Aurora Hydrogen advancing low-carbon hydrogen energy market
by CM Staff
OHI recently released an open-source toolkit to standardize the carbon intensity measurement of hydrogen for the global market.
EDMONTON — Aurora Hydrogen, an Edmonton-based hydrogen technology company, is producing clean hydrogen through methane pyrolysis and collaborating across the industry to try and develop the low-carbon hydrogen market in Canada.
Aurora Hydrogen is helping advance transparency and credibility of hydrogen markets alongside other companies as a technical sponsor of the Open Hydrogen Initiative (OHI), a group led by GTI Energy, S&P Global Commodity Insights and National Energy Technology Laboratory, and through its presence at prominent energy conferences.
OHI recently released an open-source toolkit to standardize the carbon intensity measurement of hydrogen for the global market. With hydrogen supply expected to grow by 170% to 256 million metric tons (mmt) in 2050, according to S&P Global Commodity Insights, a standard tool to measure carbon intensity will unlock hydrogen’s potential to decarbonize energy-intensive sectors. As the sole methane pyrolysis company in OHI, Aurora Hydrogen provided input on the toolkit to ensure it included all viable production methods and factored in the valorization of the carbon coproduct.
“At Aurora, we believe that low-cost, low-carbon hydrogen is necessary to bring the market to its full potential scale, and the first step to recognize low-carbon hydrogen is to drive consistence on how we are calculating carbon intensity,” said Dr. Andrew Gillis, co-founder and CEO of Aurora Hydrogen. “The OHI toolkit will support the adoption of hydrogen as an economically attractive decarbonization pathway. We hope to see governments and companies alike lean on the expertise of those involved with OHI and implement this toolkit to measure the carbon emissions of hydrogen at any given facility, regardless of location or production method.”
To further industry collaboration and advance the progress of low-carbon hydrogen, Gillis and Dr. Erin Bobicki, Chief Technology Officer at Aurora Hydrogen, will be speaking at the Canadian Hydrogen Convention in Edmonton from April 23-25. Gillis and Bobicki will be featured on panels discussing hydrogen’s role in the energy transition, how hydrogen can assist with energy security and how to scale up microwave-driven methane pyrolysis.
“To accelerate the next phase of the hydrogen economy, we need industry collaboration,” said Dr. Erin Bobicki, Chief Technology Officer. “Conferences like the Canadian Hydrogen Convention bring players from across the hydrogen supply chain to together to discuss how we can drive the hydrogen market forward.”
Aurora Hydrogen’s method of methane pyrolysis produces clean hydrogen at the point of use, eliminating the need for hydrogen transportation or CO2 storage. First developed and tested by scientists from the University of Toronto and University of Alberta in Canada, the method uses natural gas and microwaves to produce hydrogen and solid carbon without CO2 emissions.
