Correction
This story originally quoted McLeod as describing the global hydrogen economy as a $12 "billion" a year opportunity. He actually said $12 trillion. The Gazette apologizes for this error.
Thousands of industry and government officials will be at the Edmonton Convention Centre next week for the biggest hydrogen conference in North America.
The second annual Canadian Hydrogen Convention runs from April 25 to 27 at the Edmonton Convention Centre. Co-hosted by Edmonton Global, the convention is the largest hydrogen event on the continent and aims to showcase the role of hydrogen in a net-zero future.
Some 4,000 people were at last year’s convention, and this year’s edition was on track to host twice that amount, said Chris McLeod, St. Albert resident and vice-president of global marketing for Edmonton Global.
“If there’s an empty hotel room anywhere in the Edmonton region that week, I’d be stunned.”
The convention features a variety of talks on hydrogen production, carbon capture, and hydrogen’s potential uses in heating, transportation, and industry, McLeod said. Local leaders such as Sturgeon County Mayor Alanna Hnatiw, Alexander Chief George Arcand, and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith are all scheduled to speak. Event-goers will network with industry officials from around the world, check out working hydrogen-powered vehicles, and enjoy a street party with music and art on Rice Howard Way.
Hydrogen is really taking off around the world as an energy source which could help the world get to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, McLeod said. The Edmonton region was one of a handful of places in the world which could produce low-carbon hydrogen from natural gas at a reasonable price.
“We’ve got the potential to be a world leader in what’s going to be an up to a $12 trillion a year global opportunity,” McLeod said.
Hydrogen at home
Fred Taylor of the engineering consultancy group GHD is one of several people who will speak on hydrogen’s role in home heating at the convention. He co-authored two global studies that examined hundreds of examples of hydrogen blending with natural gas.
Natural gas accounts for about 46 per cent of household energy use, Natural Resources Canada reports. If homes burned hydrogen instead, they could substantially reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
There are currently about a hundred groups in the world right now working to blend hydrogen with natural gas for home heating, Taylor said. Right now, most blends cap out at about 30 per cent hydrogen — conventional furnaces won’t work properly with higher mixes.
“Hydrogen is the smallest molecule,” Taylor said, which makes it highly corrosive to metal natural gas pipelines.
Taylor said gas companies were grappling with how to ensure hydrogen won’t leak out of their existing pipe networks and how to keep the gas from setting of carbon monoxide detectors. Hydrogen also carries less energy per volume, so you have to burn about a third more gas to get the same amount of heat out of it. A 10 per cent hydrogen mix would only reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about five per cent as a result.
“You really need to get to those higher blends to make a difference,” Taylor said.
Hydrogen isn’t a silver bullet for global warming, but it has huge potential to decarbonize North America’s 5 million or so kilometres of natural gas pipelines, Taylor said. He predicted widespread household use of hydrogen for heating within a decade, which could mean higher gas prices and a need to replace furnaces.
Atco Gas was now testing a five per cent hydrogen blend in Fort Saskatchewan homes and was working to build a community heated entirely with hydrogen, McLeod said.
“It’s a great way to make your home net-zero,” he said of hydrogen, and it could be cheaper than using electricity.
Visit www.hydrogenexpo.com for details on the convention.
