VANCOUVER, British Columbia, October 13, 2005 -- The Honourable David L. Emerson, Minister of Industry, and Don Bell, Member of Parliament for North Vancouver, today announced a $12.2-million federal contribution to support the development and demonstration of the Integrated Waste Hydrogen Utilization Project (IWHUP) in the Vancouver area.
This project will develop and demonstrate clean energy solutions that make use of an existing but currently untapped source of hydrogen fuel: hydrogen emitted as the by-product of a sodium chlorate manufacturing plant in the North Vancouver area. Through this project, purified hydrogen could be used to fuel a fleet of up to 20,000 vehicles in the Vancouver area, greatly reducing greenhouse gas emissions and the use of fossil fuels.
This three-year project, led by North Vancouver-based Sacré-Davey Innovations Inc., working with Westport Innovations Inc. and Sacré-Davey Engineering, received a contribution of $6.0 million from the Hydrogen Early Adopters (h2EA) program, $5.9 million from Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC), and $273 000 from Natural Resources Canada's Canadian Transportation Fuel Cell Alliance (CTFCA). This support has been leveraged by a contribution of $6.1 million from industry for a total project value of $18.3 million.
"Protecting our environment calls on industry, government and individual Canadians to participate and cooperate in a meaningful way, making changes that have an impact," said Minister Emerson.
"Projects like this demonstrate a public and private sector commitment to making the hydrogen economy a reality, and to promoting innovation and demonstration of the real potential of green energy technologies here in Canada," added Don Bell.
"The Government of Canada continues to work with Canadians to research and develop clean energy solutions and innovative approaches to energy production," said the Honourable John McCallum, Minister of National Revenue and Acting Minister of Natural Resources, on behalf of the Honourable Stéphane Dion, Minister of the Environment. "By supporting projects such as the Integrated Waste Hydrogen Utilization Project, we can help build a solid foundation for moving forward on climate change and ensuring our future prosperity. These measures also support Project Green, the Government of Canada's action plan to build a more sustainable environment."
In addition to the recipients of this contribution, other project participants include: Clean Energy, Dynetek Industries Ltd., Easywash Inc., Hydrogen Technology & Energy Corporation, Nuvera Fuel Cells, Powertech Labs, Questair Technologies Inc., and TransLink.
"Today's announcement further builds momentum in the creation of a sustainable development technology infrastructure in Canada," said Vicky J. Sharpe, SDTC's President and CEO. "We also see the strides that we can make when SDTC facilitates the assembly of industry partners along the supply chain -- product developers, distributors and customers -- to accelerate the market success of clean technologies. Our strategic approach is to do more than fund projects. We help to build consortia to create a full-scale market test."
The project will also demonstrate the full hydrogen value chain that includes the supply, storage, distribution and use of hydrogen. The demonstration will involve the operation of eight light-duty trucks running on hydrogen, four public transit buses converted to run on a combination of compressed natural gas and hydrogen, and a fuel cell system operating on hydrogen and providing electrical power and heat to a car wash.
The North Vancouver fuel station of IWHUP is one of the key stops on the BC Hydrogen HighwayTM that will play a role in sustainable transportation demonstrations for the Vancouver/Whistler 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.
"This support is vital to our ability to demonstrate and improve upon the kind of technologies that will lead Canada towards a hydrogen economy," said Chris Sacré of Sacré-Davey Innovations Inc. "Exploring ways to utilize by-product hydrogen will translate into creating a viable source of green energy in the not-so-distant future."
The h2EA program encourages Canadian companies to participate in a consortium of at least two organizations and demonstrate hydrogen and hydrogen-compatible technologies in real-world applications to accelerate the adoption of such technologies. The program intends to promote the awareness and acceptance of the broad environmental, economic and social benefits of a hydrogen economy.
SDTC is a foundation created by the Government of Canada that operates a $550-million fund to support the development and demonstration of clean technologies -- solutions that address issues of climate change, clean air, and water and soil quality to deliver environmental, economic and health benefits to Canadians.
