Alberta H2 firm to study optimising hydrogen fuel networks

Azolla Hydrogen, an Alberta-based start-up focused on hydrogen, said March 14 it had teamed with the Ivey Business School at Ontario’s Western University to study pathways to optimising hydrogen fuel networks.

Azolla is developing technologies that promote the adoption of low-carbon fuels, and the research with Ivey will analyse the processes and challenges to implementing a methanol-based hydrogen network to meet vehicular fuel demand in North America. A second outcome of the project will be the determination of an optimal design for a hydrogen-based clean fuel network.

“Our technology’s premise is based on lean manufacturing to increase the efficiency of low GHG hydrogen production, making it even more sustainable and part of the circular carbon economy,” Azolla CEO Jared Sayers said.

As a first step, the research project will design and assess feasible hydrogen fuel networks in Alberta and California as case studies.

“The need for low-carbon fuels was yesterday,” said Dr Fredrik Odegaard, principal investigator at the Ivey Business School. “We simply cannot combat global warming without drastically changing the current fuel source of motor vehicles.”

A better understanding of the life cycle of carbon production is also needed to design fueling networks that are both environmentally sustainable and economically scalable, he added.