This 50/50 grant will go towards expanding CP’s number of hydrogen locomotive conversions from one to three.
Canadian Pacific announced it is expanding its Hydrogen Locomotive Program with a $15 million grant from Emissions Reduction Alberta (ERA).
The 50/50 matching grant enables CP to increase the number of hydrogen locomotive conversions in the project from one to three and add hydrogen production and fuelling facilities. The ERA grant builds on the $15 million CP already planned to invest in the development project in 2021.
In December 2020, CP announced it would design and build North America’s first line-haul hydrogen-powered locomotive using fuel cells and batteries to power the locomotive’s electric traction motors.
This work will refine the process of converting diesel-electric powertrains to hydrogen-electric powertrains over a series of three categories of locomotive, which collectively represent most locomotives in use throughout North America.
To support hydrogen locomotive operations, the project will include installation of hydrogen production and fuelling facilities at CP rail yards in Calgary and Edmonton. The Calgary fuelling facility is said to include an electrolysis plant to produce green hydrogen from water. This facility will operate on renewable power from solar panels at CP’s headquarters campus and produce zero greenhouse gas emissions.
The Edmonton facility includes a methane reformation system that will generate blue hydrogen from Alberta’s fossil fuel gas resources. The system will be constructed to accommodate the possible future addition of greenhouse gas capture equipment.
Canada is the fourth largest producer of oil and gas in the world. Alberta is Canada’s largest oil producing province, providing approximately 80 percent of Canadian oil production. In addition to being the largest producer of oil sands bitumen in the world, Alberta is the largest producer of conventional crude oil, synthetic crude, and natural gas in Canada.