Nevada hydrogen factory will convert gas from garbage into fuel

The French industrial gas giant Air Liquide SA is opening a factory near Las Vegas this month that will convert methane from landfills into hydrogen to power emission-free cars and trucks.

The $250 million facility will have capacity to produce up to 30 tons of liquid hydrogen per day, enough for about 40,000 fuel-cell vehicles, Mike Graff, an Air Liquide executive vice president, said in an interview.

Air Liquide plans to ship all of the plant’s output to California, even though there are only about 12,000 hydrogen vehicles registered in the state. Yet the company expects demand for hydrogen as a transportation fuel to surge, particularly in long-haul trucking, as California pushes to decarbonize its economy by 2045. Battery packs big enough for electric trucks add enormous weight, and fuel cells running on hydrogen are far faster than batteries to refuel—a key consideration for truckers.

“Five minutes later, you’ve taken on a full load of hydrogen and you’re back on the road again,” Graff said.

The plant will use landfill gas as its raw material, preventing the methane in the gas from escaping into the atmosphere and contributing to global warming. The landfill gas will be purified into renewable natural gas, then hydrogen will be stripped from it using steam reformation. Although steam reformation releases carbon dioxide—another greenhouse gas—Graff said those emissions will be offset by the benefits of keeping the original methane out of the air.

Air Liquide will supply the hydrogen to FirstElement Fuel Inc., a California company that operates hydrogen fueling stations. Air Liquide invested $12 million in FirstElement in 2019.