Perth’s Hazer Group is to licence its Hazer Process for producing hydrogen and graphite to Canadian utility FortisBC which will construct a hydrogen production facility in British Columbia – the first to use the process overseas.
Hazer will provide engineering services for the Hazer production facility with a design capacity of up to 2,500 tonnes per annum (tpa) of hydrogen and approximately 9,500 tpa of graphite, a scale-up of 25 times on the Company’s Commercial Demonstration Plant (CDP) in Western Australia.
The agreement follows the successful startup of Hazer’s CDP which utilises natural gas as a feedstock and has delivered production in-line with expectations.
FortisBC intends to sell the hydrogen from the facility to industrial customers in the Vancouver region to support British Columbia’s CleanBC Roadmap to 2030, the province’s emissions reduction target strategy.
Hazer’s CEO and MD Glenn Corrie said: “We are delighted to cement our relationship with FortisBC in this worldfirst project.
“Canada is a strategic location for the deployment of Hazer technology with abundant, low-cost gas, low-carbon intensity electricity and strong government support.
“The planned construction of the plant in Canada marks an important milestone for our company and it provides validation of our proposed business model.”
To secure alignment for the Project, the parties have agreed a technology licence agreement, technology commercialisation agreement, and engineering services agreement.
The Final Investment Decision (“FID”) window for the project is targeted as early as mid-2025.
Corrie said: “This announcement is the next step in Hazer’s commercialisation strategy.
“Assuming our position as the core technology provider for the project substantially de-risks Hazer’s position and consolidates our capex-lite business model.”
The two parties had previously planned a joint operatorship arrangement for the project.
Further reading:
Hazer Group confirms 2023 hydrogen plant start-up
Picture: Hazer Group/3D model of the 2,500 tpa Canada facility
