District of North Vancouver Grants Permits for $140M Hydrogen Plant

The liquefaction plant in North Van's Maplewood neighbourhood will be the largest of its kind in Western Canada

District of North Vancouver council has given its final approval for a massive new hydrogen production plant on the industrial waterfront.

Council voted unanimously Monday to grant development permits for HTEC’s $140-million liquefaction plant to be built alongside ERCO Worldwide’s sodium chlorate facility at the foot of Forrester Avenue in the Maplewood neighbourhood.

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HTEC announced plans in 2022 to purchase the property from ERCO with intentions to start capturing 15 tonnes of byproduct hydrogen per day that is currently vented into the atmosphere and process it for distribution for zero-emission vehicles.

The company expects the liquefaction plant to produce enough hydrogen fuel to keep about 300 heavy-duty diesel vehicles on the road annually – a net reduction of about 141,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.

In broad strokes, council already agreed to the hydrogen plant via a rezoning process in 2023 but, because of its major industrial nature, the project needs a separate development permit ensuring that it has been vetted for natural hazard risks, streamside protection, energy and water conservation, greenhouse gas reductions as well as form and character.

District staff said Monday that the company’s application had checked out on all fronts and advised council to go ahead with the permits.

Council members praised HTEC’s project for intensified use of industrial land, the 50 short-term construction and 15 long-term operations jobs it would bring, as well as its potential for helping the province and country meet our greenhouse gas reduction mandates.

"I love a good science project, so this is a definitely an interest, to bring that scientific community onto the North Shore and add this kind of capacity with the potential to make a very significant difference," said Mayor Mike Little.

But Little also took the opportunity to note that HTEC’s business venture would never work in another jurisdiction where taxpayers don’t help keep the cost of electricity low.

"It’s a very thirsty customer to cryogenically cool hydrogen and put it into fuel cells. And in the province of B.C., we have subsidized electricity," he said. "I want to get the biggest bang for our public buck when we’re all the ones investing in the capital to produce that hydroelectric energy."

HTEC CEO Colin Armstrong said, though the hydrogen industry is just getting off the ground in B.C., it’s far from a science experiment.

"It’s a multi billion-dollar industry," he said. "Very expensive rocket ships have a lot of it strapped to it, and it’s used in glass manufacturing, chip manufacturing, solar voltaic manufacturing, hydrogenation of food and all sorts of other things."

And Armstrong added hydrogen will absolutely have a place in B.C.’s clean economy, particularly for heavy industry where battery electric vehicles aren’t well suited.

"Electricity is not the only pathway to get that zero emission," he said. "When you think about the scope needed for driving busses and trucks and trains, you need a lot of electricity, and you need to have alternatives.…This hydrogen provides another pathway."