Sourcing Renewables  -  May 22, 2020

The world's largest hydrogen plant is coming to California

The City of Lancaster, Calif., will be host to the world’s largest green hydrogen production facility, which is expected to have the capacity to generate up to 3.8 million kilograms of green hydrogen annually using recycled mixed paper.

The technology for the plant, which will be co-owned by the city, will be provided by SGH2. The City of Lancaster expects to save between $50 to $75 per ton in landfilling and landfill space costs by processing the 42,000 tons of recycled waste a year through the hydrogen plant and will provide the output at hydrogen refueling stations across the state for light- and heavy-duty fuel cell vehicles.

“As the world, and our city, cope with the coronavirus crisis, we are looking for ways to ensure a better future. We know a circular economy with renewable energy is the path, and we have positioned ourselves to be the alternative energy capital of the world. That’s why our partnership with SGH2 is so important,” Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris said in a statement. “This is game-changing technology. It not only solves our air quality and climate challenges by producing pollution-free hydrogen. It also solves our plastics and waste problems by turning them into green hydrogen, and does it cleaner and at costs far lower than any other green hydrogen producer.”

Negotiations are currently underway between owners and operators of hydrogen refueling stations in California over the purchase of the plant’s output.

According to SGH2, this technology can turn any kind of waste, even plastic, tires or textiles, into clean hydrogen and is cost-competitive with cheap hydrogen made from coal and gas.

Fluor was selected to provide front-end engineering and design for the Lancaster facility and is working alongside other community partners including Berkeley Lab, UC Berkeley, Thermosolv, Integrity Engineers, Millenium, HyetHydrogen, and Hexagon to bring this project to Lancaster.

The technology developed by SGN2 could also be a solution to the growing plastics problem as it eliminates plastic cleanly and efficiently to convert it to clean hydrogen. The company is also in talks to complete similar projects to the Lancaster one in France, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine, Greece, Japan, South Korea, Poland, Turkey, Russia, China, Brazile, Malaysia and Australia.

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