Hydrogen is being proposed as a strategy to decarbonize several hard-to-abate sectors of the global economy, including heavy-duty road freight. , compares the effect of converting this critical transportation sub-sector into either battery-electric trucking or hydrogen fuel-cell trucking, with a focus on the newfound interdependency between zero-emission heavy-duty vehicles and the electricity grid.

By developing a sector-coupling generation expansion planning model to achieve net-zero emissions in 2050, they demonstrate that when considering the electric grid impacts of zero-emission trucks, battery-electric trucks offer the cost optimal approach, with up to 47% savings compared to the hydrogen alternative.

In fact, current hydrogen price targets, including America’s “hydrogen shot” of achieving $1/kg by 2030, are too high to achieve decarbonization via hydrogen fuel-cell trucks; parity with batteries is only achieved when hydrogen prices for the consumer (in other words, at the pump) fall below $1/kg. Their research also shows that abatement costs for decarbonizing heavy-duty vehicles are within the scope of Canada’s former carbon pricing schemes, which were eliminated by the Carney government. Diesel fuel prices must rise by 20–50¢/L to promote decarbonization of heavy-duty trucking for both BETs and HFCTs, which was happening before Carney’s elevation to the post of prime minister.

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ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University’s Ahmed Abdulla has been named Canada’s for his research on direct air capture, a technology that removes carbon dioxide (COâ‚‚) from the air to address climate change.

Abdulla, a professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, is one of just 25 National Champions selected worldwide. The prestigious prize recognizes research focused on keeping humanity within the planet’s “safe operating space.” 

Three International Champions will be named in January 2027 in Davos, Switzerland, and awarded $1 million USD each to scale their research.

Advancing Deep Decarbonization

Abdulla’s work focuses on designing future energy systems that are reliable, affordable, and deeply decarbonized. At ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´, he co-leads APEX (Alternative Pathways for the Energy Transition), an initiative that tackles and solves the deployment challenges of low-carbon energy technologies to support global climate goals. The initiative focuses on reducing risk and uncertainty, eliminating deployment bottlenecks, and improving policy design to advance clean energy solutions.

His . The findings show that performance can vary significantly by location, with implications for energy demand, water use and overall net carbon removal. 

Abdulla said the work highlights the importance of grounding climate modelling in real-world conditions.

“Nations are not decarbonizing fast enough to stabilize climate. Our in-depth, global analyses of the performance of a main capture technology paint a picture of carbon removal’s role in our future,” said Abdulla. 

The research also informs From Science to Policy: Planetary Solutions in Action, a global policy report developed with the United Nations University Centre for Policy Research and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. The report explores how scientific evidence can better inform climate policy and international cooperation.

ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ the Frontiers Planet Prize

The Frontiers Planet Prize is the world’s largest science competition on planetary health, involving more than 700 universities and research institutions worldwide. National Champions are selected through an independent review by international experts.

As Canada’s National Champion, Abdulla will represent ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ internationally, contributing to discussions that connect scientific research with policy and real‑world application. 

The recognition comes as countries increasingly look to carbon removal technologies as part of broader net-zero strategies, though researchers note that real-world performance varies significantly depending on local environmental conditions and energy system constraints. Abdulla’s work contributes to ongoing efforts to ensure that assessments of the technology’s role in net-zero emission plans are aligned with physical and economic realities.

For more information on Abdulla’s research, email him at ahmed.abdulla3@carleton.ca.

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Most remote and northern communities in Canada rely on diesel for their electrical and thermal energy needs. Communities and governments are working toward diesel exit strategies, but the role of hydrogen technologies (which could serve both electrical and thermal demand) has yet to be explored.

In , in collaboration with colleagues at CanmetENERGY-Ottawa, investments in hydrogen microgrids are optimized across a large sample of remote and northern communities. Installed capacities, costs, hydrogen storage needs, and water resource requirements are estimated.

