Canada puts hydrogen to the test
How Edmonton is connecting production, carbon capture and demand
Along a 550-mile loop through Canada’s Rocky Mountains, hydrogen-powered locomotives are hauling heavy coal trains. Success on this demanding corridor could pave the way for retrofitting a rail fleet that stretches from the Pacific coast across the prairies and south into Mexico.
The trial runs, led by Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC), reflect a broader wave of hydrogen innovation being showcased in Edmonton and rooted in the region’s long legacy in oil and gas. During the recent Canadian Hydrogen Convention, delegates from South Korea to Australia gathered trackside in Edmonton to see the lime-green locomotive for themselves. Here, the conference discussion moved out into the field. The retrofitted engines, running almost silently, combine hydrogen fuel cells with batteries to replace diesel power.
Canada is emerging as a key player in the hydrogen sector, and Edmonton sits at the centre of one of its most active regional ecosystems. Alberta already produces more than 2.5m tonnes of hydrogen each year, used in transport, fertiliser manufacturing and, crucially, heavy industry.
The industrial base has taken on new significance as conflicts in Ukraine and Iran sharpen interest in energy security and hydrogen. European countries eager to reduce reliance on Russian gas are exploring alternative imports, while Canada is positioning itself as a potential supplier, even as momentum in parts of the United States has slowed amid shifting political priorities.
Unlike many regions still planning hydrogen economies, Alberta is connecting production, infrastructure and industrial demand into a functioning system.
A system at work
“You've got tremendous geology, infrastructure...technical capability that enables the capture of carbon dioxide and storage underground.”
Mark Plamondon, Executive director, Alberta Industrial Heartland Association
Shell uses hydrogen to upgrade bitumen into synthetic crude oil, while Imperial Oil uses the gas to produce renewable diesel. Hydrogen is also expected to help power a Dow net-zero petrochemicals plant.
Globally, the hydrogen sector is often fragmented, with production, transport and demand developing in isolation. The Edmonton region offers a working model of how these can come together. That concentration also gives Edmonton’s hydrogen meetings their edge. Delegates gather in a city where production, carbon capture and demand are taking shape nearby.
The carbon takes a different path
Producing hydrogen is only part of the story. Historically, refineries vented carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. In Alberta’s Industrial Heartland, facilities are being designed to capture those emissions, backed by government incentives.
At the Sturgeon Refinery, northeast of Edmonton, the leftover byproduct from the bitumen refining process is converted at temperatures of around 1,350°C into hydrogen and carbon dioxide. The hydrogen is used by the facility to refine bitumen into diesel.
The carbon dioxide takes a different path.
Captured at source, the CO₂ cooled and pressurised at Wolf Midstream’s facilities before being transported.
It then enters the Alberta Carbon Trunk Line (ACTL), Wolf Midstream’s 240-km pipeline, which carries captured emissions from industrial facilities such as the Sturgeon refinery and Nutrien’s Redwater fertiliser plant to deep geological storage.
Nearly 5,000 tonnes of CO₂ move through the system each day. With a capacity of close to 40,000 tonnes per day, the pipeline was designed to support future growth.
Where the sector meets
Existing oil infrastructure and a workforce with significant experience in the industry have helped to make Edmonton a meeting point for hydrogen experts, including a gathering of the International Energy Agency (IEA) hydrogen collaboration programme.
For Paul Lucchese, chair of the IEA’s Hydrogen Technology Collaboration, the attraction is the region’s unusually complete hydrogen ecosystem. Edmonton, as he points out, combines heavy industry, natural gas resources, industrial capabilities and university research. “It's a unique combination of every part of the value chain.”
That proximity gives Edmonton’s business events their strength. The Canadian Hydrogen Convention is not detached from the industry it convenes: debates over cost, demand and policy certainty take place close to the infrastructure, laboratories and industrial users.
Canada is increasingly seen as one of the sector’s more credible players. For Stephanie Lynch, director of business events at Explore Edmonton, the local infrastructure is matched by the city’s ability to bring the global industry together. The convention also helped to advance new partnerships, including a memorandum of understanding with Japan’s Kawasaki Heavy Industries to explore a liquefied hydrogen supply chain.
Hydrogen on the ground
Outside the Edmonton Convention Centre, hydrogen is being tested on roads, in labs and across industrial sites. Hydrogen-diesel buses are refuelling at an Azolla hydrogen station, while engineers at C-FER Technologies test whether existing natural gas pipelines can safely carry hydrogen, helping to determine where infrastructure can be repurposed, rather than rebuilt.
Unlike most labs, C-FER’s facilities can simulate full-scale conditions under pressure, temperature and load, including inside sealed, explosion-proof chambers.
At Diesel Tech Industries (DTI), hydrogen-diesel systems are being deployed on Edmonton’s roads in retrofitted vehicles from trucks to buses to snow-clearing equipment, offering a way to cut emissions without sacrificing range or payload, or replacing entire fleets.
Start of carousel.
End of carousel.
The next test
For CPKC, the hope is to one day use hydrogen locomotives to haul other products across North America.
“From the prairies to Vancouver, we run potash, sulphur, grain and coal with about 500 locomotives,” CPKC’s Mr Mulligan says. “If it works in coal, it will work in those fleets.”
Where diesel engines once drowned out conversation, engineers now need a signal to know the hydrogen locomotive is running. It is a small but telling shift, even if there are still broader challenges to meet.
Questions of scale and cost remain. Delegates discussed what it will take to move from pilots to wider deployment. Policy was a recurring theme, with many acknowledging that without clear, consistent signals from governments, investment may remain cautious.
Nevertheless, the Edmonton region offers a glimpse of a more integrated hydrogen economy. Hydrogen’s role is becoming clearer: less a catch-all solution, and more a targeted tool, taking hold first where production, infrastructure and demand can be aligned. Yet its story is still unfolding.
As Roxana Bekemohammadi, founder and executive director of the United States Hydrogen Alliance, told conference attendees: “Hydrogen’s been here before as it will be here after us. We’re just beginning to crack the code on it.”
