Why Hydrogen at a Kamloops BC Pulp Mill Fails the Value Check

Help CleanTechnica’s work via a Substack subscription or on Stripe.

Pulp and paper mills sit on the intersection of a number of decarbonization pressures. They burn giant volumes of fossil gasoline in lime kilns and restoration boilers. They purchase important quantities of business oxygen for delignification and bleaching. They function in communities the place financial continuity issues a minimum of as a lot as emissions discount, possible extra. This makes them tempting targets for hydrogen builders who’re looking for new markets as different hydrogen narratives lose floor.

In Prince George the agency Teralta tried what was probably the one hydrogen-for-energy scheme in British Columbia with an opportunity of working. Their concept was to seize hydrogen produced as a by-product by the close by chemical plant Chemtrade (from its sodium-chlorate course of), purify and pipe it about 500 metres to a close-by pulp mill owned by Canfor. Below the plan the mill would burn that hydrogen rather than fossil pure gasoline, displacing roughly 25% of the mill’s gasoline power use. Proponents argued this was “zero-emission” hydrogen as a result of it was already being produced, so no new electrolysis was required.

In precept it appeared a sublime, low-cost workaround: reuse an present waste stream slightly than construct an costly electrolyzer. However regardless of the technical demonstration being accomplished, the mission collapsed—one in every of seven hydrogen for power initiatives that have been quietly shelved prior to now couple of years within the province—when Chemtrade shut down its chlorate line and Canfor closed the pulp mill. With out the chemical feedstock or the mill demand there was no hydrogen, and the mission died, a stark reminder how fragile even the best-conceived hydrogen plans may be after they hinge on slim industrial provide chains.

The Kamloops Clear Vitality Centre proposal which crossed my display screen at present with its announcement is a transparent instance of hydrogen for power varieties desperately searching for for any motive to exist. It’s offered as a contemporary resolution for industrial decarbonization, led by an Indigenous financial improvement company, with a promise of slicing pure gasoline use on the mill. It reads nicely at a distance. When the engineering and economics are examined, the image appears to be like completely different. The construction resembles an costly oxygen provide mission that produces by product hydrogen at excessive price, supported by public funding and an expectation of long run regulated offtake.

The Kamloops mission facilities round a ten MW electrolyzer that may produce about 4 tons of hydrogen and 32 tons of oxygen per day. The companions embrace Sc.wénwen, Kruger, and Elemental Clear Fuels. Reporting describes an intent to scale back the mill’s fossil gasoline use by about 16% by routing the hydrogen to the lime kiln. That may be a small contribution to complete thermal demand, however it’s described as an essential step towards decarbonization.

The size of the proposal issues. A ten MW electrolysis plant is a significant capital funding, often on the order of tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars}. It requires about 240 MWh of electrical energy per day if it runs steadily. The companions have already secured over $1.5 million in early stage federal and provincial grants to hold out feasibility and engineering work. I feel FortisBC is evaluating an offtake settlement that may permit the utility to categorise hydrogen as low carbon gasoline, which might permit the price to be carried by ratepayers underneath present regulation. This mixture of public cash, utility fee constructions, and hydrogen developer ambition is what brings the Kamloops mission into focus.

To grasp whether or not this can be a rational funding, it is very important look intently at how pulp mills use power and oxygen. The lime cycle converts calcium carbonate again to calcium oxide at excessive temperature. The chemistry is easy and unchanged for a century. The kiln requires between 6 GJ and 10 GJ of warmth for every ton of CaO. A mill the dimensions of Kruger Kamloops produces about 1,100 to 1,200 tons of pulp per day, from what I can discern from public information. That manufacturing requires round 250 kg of CaO per ton of pulp. The kiln power requirement due to this fact sits within the vary of 1,700 to 2,900 GJ per day. Changing that into electrical phrases, it’s equal to roughly 20 to 35 MW of steady thermal responsibility. The electrolyzer’s hydrogen stream carries about 480 to 560 GJ per day. The hydrogen from this mission would due to this fact provide about 20% to 25% of the kiln’s each day warmth load. That may be a helpful fraction, however it isn’t a full decarbonization path and it requires a excessive enter of electrical energy per unit of fossil gas prevented.

The oxygen facet of the mill is a distinct story. Trendy kraft mills use oxygen for delignification and bolstered extraction phases. Typical oxygen demand is 20 kg to 30 kg per ton of pulp. With Kamloops manufacturing, that works out to 22 to 35 tons of oxygen per day. These volumes are usually equipped in two methods. Medium sized mills typically purchase delivered liquid oxygen underneath contract from industrial gasoline suppliers, and that’s possible what Kamloops is doing, in any other case it wouldn’t be contemplating putting in an electrolyzer.

