Mitsubishi, Shell to produce hydrogen in Canada

Mitsubishi Corporation and Shell Canada Limited will join forces to develop a low-carbon hydrogen production facility in Alberta, Canada.

The hydrogen will be produced by using carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology. Mitsubishi is responsible for constructing a facility that is planned to be located at Shell Energy and Chemicals Park Scotford, near Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Shell will be responsible for facilitating CO2 storage via the proposed Polaris CCS project.

As the low-carbon hydrogen (blue hydrogen) is produced from natural gas, the location chosen by the companies has abundant natural gas resources and has proven CO2 storage capacity and shared infrastructure opportunities with other companies.

The first phase of the project is expected to produce around 165K tonnes/year of hydrogen. The work on the facility is likely to start by the latter half of this decade. The project may also expand in future depends on the demand. As for the export of hydrogen to international markets, it needs to be converted to low-carbon ammonia.

Hiroki Haba, Senior VP Next-Generation Fuels & Petroleum Business Division at Mitsubishi, said, “Mitsubishi is looking into such clean energy opportunities globally. This opportunity in Canada would support Japan’s requirements for clean energy.”

Mark Pattenden, SVP of Chemicals and Products Canada, said, “Shell is leveraging our global leadership in carbon capture and storage to help produce the low-carbon products our customers need to move through an accelerated energy transition. This opportunity is in line with our vision to create a world-class site to provide customers with lower-carbon fuels, products and carbon storage.”