquide.
The electrolyser is based on Hydrogenics technology, a Canadian company specializing in equipment for the production of hydrogen by electrolysis and fuel cells acquired by the marine engine manufacturer Cummins in July 2019, and of which Air Liquide had announced at the end of December 2018 having acquired 18,6 % of the capital through an investment of 20,5 million US dollars (18 million euros).
Competitive renewable electricity
Besides the origin of the supplier, why did Air Liquide choose Canada and not France or another country in Europe, to launch the production of carbon-free hydrogen? There are three main reasons for this choice. The first is that the majority of electricity in Canada is of hydraulic origin (64% in 2017), and therefore renewable. In addition, this energy supplied by HydroQuébec is competitive. As a result, as a certain number of equipment necessary for this production had available "in the particular case of Bécancour, we end up with a more expensive price than hydrogen made from natural gas, but which is quite expensive. competitive ", explained Pierre-Etienne Franc, director of the global hydrogen business at Air Liquide, during a press conference.
The second reason stems from the "shutdown of an external source" of hydrogen (an industrialist produced hydrogen by reforming in addition to his basic process) from which the Quebec site of Air Liquide was supplied and "which 'we had to compensate,' explains Pierre-Etienne Franc. A source supplemented by a clean production of liquid air carried out in two units producing hydrogen from gas.
Electric mobility in the United States
The third reason is economic. Admittedly, carbon-free hydrogen is still two to three times more expensive than its hydrocarbon-based version. But in North America, Air Liquide has, it seems, already some customers ready to pay this additional cost, which Pierre-Etienne Franc does not wish to reveal. "We have a customer base in Canada and we are betting on developing it," says the director of Air Liquide's hydrogen energy activity.
In any case, the industrialist is investing heavily in hydrogen across the Atlantic. At the end of November 2018, Air Liquide announced an investment of 150 million dollars (approximately 130 million euros) for the construction in California of a production unit of 30 tons of hydrogen per day, to supply 35 electric vehicles at Fuel cell. "We have also signed an agreement with Toyota for the installation of hydrogen stations in the northeast of the United States. There are already five and we are going to build others", also recalls Pierre-Etienne Franc.
A big project in Normandy
This investment in Canada is aligned with Air Liquide's climate ambitions, in particular the 30% reduction in its CO2 emissions in 10 years. Europe is not left out. In November 2018, Air Liquide also announced the installation of an industrial green hydrogen demonstrator in Denmark with a 1,2 MW PEM electrolyser already supplied by Hydrogenics. In France, Air Liquide has created a joint venture, HysetCo, with Toyota, Idex and the Parisian Electric Taxi Company (STEP) for the deployment of a fleet of 600 hydrogen taxis in Paris. The industrial gases specialist also announced at the beginning of January 2021 that it was integrating the capital of H2V Normandy, a subsidiary of the H2V Product group, up to 40%, becoming a major partner of the large green hydrogen complex project in Port-Jérôme. -on-Seine, in Seine-Maritime.
Aurelie Barbaux
https://www.usinenouvelle.com/article/p ... ne.N811360