A gateway to green hydrogen

Vancouver’s HTEC is on a mission to take clean hydrogen to the mainstream. 

Hydrogen Technologies and Energy Corp (HTEC) is building a hydrogen infrastructure network in B.C. and Alberta, backed by a $337 million loan from the Canada Infrastructure Bank. 

The initiative is called H2 Gateway, and includes plans for three hydrogen production facilities, a refuelling network, and deploying 100 hydrogen fuel cell trucks through a new vehicle leasing subsidiary. 

HTEC produces low-carbon hydrogen from a combination of electrolysis (using clean electricity to split water into hydrogen) and capturing by-product hydrogen from industrial manufacturing.

The H2 Gateway project is trying to build a self-sustaining hydrogen ecosystem from the outset. Rather than focusing on production, then distribution, then vehicles, HTEC is building each component in lockstep. By taking this approach, HTEC aims to match hydrogen supply and demand as the network evolves, overcoming a persistent issue in the industry. 

🔎 Hydrogen in context

Hydrogen is often promoted as a way to decarbonize various industries, including long-haul transport, aviation, chemicals, steel and more. But it's not a silver bullet, and its unique properties make it a better fit for some applications than others.

What is it? Hydrogen is made by splitting hydrogen molecules from other compounds - typically methane or water. Conventional hydrogen is made by mixing natural gas with high-temperature steam to split the molecules. Low-carbon versions either use renewable energy and water (known as Green Hydrogen) or by splitting natural gas while capturing the carbon produced as a byproduct (Blue). Because it’s made from other sources of energy, it’s known as an energy carrier. 

How is it used? Hydrogen is used in a number of industries: ammonia for fertilizers, steel production, home heating, power generation, oil refining and all kinds of transportation.

On the transportation front, hydrogen can either be burned in a modified internal combustion engine or used in fuel cells. These operate like batteries and require vehicles with electric motors, but can be refilled quickly using hydrogen gas.

Drawbacks: Hydrogen has a few distinct features. It has a high energy density by weight, meaning it packs a big punch for a light footprint (vs the weight of a lithium battery), but low energy per volume, which means it takes up lots of space. So while it can be transported in fuel cells, pipelines or storage tanks, it usually needs to be compressed and stored at super low temperatures. 

It also requires access to renewable energy for production, which can compete for other decarbonization uses. I.e. the energy from your new hydro dam could electrify all these buildings or be converted into hydrogen. 

Finally, a significant amount of energy is lost in producing and transporting hydrogen. About 20-30% is lost during production and more is lost when compressed for storage and again when converted into energy. 

Given these hurdles, hydrogen skeptics like Michael Liebreich argue that we need to focus hydrogen efforts on the areas where hydrogen has a unique edge - decarbonizing areas that are difficult to do with direct electrification. Liebreich’s “hydrogen ladder” stack-ranks the various uses for hydrogen based on how likely they are to be a significant user of hydrogen. 

Trucking, the focus of HTEC’s regional ecosystem, falls somewhere in the middle. That means grabbing market share is possible, but not a sure thing.

The bottom line

HTEC is putting forward a bold plan to decarbonize trucking in Canada. To succeed, they’ll need to focus on driving down the cost of hydrogen fuel and building out infrastructure. This “all at once” approach could be the key to convincing fleet operators to adopt hydrogen over diesel or batteries by showing there’s a critical mass of supply and infrastructure in place.

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