Hydro-Qubec is backing down and will not build what it had announced with great fanfare as the largest green hydrogen plant in the world, in Varennes.
HELENE BARILTHE PRESS
This investment of 200 million, which was to be used to supply hydrogen to the biofuel plant built by Enerkem and nearby partners, is no longer part of the priorities of the state company, said a spokesperson, Caroline Desrosiers. .
“Over the past few months, the project has been redesigned to combine hydrogen and biofuel production,” she said. We are no longer participating in the project, because biofuel is not one of Hydro-Qubec's priorities. »
The two plants, that of biofuel and that of hydrogen, were to be commissioned at the same time in 2023, we learned when the project was announced in 2020. “The entire production [of hydrogen] will be sold to Enerkem at an attractive price for both parties and which will generate revenue for Hydro-Qubec,” Hydro-Qubec specified at the time.
It is the Government of Quebec, through Investissement Qubec, which will save the project. Economy Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon announced on Wednesday the injection of 284.45 million into the project known as Recyclage Carbone Varennes (RCV).
This additional investment brings to 365.45 million the sums invested by Quebec in this project estimated at nearly 1 billion dollars. Investissement Qubec is already a shareholder of Enerkem.
Enerkem's partners in RCV, namely Shell, Suncor and Proman, a producer of gas derivatives based in Switzerland, are the other investors. It was impossible to know the contribution of each. These three companies "will be responsible for supporting the establishment in Varennes of an electrolyser with a capacity of 88 MW for the production of green hydrogen and a plant for the production of clean fuels", is content to indicate the minister in a press release.
Hydro-Quebec, for its part, ensures that the production of hydrogen still interests it. “We are open to other projects and ready to discuss them,” assures its spokesperson, who adds that the company currently has no other hydrogen project.
A long journey
Recyclage Carbone Varennes should be the first commercial application in Quebec of the technology that Enerkem has been developing since 2014. The future plant aims to transform non-recoverable waste into syngas and methanol. In a subsequent phase, methanol could become ethanol and be mixed with gasoline to run cars.
Enerkem expects to be able to treat 200,000 tonnes of residual materials annually and produce 135 million liters of methanol, an alcohol generally used as a solvent.
The waste will come from construction materials and sawing residue recovery sites, which will be transported to Varennes by train and truck.
The Varennes project was first announced in 2008.