Mr. Chair, and ladies and gentlemen of the Standing Committee on Natural Resources, good afternoon. Thank you for having me here today.
H2 V Energies is in business to become a world leader in the mass production of carbon-neutral green biohydrogen from renewable biomass as of the second quarter of 2024. The plant will produce close to 50,000 tons of green biohydrogen annually, as well as 953,000 tons of food-grade biogenic CO2 for beverages and other things as a co-product. The production of CO2 is economically valuable because it represents only 3% of the North American market; it is a niche market.
H2 V Energies will eliminate 730,000 tons of waste annually, that is, municipal solid waste, mixed paper, non-recyclable plastics as soon as the legislation permits it, fresh and buried bark, and renewable biomass in general.
Capital investment for the plant is in the order of about $1 billion. The technology is Canadian, from OMNI Conversion Technologies, an Ottawa firm. It is a proven, patented, certified and risk-free technology, and it requires no scaling up.
According to our experts, a life cycle analysis, not including plant construction, will give no GHG emissions, or even negative values based on our initial calculations. Moreover, we will create 1,150 construction jobs and 100 mostly high-level jobs in operating the plant.
Our main advantage is undoubtedly the fact that the process requires 5.25 times less electricity than water electrolysis processes to produce an equivalent ton of green hydrogen. When the plant is operation, the annual economic benefits will be approximately $200 million, that is, $131 million for the two levels of government and $70 million reinvested in the regional circular economy.
H2 V Energies is a shovel-ready project, an innovative, practical application of Canadian technology. The process is omnivorous because it can process any type of organic material, such as renewable biomass and municipal solid waste, apart from metals and glass. The process is exportable because it requires little electricity and not all countries are as privileged as Canada in terms of producing hydroelectricity. The target markets are listed in our brief, which I invite you to consult.
To become a world leader in green hydrogen production, Canada must decide now to invest in infrastructure to support the establishment of green hydrogen mass production plants such as the H2 V project. Infrastructure needs exist both for systems based on the capture and safe release of hydrogen by an organic compound and for the tank cars necessary for the safe transport of hydrogen in the organic solution or for the transport of liquefied biogenic CO2, for rail and maritime supply pipelines, or for storage tanks at plant sites.
Such infrastructure is needed for us, for Canada, to be the first to export zero-emission hydrogen to ports in Europe. By meeting the markets demands of Europe or California, Canada can establish its leadership: we can be the first to meet these market demands for zero- or low-carbon intensity hydrogen.
The Canada-Germany agreement of March 2021 states that Germany is in favour of massive imports of green hydrogen from Canada. One should remember that Canada's trade deficit with Germany is over $ 10.8 billion. By 2050, Rotterdam will represent an import market of 18 million tons per year for green hydrogen.
May I draw your attention to the section of the brief on the dehydrogenation hubs currently being built to release such quantities of green hydrogen in receiving countries. Canada must make its efforts in this area a priority. We need to be turning the Canadian corner and leading the way today, now. Let's be the first to export green hydrogen, made in Canada and produced by H2 V Energies, to the European and Californian markets. Let's make sure we put the needed infrastructure in place, because 2024 is just around the corner. With strong and coordinated leadership, we will make Canada a true leader in the production and export of this energy.
In conclusion, in our view, at the current stage of our project, two messages are key.
First, the benefits of green hydrogen will not be apparent without an industrial phase of mass production. That is what we hope to achieve with the support of governments.
Substantial local use and massive international exports will only happen if initiatives such as ours are supported by strong political will today. The race is on, and we can win it.
Thank you for your attention.