Bigger mills typically set up an on web site cryogenic air separation unit or smaller PSA/VSA oxygen mills. Each techniques are mature. They function at excessive reliability with commodity components. They require modest quantities of electrical energy. A PSA or VSA oxygen generator sized for 32 tons per day attracts on the order of 0.3 MW to 0.5 MW. Even a small cryogenic unit would require solely 0.3 MW to 0.6 MW. These techniques have capital prices within the low single digit thousands and thousands. They meet mill oxygen wants with excessive reliability and with out advanced integration. An electrolyzer sized to ship the identical oxygen produces the appropriate mass stream, but it surely requires roughly 20 to 30 occasions extra electrical energy. It additionally brings a capital burden that’s three to 10 occasions bigger. The extra price is carried totally to supply hydrogen that covers solely a fraction of kiln power.

The power stability makes the selection even starker. The electrolyzer pathway consumes the complete 240 MWh per day of electrical energy to make hydrogen and oxygen. With life like system efficiency, solely about 60% of that enter exhibits up as helpful warmth within the kiln as soon as electrolysis losses and burner losses are counted, so the mill would get on the order of 140 MWh of kiln warmth from that 240 MWh. In contrast, a devoted cryogenic oxygen plant or PSA/VSA system sized for 32 tons per day of oxygen would solely want roughly 10 MWh per day, leaving about 230 MWh out there for direct course of warmth. An electrical kiln pushed by that remaining electrical energy might convert roughly 90% of it into warmth, yielding greater than 200 MWh of kiln warmth. In different phrases, the identical 240 MWh that’s now being proposed to feed an electrolyzer could be sufficient to produce the mill’s oxygen wants via normal tools and nonetheless present much more usable warmth if it have been routed via an electrical kiln as a substitute of being became hydrogen first.

The distinction in reliability between these pathways shouldn’t be discounted. PSA, VSA, and cryogenic oxygen vegetation are normal industrial belongings with lengthy established upkeep regimes. Electrical kilns, ought to a mill select to put in them, are additionally easy machines with few transferring components, secure responsibility cycles, and predictable availability. The electrolyzer path introduces a protracted chain of specialised tools that features water purification techniques, electrolyzer stacks, energy electronics, compression, storage, security techniques, and sophisticated controls. Every hyperlink provides failure modes. When an electrolyzer goes down, oxygen output stops instantly.

A mill that depends on electrolyzer oxygen for a good portion of its delignification course of should both preserve costly parallel oxygen capability or purchase spot oxygen underneath emergency pricing. Spot oxygen delivered outdoors excessive quantity contracts is expensive and turns into a cloth working threat. The reliability profile of the hydrogen pathway is due to this fact materially worse than both a devoted oxygen plant with electrified kilns. When mixed with the upper capital and working price, the reliability penalty turns into one other argument towards the electrolyzer route.

It’s price stating this bluntly. The mill might keep away from the burning of much more pure gasoline by avoiding hydrogen totally, utilizing bathroom normal oxygen manufacturing tools and an electrical kiln or two, with extra dependable applied sciences which are extra simply serviced, whereas spending quite a bit much less capital and working cash. The hydrogen pathway is vastly costlier than the choice in upfront and working prices. Simply the $1.5 million in engineering and feasibility research is vastly greater than required for comparable research for the standardized tools as a result of a lot of that is novel with no ecosystem in BC and the forestry business. Sizing oxygen technology techniques and electrical kilns for pulp and paper is completed continually and has been for a very long time.

It is very important ask why a pulp mill would entertain such a pathway. The reply is never present in course of engineering. It’s extra typically present in institutional incentives. Elemental Clear Fuels and its predecessor Cariboo Clear Fuels, now totally acquired by Elemental from what I can see, place themselves as builders of hydrogen and artificial gas initiatives. Their management consists of a minimum of one particular person with prior expertise as a North American govt of Irish agency Fusion Gasoline.

Fusion Gasoline promoted an built-in concentrated photovoltaic and electrolyzer idea the place every photo voltaic panel produced hydrogen immediately. Impartial assessments, together with mine once I stumbled throughout it in northern African inexperienced hydrogen proposal, discovered the strategy operationally unworkable and really poorly thought via. The market ultimately agreed. The corporate struggled, did a reverse inventory cut up and has pivoted totally out of hydrogen.

