Frequently Asked Questions

23,235 kg/day (8,480,609 kg/year) from three production pathways: electrolysis (10,735 kg/day), methane pyrolysis (7,500 kg/day), and biomass gasification with BECCS (5,000 kg/day). Blended levelized cost of hydrogen (LCOH) is $3.91/kg with a carbon-negative blended CI.

Two sites in Metro Vancouver, connected by existing road and rail corridors. The production facility is planned for the Burrard Thermal Generating Station in Port Moody, BC, a decommissioned BC Hydro power plant with an existing 230 kV switchyard, FortisBC gas pipeline, deep-water port access, and heavy rail. Reusing this brownfield industrial site saves approximately $15M in infrastructure costs compared to a greenfield build.

The dispensing hub at Waterfront Station in downtown Vancouver serves transit, marine, and port fueling needs at the centre of Metro Vancouver's transportation network. This co-location of production and demand within 20 km eliminates the long-distance hydrogen transport costs that have undermined other projects.

PDEC is building BC's hydrogen production corridor. Two production sites with independent economics, connected as one network. Burrard Thermal in Port Moody is the anchor project, serving Metro Vancouver offtakers through the Waterfront Station fuelling hub. A parallel Vancouver Island site at the former Domtar Crofton mill is in consideration to serve Vancouver Island offtakers with a mainland barge connection as a corridor synergy.

Each site has its own financial model and can be financed independently. Investors can back one, the other, or both. Together the two nodes form a corridor with supply redundancy, expanded market reach, and shared operational overhead.

The Crofton mill site on Vancouver Island is being evaluated as a parallel hydrogen production node. It complements Burrard Thermal rather than competing with it: Vancouver Island offtakers (BC Ferries Route 6, Cowichan Valley Transit, Western Forest Products Chemainus, CFB Esquimalt, and others) are served more efficiently from an on-island production facility than from Metro Vancouver.

Crofton adds a third production pathway (biomass-to-hydrogen with carbon capture) alongside electrolysis and methane pyrolysis, making its blended carbon intensity negative. Engagement with Halalt First Nation, Cowichan Tribes, and local stakeholders is underway.

For the full proposal — tri-pathway architecture, community and First Nations approach, infrastructure detail, economics, risks, and timeline — see the dedicated Crofton page.

$1.39B in 20-year net present value (benefits basis), with $141.4M in total annual value including direct revenue and social/externality benefits. As operator, PDEC projects $100.8M in annual revenue and $38.2M EBITDA (38% margin). Payback period is 2.4 years (4.8 years with federal Investment Tax Credit).

87,538 tonnes per year, equivalent to removing 19,030 cars from the road. This comes from displacing 32.7 million litres per year annually across seven sectors.

Seven sectors: transit (4,200 kg/day), marine (6,750 kg/day), port equipment (2,840 kg/day), rail (1,500 kg/day), defense (2,000 kg/day), aviation (300 kg/day), and other industrial (500 kg/day). 26 identified offtakers.

At $5.80/kg sales price, PDEC hydrogen is cost-competitive with diesel on an energy-equivalent basis. The blended production cost of $3.91/kg provides a gross margin of $5.38/kg. Total avoided diesel cost across all offtakers is $52.3M annually.

Phase 1 CapEx ranges from $160M to $265M, covering the electrolyzer installation, dispensing hub buildout, tube trailer distribution system, and pyrolysis pilot unit. Burrard Thermal's existing infrastructure (230 kV switchyard, FortisBC gas pipeline, road and rail access) saves approximately $15M compared to a greenfield site. Phase 0 pre-development costs are $500K to $1M, covering feasibility studies, site lease negotiations, and FEED engineering.

Multi-layered capital strategy: federal programs (Strategic Innovation Fund, Clean Hydrogen Investment Tax Credit), provincial incentives (CleanBC, LCFS credits generating up to $8M/year), private investment, and potential infrastructure partnerships. The project is in pre-development (Phase 0) focused on securing offtaker letters of intent, site agreements, and anchor funding commitments.

Four phases spanning 2026 to 2033+. Phase 0 (2026-2027, current): pre-development including site lease agreements with BC Hydro, feasibility and FEED studies, First Nations engagement framework, offtaker letters of intent, and seed funding. Budget: $500K to $1M. Phase 1 (2028-2030): electrolyzer installation at Burrard Thermal, dispensing hub at Waterfront Station, tube trailer distribution, first offtakers online, and methane pyrolysis pilot. Budget: $160M to $265M.

