Hyzon Motors’ partner, Raven SR Inc., is building its first waste-to-green hydrogen production hub, planned to become operational in summer 2022. This comes after Raven and Hyzon announced a partnership to build up to 250 low-to-negative carbon intensity hydrogen hubs. In connection with this partnership, Hyzon has acquired a minority interest in Raven.
Located at Republic Services’ West Contra Costa Sanitary Landfill in Northern California, the facility will be co-developed, with Hyzon investing up to 75% in the equity and offtake from the waste-to-hydrogen hub.
Raven expects initially to process up to 99.9 tons of organic waste per day at the landfill, producing up to 2,000 metric-tons per year of renewable hydrogen as well as power for its operations. Hyzon will provide offtake through its vehicle customers. This facility will help move toward California’s goal of reducing emissions from organic waste under the state’s Short-Lived Climate Pollutant (SLCP) Reduction Strategy while also producing negative carbon intensity hydrogen fuel.
Raven’s patented Steam/CO2 Reformation process is one of the only non-combustion, waste-to-hydrogen processes in the world. According to the company, its process avoids the creation of toxic pollutants and particulates, producing more green hydrogen per ton of waste than competing processes.
“As we bring this system online under very strict environmental regulatory controls, we will demonstrate we can convert waste anywhere,” Matt Murdock, Raven CEO, said. “In doing so, the Raven SR process will significantly reduce municipal solid waste and toxic emissions, improve air quality, and create clean, renewable fuels.”
Raven noted that it also will work to ease the transition to zero-emissions vehicles for fleet operators, since production, refueling infrastructure, and vehicle availability will all be aligned geographically and technologically. This alignment is expected to reduce total costs to customers.
“Raven’s technology will not only provide zero-emissions fuel for our vehicles, but also eliminates an additional source of carbon emissions—landfill waste,” said Hyzon CEO Craig Knight. “In this way, our partnership expedites decarbonization of the transport industry. Launching this ‘greener than green’ refueling station is the first step in realizing Hyzon’s vision of 1,000 green hydrogen hubs.”