Elemental’s involvement in Kamloops seems rooted within the useless hope that area of interest industrial power settings can anchor early hydrogen initiatives, even when the power stability and capital price inform a distinct story. The Canadian Hydrogen Affiliation and Hydrogen BC even have seen roles. Their mandate is the development of hydrogen initiatives in any kind that may be commercialized, which implies with governmental cash backstopping efforts. Their presence within the background of this mission is unsurprising. These organizations have redirected consideration towards industrial hydrogen as transportation and energy sector hydrogen ideas have misplaced momentum.

FortisBC provides one other layer. The utility is allowed to obtain low carbon gasoline underneath the Greenhouse Fuel Discount Regulation. The regulation permits FortisBC to purchase hydrogen at premium charges and get better the price via its fee base as much as a restrict. This creates an incentive to assist hydrogen manufacturing that may not in any other case survive scrutiny. A long run offtake settlement would anchor the Kamloops mission and cut back threat for the developer. The mill itself wouldn’t be the principle hydrogen purchaser underneath this mannequin. It might be the gasoline utility, simply as on the failed Teralta mission. The mill would as a substitute profit from native funding, potential power price reductions, though that’s deeply unlikely, and affiliation with a decarbonization initiative, though they undoubtedly aren’t contemplating that hydrogen leaks and is an oblique greenhouse gasoline. Tk’emlúps features an financial improvement asset and entry to federal funding streams that prioritize Indigenous participation. From every get together’s perspective, the association may look rational even when the general system economics are utterly irrational.

Using public cash deserves cautious evaluate. Federal packages underneath Pure Assets Canada and provincial packages underneath CleanBC are written to assist decarbonization. These packages intention to assist industrial emitters cut back fossil gas consumption. The funding for the entrance finish engineering work and the hydrogen succesful kiln burner examine suits underneath these mandates in a literal method. The tougher query is whether or not these {dollars} are going towards the best decarbonization choices. The chance price is important. Funds directed towards an electrolyzer based mostly oxygen plant are funds not out there for electrification, for course of warmth optimization, or for larger impression emissions reductions. Policymakers face robust strain to fund seen initiatives that mix Indigenous participation, industrial retention, and local weather claims. The Kamloops proposal sits on the intersection of those priorities, which helps clarify why it moved ahead although the elemental economics make no sense in any respect.

It is very important take into account what decarbonization pathways can be found to pulp mills. Electrical kilns are more and more sensible. They provide excessive effectivity, controllability, and low emissions when paired with clear electrical energy. Biomass and course of residue fuels are additionally viable, and lots of mills already use them. These are dispatchable power streams that match nicely with mill operations. An on web site ASU or PSA/VSA system for oxygen is easy, cheap, and dependable. These choices permit a mill to fulfill its oxygen necessities with out including a ten MW electrolyzer to {the electrical} load. Hydrogen has roles in business the place it’s chemically required, however the lime cycle is just not one in every of them. It burns cleanly however provides quite a lot of price and complexity for a restricted profit.

A recurring sample seems in these hydrogen oriented mill initiatives. It begins with an actual industrial decarbonization drawback. It continues with a developer that brings a hydrogen centered resolution slightly than inspecting the complete suite of effectivity and electrification choices. It attracts in coverage assist as a result of the story suits present themes round hydrogen and, in Canada, Indigenous led improvement. It features momentum as a result of the technical particulars are esoteric and troublesome to problem with out area data. The Kamloops mission is just not distinctive on this regard. It sits inside a broader effort by molecule oriented organizations to search out new markets in an economic system that’s transferring steadily towards electrification.

A disciplined decarbonization technique begins with a transparent comparability of choices. It appears to be like at power balances. It examines reliability. It appears to be like at capital necessities and working dangers. It evaluates public funding by way of emissions reductions delivered per greenback.

The Kamloops proposal fails underneath that evaluation. It’s a excessive price pathway to partial kiln decarbonization that relies on giant public subsidies and long run utility assist. It asks a mill to depend on a fancy new system for oxygen that’s much less dependable than present options. It redirects consideration away from electrification pathways that may produce bigger emissions reductions at decrease price. The lesson is just not that decarbonization is inconceivable on this sector. It’s that the selection of instruments issues.

The Kamloops mill and the federal government ought to demand {that a} tiny fraction of that $1.5 million be used to create a easy spreadsheet displaying the prices and dangers of the direct electrification pathway outlined above vs the Byzantine hydrogen pathway that they’re contemplating. In the event that they did, they might instantly cease losing money and time on this mission. In the event that they don’t, it would inevitably fail, turning into the eighth hydrogen for power mission in BC that’s been deserted after losing loads of governmental cash and good folks’s time.