Blue fuels production
Blue Fuel Energy will use renewable electricity to electrolyze water, and then catalytically react the hydrogen isolated through this process with waste carbon dioxide (captured from natural gas processing plants) to produce ultra-low-carbon methanol and gasoline.
The first plant will produce about 10,000 barrels of methanol, or 4000 barrels of gasoline, per day. This level of production requires 280 tonnes of hydrogen and 2100 tonnes of CO2 per day. Producing 280 tonnes of hydrogen per day requires 500 MW of renewable electricity to power a huge array of 265 2MW electrolyzers. Getting the 2100 tonnes of CO2 poses much less of a challenge. As a result of BC's carbon tax and a cap and trade regime (as of 2012), Spectra and other natural gas processors are more than willing to capture, purify and deliver to the plant all the CO2 required — at no cost to Blue Fuel Energy. At its Pine River plant near Chetwynd, Spectra emits about 2200 tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere every day — almost exactly the amount our first plant requires each day.
Northeastern BC has sufficient feedstocks to build at least four or five such plants. The only limiting factor is the amount of renewable electricity available to power the electrolyzers: the CO2 is near-limitless and water consumption is minimal. Today, the vast majority of the renewable electricity available in the region is hydro-generated, and BC Hydro has committed to supplying Blue Fuel Energy with 4200 Mwh of hydro-electricity — at set pricing — for the first plant.
Fortunately, northeastern BC also has an extraordinary wind resource that is currently being developed by Aeolis Wind and other companies. Much of this wind will be stranded unless it is converted into “liquid electricity” — fuels such as Blue Fuel Methanol and Blue Fuel Gasoline. Wind farms dedicated to fuels production will thus become part of the BC energy landscape in the not-too-distant future.