Two chemical companies in North Vancouver have been wasting enough hydrogen to fuel 20,000 cars. The Canadian IWHUP (Integrated Waste Hydrogen Utilization Project) seeks to correct this problem.
The Hydrogen Technology & Energy Corporation (HTEC) will be capturing the waste hydrogen from companies Erco and Nexen, cleaning and compressing it for commercial use. Hydrogen is a byproduct in the manufacturing process of making sodium chlorate, which is used for water purification and paper bleaching.
Other major players in the IWHUP are Sacre-Davey Innovations Incorporated and QuestAir. The hydrogen that is captured and cleaned from these chemical plants will be used to refuel fuel cell vehicles as part of the BC Hydrogen Highway project and to power a stationary facility such as the environmentally-friendly carwash I talked about earlier this year.
But, this is just the tip of the iceberg in regard to hydrogen capture and demonstration. According to IWHUP, Canada is producing enough waste hydrogen through all of its chemical plants to power 200,000 fuel cell cars. With the impending hydrogen economy coming on strong, manufacturers will be learning that their “waste hydrogen” is all of a sudden a valuable commodity that one can sell on the open market or use to supply power for their own facilities.
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