ACAN Optimizing the Use of Hydrogen Energy at Canadian Airports

Advance Contract Award Notice
Optimizing the Use of Hydrogen Energy at Canadian Airports
An ACAN is a public notice indicating to the supplier community that a department or agency intends to award a contract for goods, services or construction to a pre-identified supplier, thereby allowing other suppliers to signal their interest in bidding, by submitting a statement of capabilities. If no supplier submits a statement of capabilities that meets the requirements set out in the ACAN, on or before the closing date stated in the ACAN, the contracting officer may then proceed with the award to the pre-identified supplier.
BACKGROUND:
In the long-term, hydrogen could play a significant role in the decarbonization of transportation subsectors like aviation, which require light and energy-dense fuels that preclude electrification with existing battery energy storage technologies. If a transition to hydrogen aviation does occur, airports will come to occupy a central role in its distribution and potentially even in its production. This is fortuitous because airports are large users of energy, and many of the energy services they provide are unrelated to airplane refuelling, ranging from ground support equipment to space heating to the refuelling of road transportation.
There are some key questions that need to be answered when it comes to this transition; there are large remaining gaps in our knowledge: what would a hydrogen airport look like? How might its integrated, hydrogen-backed energy system components be optimally sized and operated? What would they cost, and how much primary energy sources would hydrogen production and usage require?
DEFINITION OF REQUIREMENTS:
Transport Canada has a requirement for the development of an energy system optimization model for a hydrogen backed airport microgrid that serves the following energy loads: aircraft refuelling; ground support equipment; building electrical and thermal needs; backup power; and vehicle refuelling (hydrogen for freight and electricity for light duty vehicles).
The scope of this project must extend to 40 Canadian airports with Nav Canada towers, in order to account for more than 80% of emissions from aviation in Canada.