The CTFCA is a $33-million federal government initiative that will demonstrate and evaluate fuelling options for fuel cell vehicles in Canada. Different combinations of fuels and fuelling systems will be demonstrated by 2008 for light, medium and heavy-duty vehicles.
For more information, please contact:
Christiane Fox
Office of the Honourable David L. Emerson
Minister of Industry Canada
(613) 995-9001
Media Relations
Industry Canada
(613) 943-2502
Andrée Mongeon
Director of Communications
Sustainable Development Technology Canada
(613) 234-6313 x 224
Mobile: (613) 276-2044
a.mongeon@sdtc.ca
Ghislain Charron
Media Relations
Natural Resources Canada
(613) 992-4447
The news release, backgrounder and other documents are available on the Technology Partnerships Canada Web site at http://www.tpc-ptc.ic.gc.ca and the Sustainable Development Technology Canada Web site at http://www.sdtc.ca.
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Backgrounder
Integrated Waste Hydrogen Utilization Project (IWHUP)
IWHUP will develop and demonstrate innovative clean energy solutions that make use of an existing but currently untapped source of hydrogen fuel: hydrogen emitted as the by-product of a sodium chlorate manufacturing plant in the North Vancouver area. When utilized in fuel cells and related technologies, hydrogen offers the potential to significantly reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants in Canada and around the world. By making use of this fuel source right here in Vancouver, this project will demonstrate the viability of using hydrogen captured as a by-product in real-life applications, opening the door to future opportunities across Canada.
This three-year project, led by North Vancouver-based Sacré-Davey Innovations Inc., received a contribution of $6.0 million from the Hydrogen Early Adopters (h2EA) program, $5.9 million from Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC), and $273 000 from Natural Resources Canada's Canadian Transportation Fuel Cell Alliance (CTFCA). This support has been leveraged by a contribution of $6.1 million from industry for a total project value of $18.3 million.
IWHUP is composed of seven sub-projects that will be implemented and demonstrated through 2008, including:
Securing a source of hydrogen from a sodium chlorate manufacturing plant;Demonstrating a compressed hydrogen storage and transportation system;Demonstrating a hydrogen fuelling station for light-duty vehicles;Demonstrating a hydrogen and natural gas blend fuelling facility for heavy-duty vehicles;Demonstrating eight hydrogen-powered light-duty pickup trucks;Demonstrating four transit buses that use a blend of hydrogen and natural gas fuels; and Demonstrating a fuel cell system that will provide electrical power and heat to an environmentally friendly car wash.
The specific roles of the project's private sector contributors are as follows:
Sacré-Davey Innovations Inc., Hydrogen Technology & Energy Corporation and QuestAir Technologies Inc. are involved in securing, purifying and supplying the hydrogen.Sacré-Davey Innovations Inc. and Dynetek Industries Ltd. are involved in developing and demonstrating the compressed hydrogen storage and transportation system.Sacré-Davey Innovations Inc. and Powertech Labs are involved in demonstrating the light-duty vehicle fuelling station.Clean Energy and Translink are involved in demonstrating the hydrogen and natural gas blend fuelling facility for heavy-duty vehicles.Powertech Labs is involved in demonstrating the hydrogen-fuelled light-duty pick-up trucks.Westport Innovations Inc. and Translink are involved in demonstrating the four transit buses operating on the blend of hydrogen and natural gas fuels.Sacré-Davey Innovations Inc., Nuvera Fuel Cells and Easywash Inc. are involved in demonstrating the fuel cell system fuelled with hydrogen from the project.
The contribution by the h2EA program will help secure the supply of hydrogen by-product and support the rollout of hydrogen-based energy systems.
SDTC has played a central role in pulling together the private sector partners, funding sources and project elements. SDTC's support will help build the technology and infrastructure involved in capturing hydrogen as a by-product of sodium chlorate production, and develop vehicle fuelling nodes on the BC Hydrogen HighwayTM that will play a role in sustainable transportation demonstrations for the Vancouver/Whistler 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.
Sacré-Davey Innovations Inc. is the project and systems integration division of the Sacré-Davey Group, which serves the growing need for complete environmentally sustainable solutions. Headquartered in North Vancouver, the Sacré-Davey Group of companies employs over 30 people.
