A California company that produces renewable hydrogen has joined with a Louisiana construction group on a project to build a modular waste-to-hydrogen production facility. Ways2H, based in Long Beach, California, and Ford, Bacon & Davis, a Baton Rouge, Louisiana-based engineering, procurement, and construction firm, announced a joint effort to design and build a California facility by the end of 2020, “with a pipeline of additional projects to follow in 2021.”
The companies on Tuesday said the California project will be the first U.S. modular waste-to-hydrogen production facility; Ways2H also has a project underway in Japan. The companies said they will produce renewable hydrogen fuel for the power generation and transportation sectors, while offering alternative disposal options for waste processing and waste disposal companies.
The California Energy Commission in a June report said a lack of existing renewable hydrogen production is creating a gap with fast-growing demand for the fuel. The International Energy Agency, also in a June report, said there is a definite need for renewable hydrogen production to meet rising global demand.
Jean-Louis Kindler, CEO of Ways2H, in a June 29 interview with POWER said his company wants “to demonstrate and to show that it is possible to produce hydrogen out of a renewable resource right where it is needed.” The California project is sited in Kern County, between San Francisco and Los Angeles. He said the company is still deciding whether to focus the facility on “paper and plastic waste,” or on the “usual municipal solid waste.”
Ways2H and Ford, Bacon & Davis on Tuesday said their facilities will utilize a patented process developed through Ways2H’s ongoing joint venture with Japan Blue Energy Co. (JBEC), its long-time technical partner. The approach converts what Ways2H calls “the world’s worst waste, including medical waste, municipal solid waste, plastics, agricultural residue and/or wastewater sludge into renewable hydrogen, with a net zero-carbon footprint.”