Port of Halifax seeks green fuel storage site

The Port of Halifax is looking for places to store hydrogen or other green fuels for the big container ships that call on the city, but not on the peninsula that is home to its two container terminals.

The search for green fuel "bunkering" flows from a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Port of Hamburg in Germany to work on creating a decarbonized shipping corridor between the two ports.

"The main reason we entered into it was we needed to move the dial," Halifax Port Authority president and CEO Capt. Allan Gray said during a break at a conference in Halifax on the role ports can play in fighting climate change.

"There's significant movement of cargo between the two ports. We thought if we went forward, could we do pragmatic projects, real projects that would force shipping lines to take a real look at moving to new fuels quicker."

The shipping alliances that run container routes have not yet settled on what fuel source will be used in the future.

Gray said dual fuel like biodiesel and liquefied natural gas are other options.

In any case no bunkering location has been picked in the Port of Halifax.

"We've got to find space to store or we have to look at short shipping and barge type operations for it. So we're still working through that identification. We've looked around at various parcels and not a lot of marine parcels of land are left," Gray said. 

"Certainly you're not going to see storage on [the Halifax] side of the harbour."

The shipping industry accounts for three per cent of global emissions.

The forum was held to get feedback on the issue for the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, a body of the new North American free trade agreement.

"I think the three governments [Canada, the U.S. and Mexico] are very much aware of the urgency that we are facing," said Jorge Daniel Taillant, commission executive director.

In Halifax, one potential option is electricity from offshore wind farms that is converted into hydrogen or green ammonia and used as a zero-carbon fuel.

Companies are looking at the Strait of Canso for conversion facilities.

"We're well positioned in Port Hawkesbury. We're going to have people like Everwind [Fuels], Bear Head [Energy] producing ammonia and methanol. These are fuels that have been clearly identified as potential fuels. So we've been talking to them about bringing them down here and providing those facilities here," said Gray.

The Port of Hamburg is engaged in the same exercise, although its plans are much further along.

It's part of a network of major companies, including Airbus, promoting Hamburg as a green hydrogen hub.

Both ports are in talks with Atlantic Container Line (ACL) and Hapag Lloyd, the two shipping lines that service both cities.

They are also working with respective governments to harmonize the rules.

"We need common regulation at both ends of the corridor. You can't have a process where a ship goes into Hamburg and there's one set of rules and then they come here and they've got to adapt to another complete set of rules," said Gray.

The MOU between Hamburg and Halifax is an encouraging sign, said Louie Porta, executive director of the conservation group Oceans North.  He also heads the environmental commission's joint public advisory committee which held Thursday's forum in Halifax.

"It's showing that things like this can be possible, that we can actually imagine a global shipping future where we have decarbonized port-to-port commerce," Porta said.

"At the same time, it also lets Halifax show that we are willing to stretch and reach for goals that other places have not yet achieved and we're bold enough to take on a challenge that no one else has completed," he said.