Specializing in the production of green hydrogen, the Canadian company Charbone is developing a modular unit for the production of hydrogen by electrolysis with reduced Capex and Opex. In addition to the North American market, the company wishes to engage in the development of green hydrogen production in Europe. Interview with its vice-president, Johann Bureau.
LCharbone was created in Quebec in 2019 by a group of renewable energy specialists under the leadership of Dave Gagnon, current CEO. “Our goal is to produce exclusively green hydrogen at a cost competitive with fossil fuels,” explains Johann Bureau, Vice President of Charbone, “while contributing to the decarbonization of industry and mobility.” Until now, hydrogen production, mainly by steam reforming, has been in the hands of large companies such as Air Liquide, Air Product, Linde, etc. They have developed massive production near large consumers: desulfurization of diesel in refineries, production of ammonia for fertilizers, glass, cement, electronics industries, etc. Production by steam reforming generates 10 tons of CO2 per tonne of hydrogen produced. “We can certainly capture them and bury them and thus produce blue hydrogen, but it is expensive and difficult.”
Modular production unit
“With our production of green hydrogen, industries will be able to resell credits or improve their carbon footprint. On the mobility side, the use of green hydrogen allows for a rapid charging time for vehicles. But it also allows the weight of the energy transported to be divided by four or five, with 80 kg tanks instead of 450 kg batteries for conventional electric vehicles. In addition to their weight, batteries have a heavy carbon footprint.”
One of the economic (and ecological) issues of hydrogen remains the cost of its transport. “To give you an idea, with a 44-ton truck, you will transport 300 kg of hydrogen for a cost of $3,000.” For hydrogen to become more widespread, it is essential to set up a production unit infrastructure on the territory associated with local use of hydrogen, thus avoiding the costly logistics of transport. Hydrogen produced from renewable electricity can thus be used for local industries and/or mobility.
“It is with this in mind that we designed our production unit, which can produce hydrogen on a small scale. These modular units can be set up in parallel over time, in order to match the quantities required for production capacities and local usage needs, with a gradual increase in power, adapted to territorial production. They have been designed to be reproducible and have low Capex and Opex.”
Deployment and partnerships
Charbone is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and now on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. “In Canada, we benefit from strong hydroelectric production and reasonable green electricity prices with cheap and secure supply contracts. In the United States, our policy is partly to acquire hydroelectric dams, but also to buy green electricity. Our Canadian unit, which will be operational in early 2023, is located 70 kilometers from Montreal. It will include an initial 5 MW tranche for a production of 2 tons of hydrogen per day. But over time, by adding several of our units, we will be able to produce 15 t/day (or 4,500 t/year) with a total capacity of 40 MW, on 4 ha.”
“We have just signed for two new units in the United States. We also have several projects underway in the European Union and Switzerland and we have an office in Eindhoven (Netherlands). European technology in the hydrogen value chain is ahead of the North American continent. We are therefore developing industrial partnerships with European companies,” recalls Johann Bureau, one of the three Frenchmen at Charbone. “We are also looking for partnerships with green electricity production companies (solar, wind, etc.). These companies bring us their operational and technological know-how. For our part, we are opening the door to the North American market for them: our supply is secure, we know the quality approaches and the required certifications and the political-environmental ecosystem.”
Thus, the company Elogen, a subsidiary of the GTT group, will supply us with PEM-type electrolysers (50 kW for 1 kg of hydrogen), with manufacturing in North America. We have another partnership with the company Resato (Netherlands) which manufactures service stations. We are of course open to other partnerships. I note that to further promote the deployment of the sector in France, administrative simplification would be really beneficial for all stakeholders. Charbone is ultimately the desire of a team with eco-responsible DNA to produce and use local energy on a territorial scale and on a human scale.
