BC report sees high potential for methane pyrolysis

A new report from the BC Centre for Innovation and Clean Energy (CICE) released April 11 says delivered costs for hydrogen produced with methane pyrolysis could be lower than expected fossil fuel costs in the province by 2030.

The report, The Potential for Methane Pyrolysis in BC, was produced by CICE in collaboration with Orion Projects and Sky Point Resources. It analyses the associated costs, drivers, barriers, and strategic pathways for leveraging BC’s existing energy infrastructure and offers insights to accelerate industry decarbonisation and address limitations of centralised hydrogen production.

“BC is in a prime position to generate ample low-cost, low carbon hydrogen,” CICE CEO Sarah Goodman said. “In particular, the report shows that distributed hydrogen production from methane pyrolysis can help decarbonise hard-to-abate applications where direct electrification is not feasible or viable.”

The report finds that methane pyrolysis provides a cost-effective, low carbon intensity hydrogen production method that could spur rapid deployment of hydrogen across the province and beyond.

The technology can leverage BC’s existing energy infrastructure and resources to generate hydrogen at the point of demand, serving areas where renewable energy, water, and carbon storage reservoirs are not readily available.

And it can do this at a delivered cost as low as C$3.61/kg by 2030, which by adding in carbon revenues would be lower than the forecasted cost of incumbent fossil fuels by 2030, inclusive of carbon taxes.

The full report is available here.