Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My name is Brendan O'Connell. I'm the vice-president of business development at Hydrogen Canada Corp., an Alberta corporation. With me today is Bryan Moon. He's the president of our company.
Hydrogen Canada is looking to build a $3.5-billion world-class blue ammonia and hydrogen facility in western Canada for export to Asia. The company will take advantage of cost-effective natural gas in Canada and the relatively short, safe supply route to Asia in order to provide a secure supply of clean energy to Korea and other Asian countries. Each facility will represent up to $800 million in incremental GDP for Canada and create more than $100,000 direct, indirect and induced man-years of employment in Canada, while the Asian market can supply multiple facilities.
Since 2022, Hydrogen Canada has raised $10 million, bought land in the Alberta heartland and completed its preliminary engineering work. Hydrogen Canada's facility was going to use natural gas to produce low-carbon blue hydrogen, then convert it to liquid ammonia. It would capture more than 96% of its CO2 and sequester it in one of the commercial CCS hubs in western Canada. The liquid ammonia would be shipped to international markets in Asia via Trigon's gateway export facility in Prince Rupert, which is partially owned by local aboriginals.
Hydrogen Canada targeted the Korean market due to its commitment to using hydrogen-ammonia to decarbonize its power sector, the size of that mandated market and the fact that Hydrogen Canada has strong relationships in Korea. The government of Korea has passed legislation requiring the blending of hydrogen and ammonia in its power sector in order to reduce emissions. It has also committed to net zero by 2050. Korea still has approximately 35 gigawatts of coal-fired power, and co-firing ammonia in those plants can significantly reduce their emissions. Korea imports over 84% of its energy every day, so this is as much about clean energy as it is about gigajoules of energy. The legislated demand for hydrogen and ammonia in Korea could reach 16 million tonnes per annum by 2036. Power companies were looking to sign contracts last year.
Hydrogen Canada is in a unique position to supply low-carbon energy to Asia due in part to the low-carbon intensity of Canada's differentiated natural gas. In combination with the company's plant design, Hydrogen Canada can produce hydrogen with the lowest carbon intensity of any facility globally. Hydrogen Canada submitted its process information to a Korean agency two years ago, and that agency issued a preliminary carbon intensity rating of less than one kilogram of CO2 per kilogram of hydrogen, one of the lowest ratings globally.
Hydrogen Canada has spent the last three years developing its project. The company worked with Natural Resources Canada to develop an export strategy for an Alberta-based facility. Hydrogen Canada was recently informed that NRCan deferred plans to support a rail-based export strategy. In January, Hydrogen Canada hosted a major Korean conglomerate looking for energy opportunities in Canada. This company still sees a significant market for clean ammonia developing in South Korea, Japan and Asia more broadly. It is still very interested in supporting the development of facilities in Canada. Hydrogen Canada has since refocused its efforts on a facility based on Canada's west coast.
Hydrogen Canada believes there is still a significant opportunity for Canada to become a global leader in clean energy supplied to Asia. However, Canada needs to respond in the very near term, or the investment will go elsewhere. We need to align federal and provincial policy and ensure that the industry can move forward as soon as possible. The recent events in the Middle East highlight the need for democratic, energy-producing countries like Canada to provide secure clean energy to its global partners.
Thank you.