Rueben George of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation, at Cates Park in North Vancouver, on April 17. George co-founded Salish Elements, which is trying to become a small-scale producer of 'green hydrogen.'Alison Boulier/The Globe and Mail
An Indigenous-led hydrogen project is seeking to supply the heavy-duty transportation sector, gearing up to play a role in decarbonization in British Columbia.
Salish Elements is aiming to become a small-scale producer of “green hydrogen” in the Lillooet area in southwest B.C.
Green hydrogen would be produced through a process known as water electrolysis, in which hydrogen is captured as fuel after being split from oxygen.
The company’s office is based at the Tsleil-Waututh Nation’s territory in North Vancouver, but the production site would be located in the Lillooet area on the territory of the Xaxli’p First Nation, formerly known as the Fountain Band.
“We have to create opportunity to think of our future generations,” Salish Elements chairman Rueben George said in an interview. “This is something in industry that I’m really happy to be a part of, to move forward and to make a brighter future.”
Mr. George co-founded Salish Elements with Omar Kassem, an engineer who is the company’s chief executive officer.
They say they will think globally and act locally. Dozens of governments around the world have backed hydrogen over the past four years, promoting its increased use in transportation and heating as crucial for the planet to achieve the goal of net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050.
The co-founders of Salish Elements have a vision of the company helping to refuel heavy-duty vehicles that run on hydrogen fuel cells and emit only water as exhaust and some heat.
Their focus is on studying and planning the $110-million production facility that would supply 3,500 tonnes a year of hydrogen, with the goal to start operations in the spring of 2026.
“We’re ambitious. We want to make it happen, mostly for domestic consumption,” Mr. Kassem said. “We want to drive the local ecosystem for hydrogen in B.C.”
Mr. George, a Tsleil-Waututh member, is optimistic about growth in the province’s fledgling hydrogen industry and wants to offer decarbonization solutions to lessen the dependence on fossil fuels.
He is also manager of the Tsleil-Waututh’s Sacred Trust Initiative, which was created in 2012 to fight the Trans Mountain oil pipeline expansion, or TMX. In May, a tanker headed to China from B.C. after becoming the first vessel to load heavy oil from TMX.
Mr. George said that while oil tankers have been loading since May from Trans Mountain’s Westridge Marine Terminal in Burnaby, B.C., he is still concerned about the risk of an oil spill. However, he has now turned his attention as a climate activist to trying to make a difference with green hydrogen.
The heavy-duty trucking industry remains largely dependent on diesel and it will likely take many years before vehicles with hydrogen fuel cells become a significant factor, industry experts say.
Still, supporters of Salish Elements are optimistic that the gradual trend toward decarbonization on B.C. highways is under way.
Xaxli’p Chief Darrell Bob said collaboration with the company will balance economic benefits and environmental protection at Xaxli’p, which is one of 11 communities that form the St’at’imc Nation. “I think it’s an amazing opportunity for the future, changing the carbon footprint on Mother Earth. With climate change, we need to have climate action,” he said.
Salish Elements wants to start construction on the production facility in the spring of 2025, subject to making a final investment decision by the end of 2024. The company also has long-term plans to open B.C. hydrogen refuelling stations in Abbotsford, Cache Creek, Prince George and Prince Rupert.
“This is a vision that’s led by Indigenous peoples about the way water can be used and turned into clean energy to provide benefit for people and communities,” said Josie Osborne, B.C.’s Minister of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation.
She added that there are exciting initiatives and research into hydrogen in the province at the University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University.
Salish Elements is one of more than 50 hydrogen-related proposals in B.C., ranging from production to refuelling stations.
Vancouver-based HTEC, for example, is planning to expand its B.C. network of hydrogen refuelling stations beyond its existing five outlets.
Comparisons with battery-powered electric vehicles are inevitable. Ballard Power Systems Inc., the B.C.-based maker of hydrogen fuel cells that was founded in 1979, argues that fuel cells have major efficiency advantages over batteries for long-distance trucking and buses. But supporters of electric vehicles counter that there are already more than 5,000 recharging stations in B.C. alone for EVs.
The B.C. government created the Clean Energy and Major Projects Office last year to support various proponents with innovative technology, including those advocating for hydrogen.
Besides Salish Elements, small-scale proposals include Quantum Technology Corp.’s plans for green hydrogen in Campbell River on Vancouver Island.
Industry proponents of green hydrogen say there is only a modest amount of emissions during production, compared with higher levels in blue hydrogen, which is derived from natural gas and requires carbon dioxide to be captured and stored.
While Alberta is keen on developing blue hydrogen, climate activists warn against fossil fuel companies promoting natural gas as a feedstock to produce hydrogen.
On the production side in B.C., proposals include large-scale ventures such as Australia’s Fortescue Ltd. hoping to build its Coyote facility for green hydrogen near Prince George, and a separate pitch from the McLeod Lake Indian Band, which is striving to produce both green and blue hydrogen.
Fortescue Ltd. and the McLeod Lake Indian Band could produce green hydrogen for domestic consumption and for shipping to Asia, using ammonia as the energy carrier for hydrogen exports.
Salish Elements will not be producing ammonia and would require only 25 megawatts of power capacity from BC Hydro. By contrast, Fortescue’s Coyote project expects that it will need 900 megawatts for the electrolysis process for hydrogen and another 100 megawatts for ammonia synthesis.
To put that in perspective, the $16-billion Site C hydroelectric dam in northeastern B.C. will add 1,100 megawatts of capacity when fully completed in 2025.
Construction at Trigon Pacific Terminals Ltd.’s export facility, named Berth 2 Beyond Carbon, is now 50-per-cent completed at the Port of Prince Rupert. The $163-million export plant is scheduled to open in 2027, with ammonia among the commodities to be shipped to Asia. The federal government is contributing $75-million toward construction.
But critics are leery of large-scale proposals on Canada’s West Coast and East Coast to produce green hydrogen and ammonia. They say it is highly energy-inefficient to convert hydrogen into ammonia for export.
Julia Levin, associate director of national climate at advocacy group Environmental Defence, is sounding the alarm about what she sees as hydrogen hype. She said electrification and energy efficiency are superior solutions in most instances instead of using hydrogen.
Ms. Levin is a critic of blue hydrogen derived from natural gas, and she is also concerned about large-scale green hydrogen projects because they would need enormous amounts of renewable energy such as hydroelectricity or wind power.
Environmental Defence warns that hydrogen proponents face challenges such as the expensive costs of production. “Financial and regulatory support should only be provided to hydrogen produced with additional renewable energy, for strategic and hard-to-decarbonize sectors where direct electrification isn’t an option,” the group said in a briefing note to policy makers.