Hydro-Québec the world’s most powerful electrolyzer. The company announced that they will be constructing an electrolyzer facility with a capacity of approximately 90MW. The facility will supply green hydrogen and oxygen to the Recyclage Carbone Varennes (RCV) plant project, which will transform non-recyclable waste into biofuels, providing an alternative to landfill. The hydro electrolysis facility will be built in Varennes, near Montréal, and will require an investment of around US$ 156.7 million dollars from Hydro-Québec, which will be the sole shareholder. The plant will generate some 11,100 metric tonnes of hydrogen and 88,000 metric tonnes of oxygen annually.
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The hydrogen produced will be used as the gasification agent at the RCV biofuel plant, which will be built in a neighboring lot estimated at a cost of over US$532.9 million. Sophie Brochu the President and CEO of Hydro-Québec said in a statement that “thanks to our fleet of over 60 hydroelectric generating stations with a total output of 36,700 MW, the power produced by Hydro-Québec is over 99% clean. This puts Québec in a prime position to take on a leading role in the production of green hydrogen.”
Enerkem, the company providing the Recyclage Carbone Varennes technology that will be used on the electrolyzer by Hydro-Québec. has stated that their proprietary thermochemical process enables the conversion of this carbon into biofuels and renewable chemicals, made from methanol, which is the project’s intermediary product. The proposed Varennes facility will support Québec’s Plan pour une économie verte 2030 (PEV 2030), Québec’s energy policy, and is in line with the government’s desire to pursue the development of a circular economy less dependent on fossil fuel products (40% reduction by 2030). In addition to the benefits stated above, they will also be providing a second life to waste material, will expand the overall supply of alternative fuels and increase biofuel production in Québec.
Not green. The waste used for this “biofuel” is unrecyclable plastic. This process still dumps prehistoric carbon back into the atmosphere. The only advantage is that the carbon is used twice: first as plastic and then as fuel.