Grant: Alliance Grants

Hydrogen is poised to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help major economic sectors achieve their net-zero carbon objectives by 2050. Canada has abundant supply of natural gas and is one of the top 10 hydrogen producers in the world, with an estimated 3 million tonnes produced annually. Hydrogen production from natural gas offers a unique opportunity to leverage Canada's vast gas reserves to produce a low carbon intensity energy carrier while other production technologies are being scaled. One challenge is the storage and distribution of hydrogen. It is costly and difficult to distribute hydrogen from a centralized production site to end users. Nuionic Technologies (Canada) Inc. (hereafter Nuionic) developed a cost-effective microwave (MW) gas reformer for on-site and on-demand hydrogen production from natural gas and biogas at low cost and at distributed scale, which is one solution to the challenges of hydrogen storage and distribution.To advance the market acceptance and the competitiveness of Nuioinic gas reforming technology, the project aims (1) to develop a robust and commercially viable MW responsive catalyst for maximizing hydrogen production and (2) to optimize Nuionic's gas process to eliminate CO2 emission. The newly developed catalytic materials expect to be incorporated into Nuionic's commercial plant products. Successful accomplishment of this project will not only enhance the opportunity of Nuionic's proprietary MW technology on the market but help to create new job opportunities.