Pioneering Clean Hydrogen – Aurora Hydrogen Vision for a Sustainable Future – Interview with Hydrogen Central.
In an insightful interview with Hydrogen Central, Aurora Hydrogen’s CEO Andrew Gillis unveils its innovative approach to revolutionizing the hydrogen market. Co-founded by Dr. Murray Thompson, a combustion expert, and Dr. Erin Bobicki, a specialist in industrial microwave energy, Aurora Hydrogen has developed a groundbreaking hydrogen production technology. Utilizing natural gas and microwave electricity, Aurora’s method produces emissions-free hydrogen and solid carbon, offering a cost-effective and scalable solution for hard-to-abate sectors. As the world grapples with climate challenges, Aurora Hydrogen novel approach stands out as a beacon for the future of clean hydrogen, aiming to accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy.
Q: Tell us a little about Aurora Hydrogen. What is the company’s history? What do you offer in the hydrogen market?
Aurora is a clean hydrogen company out of Alberta, Canada. Together with Dr. Murray Thompson, a leading combustion expert, and Dr. Erin Bobicki, a leading expert on industrial microwave energy, we’ve developed a novel, energy-efficient hydrogen production technology. Our process uses natural gas and microwave electricity to produce emissions-free hydrogen with solid carbon as a product. Our goal is to provide low-cost, low-carbon hydrogen technology for companies in hard-to-abate sectors looking to lower their emissions in a cost-effective manner.
Q: From your perspective, what is the greatest challenge in the hydrogen industry right now?
As our climate crisis becomes even more pressing, companies have increasingly looked to hydrogen as a more sustainable energy source. While hydrogen is a zero-emission fuel when combusted, traditional hydrogen production methods still emit high levels of CO2 and can be capital-intensive. Our industry’s greatest challenge today is developing and adopting truly clean hydrogen production methods at scale with a cost-competitive price. We need these new technologies to accelerate the transition away from conventional fuels and unsustainable hydrogen production processes toward clean hydrogen in a way that fits business goals and project needs.
Q: What is hydrogen’s role in our transition to a low-carbon economy, and what are the key drivers shaping its adoption?
I truly believe clean hydrogen is the future of a low-carbon economy. Businesses, especially those in hard-to-abate sectors like steel manufacturing, chemical production and long-distance trucking, require a low-emission energy source to reach their decarbonization targets. Hydrogen has long been hailed as a solution, but to accelerate adoption, hydrogen needs to be cost-competitive with traditional combustion fuels. With a low-cost, low-emission hydrogen production method, clean hydrogen can fulfill energy demands and drive a more sustainable economy.
Q: How is Aurora’s technology different from other clean hydrogen production methods?
Many clean hydrogen production methods have emerged to meet the demand for sustainable energy. Methods like steam methane reforming and auto-thermal reforming with carbon capture and storage, electrolysis, and methane pyrolysis exist to create low-emission hydrogen. While reforming and electrolysis technologies have their benefits, they often require significant investment and time to deploy and might produce considerable emissions despite their sustainability measures. Our methane pyrolysis technology mitigates these drawbacks by eliminating CO2 production emissions, requiring minimal infrastructure, and using 80% less electricity than electrolysis. With our novel microwave methane pyrolysis technology and our production plants that use proven, off-the-shelf components, we’ve created a cost-effective, low-emission hydrogen method with low OpEx and CapEx and very competitive carbon intensity vs any method.
Q: Why is Aurora’s method especially fit for hard-to-abate sectors like heavy transportation, steel manufacturing and chemical production?
Hard-to-abate sectors face some of the most significant decarbonization challenges. They’re looking for a solution that makes sense for their business goals and meets their high energy demands. That’s a tall order, but we built our technology with these requirements in mind. Our plants are designed to meet industrial demands at the point of use and can be scaled up or down based on project and site requirements. Our systems are a distributed production solution with preassembled modules that allow for easy implementation and efficient clean hydrogen production, making it ideal for these sectors. If natural gas and electricity are nearby, we can deploy clean hydrogen in the immediate vicinity.
Q: How do you envision your technology impacting the scalability and cost-effectiveness of clean hydrogen production?
As we’ve discussed, cost-effectiveness is the key to accelerating the adoption of clean hydrogen. With Aurora’s technology, projects won’t have to break the bank to meet their decarbonization goals, and they won’t risk the downtime required to implement other infrastructure-heavy production methods. We don’t require major hydrogen or CO2 pipelines, grid upgrades or CO2 geological storage. We’re leveraging proven, off-the-shelf technology that lowers the risk of supply or deployment delays. Even the carbon product of our method is widely applicable in stable mass markets, so businesses don’t have to grapple with selling in niche carbon black markets like other methane pyrolysis methods require.
Q: Looking ahead, what makes you most excited about the clean hydrogen future?
A low-carbon economy is essential for mitigating the effects of our climate crisis. Although it can feel like a heavy weight to decarbonize and restructure operations for the sake of a long-term crisis, this is one of the most pressing issues of our lifetime, and it’s essential to start now. To incentivize businesses to switch from higher-emitting fuels and reach decarbonization targets, clean hydrogen must be cost-competitive in the market. Innovations like Aurora’s microwave methane pyrolysis technology will accelerate the adoption of clean hydrogen and make sustainability targets achievable — it’s an exciting effort that I’m proud to be a part of.
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Pioneering Clean Hydrogen – Aurora Hydrogen Vision for a Sustainable Future – Interview with Hydrogen Central.
