Corporate Overview

Western Hydrogen Limited is a Canadian company, based in Calgary, Alberta dedicated to the development and commercialization of a new hydrogen manufacturing technology called Molten Salt Catalyzed Gasification. The Molten Salt Catalyzed Gasification process is projected to have significant economic and environmental advantages over current hydrogen manufacturing technologies including lower hydrogen supply costs, maximum feedstock flexibility, significantly lower GHG emissions, high pressure hydrogen production and “sequestration ready” CO₂

Our Molten Salt Catalyzed Gasification Process

The Molten Salt Gasification process has been under development at the US Department of Energy's Idaho National Laboratory since 2006. Original funding was provided from internal Idaho National Laboratory funds. Once feasibility was shown, commercial funding was sought and obtained from Western Hydrogen Limited. In turn, Western Hydrogen Limited received an exclusive license to the technology. Subsequently, Western Hydrogen Limited applied for and received funding from Sustainable Development Technology Canada. The total investment in the technology to date is approaching $6 million. Depending on operating conditions, the Molten Salt Catalyzed Gasification process is capable of producing hydrogen, synthetic natural gas or synthesis gas at high pressure from any carbon containing material and water. Carbon dioxide exits the process as a separate stream at high pressure. The process has been run for extended periods of time and at pressures of 2000 psig at a laboratory scale.

Pilot & Demonstration Plants

Western Hydrogen Limited is building a 200,000 SCFD pilot plant to prove the operation of the Molten Salt Catalyzed Gasification process on a continuous basis. The pilot plant will initially be installed at the Idaho National Laboratory in Idaho Falls, Idaho. After commissioning and initial testing, the pilot plant will be moved to industrial land near Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta for continuous operation starting in 2012. The pilot plant will provide the data required to enable the construction of a demonstration plant. The demonstration plant is expected to produce on the order of 2 MMSCFD of hydrogen. When fabrication is complete, the demonstration plant will be placed on the same location in Alberta as the pilot plant – with start-up planned for 2014.