Collaboration to develop manufacturing methods of electric microreactors for clean hydrogen production

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Hydrogen is widely regarded as the fuel of the future, but will eventually need to be entirely produced without carbon emission. Most hydrogen today is produced by catalytic reforming of methane. The heat needed to achieve the reaction is produced through combustion of natural gas, generating large amounts of CO2. Pr. Mathieu Picard and Pr. Luc Fréchette's team at Université de Sherbrooke (UdeS) have developed highly integrated electrically-heated microreactors able to produce net-zero emission hydrogen by replacing gas heating by renewable electricity and favoring carbon-capture in the outlet stream. The reactors are currently being made through powder-bed fusion metal additive manufacturing, taking 8 hours and costing up to 750 C$ per reactors, but they must be manufactured at an industrial scale with faster and more reliable manufacturing methods. Diffusion bonding has the potential of enabling a more consistent production of up to 75 reactors per day while reducing the cost of each individual unit down to 100 C$. The goal of the partnership with the Günter Khöler Institute for Joining Technology and Materials Testing (ifw Jena) from Germany, an application-oriented research center with vast expertise on advanced manufacturing, is to achieve a proof-of-concept for a diffusion bonded, electrically heated steam methane reforming (SMR) reactor and build a strong and lasting relationship with the German research center. The main potential impact of this work is to enable a reliable manufacturing process for the UdeS microreactors, a crucial step towards the production of hydrogen through renewable energy with net zero emission.Canada and Germany signed an agreement to team up on green energy innovation and trade, with a focus on the development of green hydrogen from hydroelectric power for export to Germany, stemming from both countries' goal to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. Additionally to its environmental benefits, hydrogen also presents itself as a great economic opportunity, since the sector is estimated at C$ 50 billions and could create up to 350 000 jobs.