Aurora Hydrogen, an Edmonton-based H₂ technology company, is producing the world’s first high-efficiency clean H₂ through methane pyrolysis and collaborating across the industry to develop the low-carbon H₂ market in Canada.

Aurora Hydrogen is helping advance transparency and credibility of H₂ markets alongside industry leaders as a technical sponsor of the open H₂ initiative (OHI), a group led by GTI Energy, S&P Global Commodity Insights and National Energy Technology Laboratory, and through its presence at prominent energy conferences.

OHI recently released an open-source toolkit to standardize the carbon intensity measurement of H₂ for the global market. With H₂ supply expected to grow by 170% to 256 million metric tons (MMt) in 2050, according to S&P Global Commodity Insights, a standard tool to measure carbon intensity will unlock H₂’s potential to decarbonize energy-intensive sectors. As the sole methane pyrolysis company in OHI, Aurora Hydrogen provided input on the toolkit to ensure it included all viable production methods and factored in the valorization of the carbon coproduct.

“At Aurora, we believe that low-cost, low-carbon H₂ is necessary to bring the market to its full potential scale, and the first step to recognize low-carbon H₂ is to drive consistence on how we are calculating carbon intensity,” said Dr. Andrew Gillis, co-founder and CEO of Aurora Hydrogen. “The OHI toolkit will support the adoption of H₂ as an economically attractive decarbonization pathway. We hope to see governments and companies alike lean on the expertise of those involved with OHI and implement this toolkit to measure the carbon emissions of H₂ at any given facility, regardless of location or production method.”

To further industry collaboration and advance the progress of low-carbon H₂, Gillis and Dr. Erin Bobicki, Chief Technology Officer at Aurora Hydrogen, will be speaking at the Canadian H₂ Convention in Edmonton from April 23-25. Gillis and Bobicki will be featured on panels discussing H₂’s role in the energy transition, how H₂ can assist with energy security and how to scale up microwave-driven methane pyrolysis.

“To accelerate the next phase of the H₂ economy, we need industry collaboration,” said Dr. Erin Bobicki, Chief Technology Officer. “Conferences like the Canadian H₂ Convention bring players from across the H₂ supply chain to together to discuss how we can drive the H₂ market forward.”

Aurora Hydrogen’s method of methane pyrolysis produces clean H₂ at the point of use, eliminating the need for H₂ transportation or CO₂ storage. First developed and tested by scientists from the University of Toronto and University of Alberta in Canada, the method uses natural gas and microwaves to produce H₂ and solid carbon without CO₂ emissions.