Winnipeg Transit poised to award hydrogen-generation contract to Alberta firm

Winnipeg Transitis poised to award a $9-million contract to an Alberta company that will design and build a means of using methanol to generate hydrogen to fuelnew zero-emission buses.

The transit official in charge of the project hopes it will pave the way for even cleaner forms of hydrogen production in this province.

On May 7, city council's public works committee will consider awarding Red Deer-basedAzolla Hydrogen a contract to design, build and install hydrogen generation equipment for Winnipeg Transit and operate it for one year, according to a report publishedWednesday.

The equipment will usemethanolas source of hydrogen. The city looked for a way produce hydrogen from water, using electrolysis, but found the cost to be too high,said Erin Cooke, who manages Winnipeg Transit's transition to zero-emission buses.

"This is a technologythat was a little bit more cost-effective, proven for a cold climate andat a price point that was within our budget," Cooke said in an interview.

The project will use methanol that's already shipped to Winnipeg by tanker truck for use in sewage-treatment processes, Cooke said.This will result in generating more carbon emissions than using water, mainly because the production of methanol, even from renewable sources,generates some emissions of its own.

Nonetheless, the total of amount of emissions created by producing methanol,generatinghydrogen from it and then running buses on that hydrogen is about 60 per cent lower than total emissions involved in operating diesel buses, Cooke said.

"Ifa more affordable, lower-carbon version of hydrogen comes available with some investment in Manitoba in the future, it's something that we would like to consider transitioning to," she said.

Cooke called the Winnipeg Transit project important for hydrogen generation in this province, something she hopes will become firmlyestablished over the next three years.

"We're targeting 30 per centof our fleet hopefully to be hydrogen and this is really [something] that we hope will be the kickstarter to growing the hydrogen economy in Manitoba," she said.

"There are a number of other smaller users in agriculture and even within city of Winnipeg that have some interest in hydrogen and this potentially gives an option to support additional trials on small-scale hydrogen."

Even with a fleet of diesel buses, Winnipeg Transit is a minor contributor to carbon emissions in the city, relatively speaking. Reports to council suggest transit is responsible for generating less than one per cent of the city's overall emissions.

Personal motor vehicles generate closeto 32 per cent of the city'semissions, while another 18per cent comefrom commercial vehicles, the same reports estimate.

Curt Hull, project director for the non-profit organizationClimate Change Connection, said transit's move away from fossil fuels nonethelesscomplements efforts to get Winnipeggers to ridebuses more often.

"The vast majority of the greenhouse gas emissions from transportation in the city of Winnipeg is from single-passenger automobiles, not from buses. But as we move people away from their dependence on on vehicles,then buses areone of the places that we want to push them," he said.

Cooke called hydrogen-fuelled and electric-batterybuses "the icing on the cake" for transit's zero-emissiontransition, ashydrogen and electric buses are quieter and relatively odourless.

"That's more appealing to transit riders," she said. "We're not looking at a dirty diesel bus. These are buses that we can run next to active-transportation corridors and into neighbourhoods that traditionally would not want a diesel bus running."