CHARBONNEAU – Hydrogen at the pulp mill will not make it more efficient

THE OWNER of Kamloops pulp mill, Kruger Inc., is partnering with two others to reduce greenhouse gasses by generating hydrogen on site and using it as fuel.

It’s an interesting pilot project but it won’t increase efficiency or significantly reduce greenhouse gasses.

Others are the project developer, Elemental Clean Fuels; and Sc.wén̓wen Economic Development, the economic arm of Tk̓emlúps te Secwépemc.

Zachary Steele, chief executive of New York-based Elemental Clean Fuels, says:

“We believe our approach, which has received years of thought, is the right solution in terms of safety and economics and operational capabilities to decarbonize our process.”

The Economic Development arm of Kamloops Indian Band is equally enthused.

Joshua Gottfriedsen, chief executive of Sc.wénwen Economic Development Corporation, is equally enthused:

“Elemental came to us with a green energy source that offers a unique opportunity to find a viable option to reduce carbon emissions at this mill, but can also prove a concept that can be used by other industries,” said Gottfriedsen.

The $ 21.7- million project is seeking financing from Natural Resources Canada through a clean energy fund targeted toward projects with 50 per cent minimum Indigenous ownership.

If the Sc.wén̓wen Economic Development sounds familiar, it’s because they were also partnering with a company, Azure Sustainable Fuels, in a controversial project to produce “green” aviation fuel from canola.

The pulp mill consumes a lot of natural gas to fuel the lime kiln, one of the most energy-intensive parts of pulp production. Hydrogen would replace about 16 per cent of the natural gas used in the kiln and cut about 7,000 tonnes of CO₂ emissions per year.

However, 7,000 tonnes is a small amount of the CO₂ produced by the mill, mostly by the lime kiln. The kiln currently emits an estimated  total of 80,000 tonnes of CO₂ per year, about one half that coming from burning natural gas, the rest from the chemical action of the kiln.

That means the hydrogen will only reduce the CO₂ emission to about 73,000 tonnes.

Hydrogen will be produced by splitting water using electricity. The hydrogen is classified as “green” because BC Hydro is largely generated by turbines at dams.

Blue hydrogen is produced from natural gas with carbon capture of the CO2. Grey hydrogen is also produced from natural gas but the  CO₂ is released to the atmosphere.

The splitting of water also produces oxygen which can be used in bleaching pulp.

Generating hydrogen is expensive. Because there’s a 40 per cent loss of energy in the production of hydrogen from electricity, the cost of heating with hydrogen is greater than with natural gas.

And instead of using the electricity to make hydrogen, it would be more efficient to use the electricity directly to heat the lime kilns instead of natural gas.  This would reduce greenhouse gasses considerably.

But that would require an expensive refit of the lime kiln, a capital expenditure that Kruger is not ready to make.

Kruger will probably not even own the hydrogen plant, called the Kamloops Clean Energy Centre, which means their capital outlay is minimal.

Since I’ll be funding the project through Natural Resources Canada, I hope my money is well-spent.

David Charbonneau is a retired TRU electronics instructor who hosts a blog at http://www.eyeviewkamloops.wordpress.com.