Phase 2 (2030-2032): full electrolyzer capacity to 23,235 kg/day, commercial-scale pyrolysis, remaining offtakers online, FortisBC natural gas blending. Phase 3 (2033+): green steel corridor including a hot briquetted iron (HBI) facility in the Elk Valley, Asia-Pacific green HBI export, and coal workforce transition. The phased approach allows each stage to be funded and de-risked independently.

PDEC is in early-stage engagement guided by Dr. Matt Murphy (Associate Professor, UVic Balance Co-Lab) who advises on First Nations engagement strategy. The approach centers on free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) principles, consistent with UNDRIP and BC's Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA).

PDEC is led by Vincent Royer, PMP (Project Management Professional), MBA candidate at UVic Gustavson School of Business. The team includes Dr. Matt Murphy (Indigenous engagement and academic partnerships), Robin Shelley (communications and marketing), and Olenka Stepanova, CPHR (people and organizational strategy). The project operates through 17776098 Canada Inc., a federal CBCA corporation.

Methane pyrolysis is entering commercial deployment. The process requires only 37.5 kJ per mole of hydrogen, less than one-third of the energy consumed by water electrolysis (285.8 kJ/mol). Monolith Inc. operates the world's first commercial-scale plant in Nebraska (TRL 9), producing 5,000 tonnes of hydrogen and 14,000 tonnes of carbon black annually. Monolith's carbon black is sold commercially to Goodyear for EV tires.

Canadian companies Ekona Power (Burnaby, BC) and Aurora Hydrogen have advanced to pilot/demonstration scale. BASF and ExxonMobil signed a joint development agreement in late 2025 for a near-commercial demonstration plant in Texas. PDEC's tri-pathway model (electrolysis + pyrolysis + biomass with BECCS) uses pyrolysis and biomass to lower the blended LCOH to $3.91/kg, provides triple-redundant supply, and achieves a carbon-negative blended CI via BECCS.

Carbon black is a large, established global market valued at $22-29 billion (2025) and growing at 4.5-5.4% CAGR. Current North American prices range from $1,900-$2,350 per tonne. Applications span tires and industrial rubber (70-73% of demand), lithium-ion battery electrodes, conductive plastics, coatings, and construction materials. Monolith has validated this commercially through its Goodyear partnership.

At PDEC's scale (~8,212 tonnes of carbon per year), production fits comfortably within existing North American market demand without oversaturation, generating approximately $4.5M in annual co-product revenue.

Over $10 billion in hydrogen projects were cancelled in 2024-2025. These were predominantly speculative export mega-projects that shared common failure modes: no binding offtake agreements, green hydrogen costs of $5-8/kg (far above grey hydrogen), reliance on non-existent pipeline/shipping infrastructure, and dependence on volatile government subsidies.

PDEC is structurally different in every dimension: it co-locates production with 26 local offtakers (eliminating transport costs), reuses existing Burrard Thermal infrastructure (avoiding greenfield capital inflation), achieves a blended LCOH of $3.91/kg through tri-pathway production (electrolysis + pyrolysis + biomass with BECCS), and is competitive with diesel at $5.80/kg without requiring carbon pricing. The industry consensus is that the future belongs to localized industrial cluster hubs, not export mega-projects.

The BC Transit Whistler pilot (2010-2014) deployed 20 hydrogen fuel cell buses at $89.5M. The project was discontinued in 2014, and the primary cause was logistical rather than technological: no local hydrogen production existed, so liquid hydrogen was trucked 4,000-5,000 km from Quebec, costing $2.28/km in fuel vs. $0.65/km for diesel. Roughly 65% of the fleet's carbon footprint came from transporting the fuel. Fleet availability was 64-69% vs. the 85-90% standard, partly due to cold-weather fuel cell issues in early 2010 technology.

The lesson is precisely PDEC's thesis: hydrogen only works with co-located local production. PDEC produces hydrogen at the point of use, entirely eliminating the transport cost and emissions penalty that undermined the Whistler pilot.

Methane pyrolysis splits natural gas (CH4) into hydrogen and solid carbon without combustion, producing zero direct CO2 emissions. The solid carbon is a marketable byproduct ($1,643/tonne, generating $4.5M/year).

Combined with electrolysis and biomass+BECCS, the tri-pathway approach provides: (1) triple-redundant supply if grid, natural gas, or biomass feedstock is disrupted, (2) a blended LCOH of $3.91/kg, lower than electrolysis alone ($4.73/kg), (3) a carbon-negative blended CI unlocking the top 40% Clean Hydrogen ITC, and (4) multiple revenue streams from carbon, biochar, sequestered CO2, oxygen, and district heat co-products totaling $85.4M in annual hub economics.