Advanced Chemical…

Advanced Chemical Technologies Inc. (AChT) is developing a low carbon methanol-to-gasoline plant to produce 6000 BPD of drop-in gasoline with 25% less carbon intensity than conventional gasoline, no sulphur and low benzene. This project will include a 250MW electrolysis plant to produce hydrogen and oxygen. It will be operated flexibly and off-peak to serve the grid.

A major barrier to establishing a hydrogen economy is the need to develop a completely new infrastructure including vehicles, fueling stations distribution networks. By utilizing the existing gasoline infrastructure to achieve large scale electrolysis hydrogen production, AChT’s project provides an effective transition to establishing a hydrogen economy.

1. The hydrogen economy and specifically large-scale electrolysis hydrogen projects like AChT’s provide an attractive use of Ontario’s clean electrical system recognizing and planning for implementation of the emerging Hydrogen economy.
a. Ontario’s abundant off-peak power needs to be priced to generate competitively priced hydrogen at scale. This is essential to facilitating the rapid development of the production of hydrogen.
b. The IESO should consider adding a high-end user model to the ICI program that specifically provides economically sustainable off-peak power for hydrogen production. AChT’s project is designed to utilize Ontario’s abundant, off-peak power with made in Ontario electrolysis units with flexible load characteristics.
c. Electrolysis operators need to be able to effectively plan their off-peak operations to both serve the grid system and their business operations. This is essential for financially sustainable operations and investment decisions to drive economic development in hydrogen.

2. We support the recommendation to establish hydrogen hubs/corridors that will allow for the development of the ecosystem of the hydrogen economy; to develop key transportation routes to quickly become reliable hydrogen fueling corridors. This will help the major transportation and fleet operators adapt to hydrogen fueling.
a. AChT’s low carbon methanol-to-gasoline or methanol as a direct fuel can significantly assist the expedient deployment and optimization of hydrogen fueling infrastructure while using existing infrastructure. These liquid fuels establish both supply and demand markets for hydrogen to help get the hydrogen economy to scale. By utilizing existing infrastructure during the transition to a hydrogen economy, AChT’s approach plays an important on-going role providing a market for hydrogen-based fuels. Low carbon options include methanol to gasoline, methanol powered fuel cells, diesel substitutes for trucking, rail and marine applications, and LPG applications.
b. We recommend that liquid fuels as hydrogen carriers like low carbon methanol and derivative fuels such as methanol-to-gasoline that exceed Clean Fuel Standards be adopted as an essential part of the Ontario hydrogen strategy. This will allow the costly development of the hydrogen distribution network to be advanced following the best practises that are being adopted globally. Going to a hydrogen infrastructure directly will require high pressure distribution systems, storage and pumping facilities. Methanol supports a fast transition while the Hydrogen distribution network is being developed.