Howden awarded contract for Atura Power’s Niagara Hydrogen Centre

(Photo: Howden.)

Howden will provide five hydrogen diaphragm compressors for Atura Power’s Niagara Hydrogen Centre in Ontario, Canada.

The facility will be powered by renewable hydroelectricity and will produce 20MW of green hydrogen in Niagara Falls, Ontario, where the energy will be used to power electrolyzers to produce hydrogen.

Howden’s hydrogen compressors will take hydrogen from the electrolyzers and compress for on-site, short-term mobile storage. This project will be the largest green hydrogen production facility in Ontario, providing industrial consumers with low-carbon hydrogen for immediate consumption and will also be transported and blended into the fuel stream at Atura Power’s Halton Hills Generating Station, creating cleaner electricity for Ontario.

“We are pleased that our solutions will support Atura Power’s plan to build one of Canada’s largest green-energy hubs that will play a key role in reducing greenhouse gases in the region,” said Salah Mahdy, Global Director, Renewable Hydrogen at Howden. “This contract and approach by working closely with Atura to identify the best compression solution and system design for their needs represents a great example of how we are working with customers to support the energy transition and advance a more sustainable world. Our solution in this project focuses on safe, cost-effective, and efficient hydrogen compression followed by on-going support to ensure plant efficiency and reliability.”

“Atura Power has a leading position in the emerging Ontario hydrogen economy, and the completion of the Niagara Hydrogen Centre will allow us to reach our goal of being the first low-carbon hydrogen producer in the province,” said Shelley Babin, Atura Power President.

Some of Howden’s key contracts in the last year have included: supplying hydrogen compressors for the largest hydrogen refuelling station in the world in China and for the refuelling stations at the Beijing Winter Olympics; creating solutions for the first fossil-free steel plant in the world in Sweden; and supporting the world’s first climate neutral fuel (eFuel) plant located in Chile.

Atura Power plans to build a large-scale hydrogen production facility in Ontario for heavy duty trucking, municipal mobility and heavy industrial consumers in the region.

In the near-term, hydrogen will also be blended into Atura Power’s gas turbine facilities and will be produced using run-of-river hydroelectricity with the capability to provide grid regulation services. Atura has estimated the facility will be online early 2024.