Hydrogen buses are coming to Edmonton and area, fuelling hopes for a new energy economy | 24CA News

A hydrogen bus will quickly be hitting the roads of Edmonton, and there are excessive hopes it’s going to assist develop the province’s hydrogen sector.

The bus appears to be like and looks like a typical metropolis bus, however the gas cell makes use of oxygen and hydrogen to generate electrical energy to energy the bus.

The byproducts are warmth and water; there are zero emissions. The warmth is recovered for heating the bus; the water comes out of the exhaust pipe.

“These are ways for us to have sustainable fuel, really look at climate action and put a big punch into that,” stated Eddie Robar, department supervisor of fleet and facility providers for the City of Edmonton.

The pilot will run for one yr in Edmonton; a second hydrogen bus can be piloted in Strathcona County.

“The hydrogen bus pilot is really just a symbol of all the things we want to do with hydrogen in the city. It’s certainly part of our desire to be emissions-neutral by 2050,” stated metropolis supervisor Andre Courbould.

Robar stated the pilot can be judged on how the hydrogen bus handles Alberta’s excessive temperatures and what kind of vary it has.

“We have about a little over 40 per cent of our fleet coming of age in the next four to six years and we want to take advantage of that,” he stated.

“We want to be able to replace that with a more sustainable option.”

Robar stated there may be potential for hydrogen past adjustments solely to transportation.

“Our objective is really about building up Edmonton, building the region, building our city plan, having people move to Edmonton, jobs, opportunities and this is really an opportunity for us to do all of that,” he stated.

The hydrogen economic system

Hydrogen will be sourced by way of electrolysis, the method of utilizing electrical energy to separate water into hydrogen and oxygen. It can be transformed from pure gasoline — and Alberta is a pacesetter in Canada in the case of pure gasoline manufacturing. Both buses will use hydrogen produced in Alberta’s Industrial Heartland.

In 2021, about 2.5 million tonnes of hydrogen had been produced within the province, in keeping with the Alberta Energy Regulator, and manufacturing is anticipated to ramp as much as greater than 3.5 million tonnes by 2031.

“Hydrogen is really this Swiss Army knife that Alberta already has a lot of expertise in, and given this global appetite for hydrogen, we can really be a global leader in this space,” stated Bryan Helfenbaum, govt director of superior hydrocarbons with Alberta Innovates.

The aspect is predominantly utilized in industrial settings in Alberta proper now, however there is a chance to use it to broader markets, reminiscent of heating and energy technology, stated Helfenbaum.

“We already have the technologies in place to make it, to move it and to use it,” he stated.

Hydrogen is on fireplace proper now globally.– Bryan Helfenbaum

A report revealed by the federal authorities in 2020 projected that hydrogen may ship as much as 30 per cent of Canada’s end-use power by 2050.

The report stated that if the nation seized on hydrogen alternatives, it may result in greater than 350,000 jobs and direct revenues of greater than $50 billion a yr by 2050.

Helfenbaum stated hydrogen appears to be modern roughly each 20 years however he thinks the time is now ripe, contemplating the push to decarbonize the power sector.

“There’s a half a trillion dollars of projects that have been announced worldwide for various kinds of hydrogen supply, transportation, storage and end-use and accounting for up to one-quarter of the energy demand and millions of jobs,” he stated.

“Hydrogen is on fire right now globally.”

Lessons from the previous

BC Transit purchased 20 hydrogen buses to be showcased through the 2010 Winter Olympics in Whistler.

But in 2014, the transit authority offered them off due to upkeep prices.

“The Whistler buses were just a little bit too early to be fully successful,” stated Matthew Klippenstein, Western Canada regional director for the Canadian Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Association. 

“We’ve had more years to mature the technology, bring costs down, bring in cleaner fuels more cheaply.”

Klippenstein stated about 4,000 individuals are at present employed within the clear hydrogen sector.

“We expect to see that grow by orders of magnitude as we’re able to displace more polluting forms of energy and replace it with hydrogen and electricity and other forms,” he stated.

The hydrogen bus in Edmonton will formally hit the highway in February.

It may go a great distance towards altering Alberta’s identification.

“Changing that concept of oil country to a sustainable fuel is something people don’t often get an opportunity to be a part of,” Robar stated.

“It starts with one bus, but we’re looking at many things beyond that.”