City continuing to work to establish hydrogen hub

“There’s approximately $16.2 billion in announcements in this region the Northern Petrochemical, the Nautical, The investment in the city is significant, ” she said.

Eric Van Enk the city’s managing director of Invest Medicine Hat, said the city wasn’t in the running for the $2.5 billion projects. That’s because the city is known to produce dry gas or Methane.

” It is really the basin that they are in. If you look at why was Methanex and CF originally located in Medicine Hat it is because of our abundance of relatively cheap dry gas or Methane.”

” There are other portions of the petrochemical industry that rely on liquid-rich natural gas, they rely on other portions of natural gas, that we don’t produce in Medicine Hat, and so when you look at the massive growth of natural gas in the province, a lot of that is centered around the Grande Prairie region and so they have more natural gas than we do at this point, they have cheaper natural gas than we do at this point, and they also have all the associated liquid content, that we do not have,” Van Enk explained.

With Medicine Hat, one of six regions identified by the province as a possible spot for hydrogen production, the city says they hope to differentiate themselves by focusing on both blue and green hydrogen. The region’s vast amount of solar and wind projects is what they hope will set them apart.

” We don’t see ourselves in competition with Grande Prairie. We actually applaud the initiatives there in industrial development. Medicine Hat has its unique characteristics, and we will take advantage of them and move forward,” stated Brad Maynes managing director of Energy and Infrastructure.

Maynes said the city believes Medicine Hat has a robust future when it comes to Hydrogen production.

That’s due to the city owning its own utilities and being home to industries like CF and Methanex which require hydrogen as an input for production.

” When you look at, how do we establish Medicine Hat as the second hub? The key is really establishing that demand for hydrogen, ” explained Van Enk

Right now, the city is in the midst of creating a foundational report which will act as an advertising document to attract investors. The city is also trying to leverage government support through grant funding.

Work is also being done to bolster the city’s lobbying efforts. Last month city council approved $250,000 in budget funding, a portion of which will go towards establishing a chief of staff position which will help lobby various levels of government for funding.

” We certainly support the chief of staff initiative approved by council and we look forward to that contribution. However, we are still quite confident in our relationships to date and with both levels of government in terms of pushing forth our ideas,” stated Maynes.

While attracting hydrogen investment may seem like a big waiting game, the city says they have the time. That’s because the province still hasn’t approved any Carbon Sequestrian Hubs or pore space for the activity to occur.

“Until that pore space is allocated none of these projects can move forward,” Van Enk said, noting the announcements made in Grande Prairie are relatively preemptive.

“We are in the exact same stage in pore space applications as other projects in the province. We are in the queue with the province we have made the initial expression of interest to the province. We are going through that process in order to be awarded the pore space, ” Van Enk said.

In the meantime, A new hydrogen fuel station is expected to be built in the next two years and the city is hoping to have some demonstration vehicles available to highlight the opportunities that hydrogen can bring.

” Expect to see some hydrogen badge cars hopefully driving around in the next year to two years,” Maynes said.

by Tiffany Goodwein

City continuing to work to establish hydrogen hub

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