The team finds that hydrogen microgrids are cheaper, in levelized cost terms, than diesel systems in 28 of 37 communities investigated; if wind power capital costs escalate to CAD 20,000/kW, as recently seen in one project in the Canadian North, only 3 of the 37 communities net hydrogen microgrids that are cheaper than diesel variants. Hydrogen storage plays a large role in maintaining reliability and reducing cost—both it and water needs are modest. The former can be met with current technologies.

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New work published by researchers in the APEX group builds an open-source model of direct air capture (DAC) technologies that employ solid sorbents. The research, published in the journal , focuses on a set of sorbents identified as relevant to cold climates such as Canada’s, but the underlying model can be adapted to other sorbents that are being characterized experimentally. The model also integrates ambient environmental conditions to improve siting and operational decisions as Canada pursues millions of tons of carbon removal through DAC by 2050.

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Professor Schell was interviewed by Stu Mills of CBC Ottawa to explain the need for battery energy storage systems in the Ontario power grid, and particularly in Ottawa. With electricity demand expected to increase 166% in the Ottawa area (compared to the 75% average across Ontario) Ottawa’s grid is in dire need of reinforcement, and batteries provide the cheapest and quickest solution to ensuring power quality and reliability in our area. You can listen to the full interview .

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In conjunction with the Marine Renewable Energy Technology group at Natural Resources Canada, and the Ocean, Coastal and River Engineering group at the National Research Council, a team of researchers in the APEX lab, including post-doctoral research fellow Carlos Prieto, undergraduate researcher Mohammed Abusalih and Professor Schell, developed a new method for hydropower prediction using only remotely-sensed data – an improvement over time-intensive and costly field campaigns to gather in-situ flow data. Their method was recently published in , entitled “Physics-Informed Neural Network for Open Channel Flow Velocity Prediction”.

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Voice your Opinions on Energy for the Future

We are looking for volunteers for a study on energy options for La Ronge and surrounding communities. This project aims to understand individual and community opinions about different types of energy, such as wind, solar and battery storage.  Participants who complete a survey will receive $50 cash. The survey takes place in person at Northlands College Canoe Campus, 1 – 4:30 pm on May 14.

The survey asks for your opinions on different types of energy, including wind, solar, battery storage and natural gas. It should take approximately 30 minutes to complete.

To be eligible, you must be 16 years or older and a current resident of La Ronge or surrounding communities.

This project was reviewed and cleared by the ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University Research Ethics Board B. Clearance # 122735. If you have any ethical concerns with the study, please contact ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University Research Ethics Board, preferably by email at ethics@carleton.ca or you can leave a message by phone at 613-520-2600 ext. 2517.

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A group of four experts in small modular reactors, including Professor Ahmed Abdulla, were by POLITICO’s Energywire to discuss the economic, regulatory, and public acceptance challenges that would face small modular nuclear reactors as they are deployed in the electric grid.

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Few credible experts see how we’ll reach net-zero emissions without actively removing carbon dioxide out of the air, perhaps through direct air capture technologies. This has become an active research area over the past two decades, but most existing work doesn’t consider how ambient environmental conditions—temperature, humidity, pressure, and carbon dioxide concentration—affect these engineered systems, which need to process massive amounts of atmospheric air to remove the carbon dioxide. Our group recently —the first to model how these plants would actually perform across the globe, considering different weather conditions, different emissions from electric power systems worldwide (some of which are dirtier than others), and different emissions from natural gas systems (some of which are leakier than others).

Our work is intended to stimulate serious discussion of the role of direct air capture technologies in nationally determined contributions submitted to UNFCCC. For nations that are making large bets on carbon dioxide removal despite having poor or fair conditions for the deployment of direct air capture, our work should stimulate discussion of cross-border carbon accounting mechanisms that would allow these nations to subsidize deployment in regions with more appropriate climatic conditions.

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Congratulations to 2nd year PhD student, Luis Lopez Diaz, for winning the Best Poster Award at the ! He presented his work on optimizing the flexibility of active distribution networks to support the larger transmission grid.

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