Ways2H and VALECOM, a Caribbean ecological and energy solutions provider, have signed a LOI to convert up to 9000 tpy of Martinican waste into sustainable hydrogen.
The two businesses’ first collaboration will focus on hydrogen production for electricity generation on the island, with potential applications for clean mobility solutions such as municipal buses.
Martinique exemplifies the present problems confronting many island nations, which are increasingly being used as a model for circular economies and are under pressure to use not just their resources, but also their trash. Plastic bags used to protect Martinique’s major export commodity, bananas, are one of the island’s greatest waste streams. The island consumes 3000 tpy of these non-recyclable plastic sheets, which are an excellent feedstock for Ways2H’s waste-to-hydrogen process.
“We put out a strategy for numerous initiatives at COP21 to help Caribbean islands, such as Martinique, become more resilient, and we see this project with Ways2H as the next step in that vision,” said Dominique Regis, VALECOM Chief Executive Officer. “This modular and multi-flow project in Martinique will install one or more Ways2H waste-to-energy units, and we plan to duplicate it in other Caribbean islands,” says the company “..
Ways2H will handle 24 tpd of mixed commercial trash, including plastics and furniture, in the first year of the collaboration, with an extra 8 tpd once the infrastructure is fully operational after an 18-month development phase.
Ways2H has positioned itself as an early pioneer in the renewable hydrogen industry, with waste-to-hydrogen plants under construction in Japan, France, Scotland, and the United States. Its on-site modular reactors recycle various sorts of waste, from agriculture to plastics, sewage sludge, MSW, and other garbage, in a carbon-neutral process that turns the waste into a gas and recovers pure hydrogen. The company’s technology is presently being used to make fuel for fuel-cell cars and power generators.
“What we’re witnessing in Martinique is similar to what we’re seeing throughout the world: small, often rural economies having to handle more varied waste streams, rising energy costs, and job losses,” said Jean-Louis Kindler, Chief Executive Officer of Ways2H. “As we approach COP26, we see our work here and in other initiatives throughout the globe as a crucial blueprint for the establishment of a circular economy, and we appreciate our partners like VALECOM for their help in achieving this common goal.”
