Exploring the shift towards sustainable energy with Matthew Small - Director of Project Development
After obtaining his BASc in Chemical Engineering and working in the oil and gas industry for a few years, Matthew Small decided to make a career shift and worked toward the MBA program at the Rotman School of Management. From there, he embarked on a new journey in the clean energy space and became the Director of Project Development at StormFisher Hydrogen, a developer and operator of hydrogen-based clean fuel production facilities.
I have always been interested in clean, sustainable energy, so I was very excited to connect with Matthew, have a chat about his work and the clean energy industry as well as get career advice for young professionals. Check out the full interview below!
**This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
We are a developer and operator of renewable hydrogen facilities. So, in North America, we look into building projects that would make hydrogen using electrolysis technology, where we would split water into hydrogen and oxygen. The idea is that we would do that on a large scale. Hydrogen is a clean fuel that can be used to decarbonize different areas of the economy. The hydrogen can be consumed directly, or it might be converted into another low-carbon fuel like methanol. That's what StormFisher Hydrogen does. For my role, I am the Director of Project Development, so I'm focused on putting the pieces together to make these projects happen, which involves technology selection, engineering, permitting, and planning these projects.
I think the most interesting thing is just the ability and opportunity to commercialize new technologies at a large scale. We like to take technologies that have been proven at a pilot scale or a medium scale and scale them up to commercial size. These projects can be the first configuration of their kind. So, I find that really exciting. It's something StormFisher originally did in the biogas space before I joined. We've experienced it in biogas, and we want to replicate that and do it with clean hydrogen.
Does your company have an R&D lab with pilot plants as a starting point and scale it up afterwards for your customers?
It's not quite like that. We usually bring in outside technology, so we're not necessarily researchers ourselves, but we'll look elsewhere for that expertise. The concept is to be technology agnostic and select the best technologies available to purchase for our projects. So, we come in not with the technology itself but as the developer that puts the pieces together to make it happen. One example is if we wanted to produce methanol, we would bring new technologies together. The electrolysis process would come from a vendor with specific IP (intellectual property), and there would be a different vendor for methanol synthesis. And then, we would focus on how you put those systems together. We wouldn't have a lab for that, but we would work with engineering partners to design and make it work. We make sure to visit and check out the other groups that have already exhibited this on a smaller scale or with a different setup and learn that way.
Yeah, really good question and a very big one. For me, I'd say the biggest challenge is actually in the policy and the politics around this. The good news is that there are a lot of great technologies out there, some are already being implemented, and some coming up behind that are almost ready. We're focused on electrolysis, but there's also a lot going on out there. You have electric vehicles of all types being adopted. You have direct carbon capture as another technology that's coming up, as well as things like small modular nuclear reactors and many others.
“So, there is a lot of exciting stuff happening, and I don't doubt the feasibility of these technologies. The challenge or the hard part is getting the right incentives and policies in place to be able to do that.”
Right now, I think there’s a patchwork of policies that differ between countries, between states and provinces, and sometimes even at the municipal level. Beyond that, you have corporations taking their own paths to decarbonize. So, not everyone is acting in concert there. Everyone is doing a lot of great things, but not in an optimal manner. So, I think the real challenge is how to get the right incentives and policies in place internationally to allow the efficient deployment of clean technologies.
In general, I'm just excited about where the hydrogen industry is going right now. Without getting too specific about our projects because we're not able to share yet, I think there is a ton of activity in the space, both with StormFisher Hydrogen and in the overall industry. I think a lot of cool projects will get built in the next three to five years, and essentially, it'll create a new clean hydrogen economy that we don't have today. And you'll see that it's going to start to take shape and provide fuels that eventually become everyday use in some form for everybody. So, that's very exciting!
For me, it was about changing careers or changing industries. I had been working in oil and gas for a number of years, and I wanted to make the transition into clean energy or clean technology, so I decided the best way to do that was through the MBA. I got to move from Sarnia to Toronto, so that was part of the excitement. I got to Toronto and studied at the Rotman School of Management. The experience included creating an entirely new network for myself outside of oil and gas, which is more focused on clean tech, clean energy, and general technology.
“The primary goal was to begin my career in a new industry, and I was lucky enough to do that with StormFisher Hydrogen.”
The other part was building up business skills on top of my chemical engineering knowledge base. I established more of a business background, and that part was really interesting as well. Some of the more interesting areas that I studied were negotiation, which is something that I regularly use today, alongside corporate strategy and business analytics. So many things that I regularly use in my work were learned through the MBA program.
Do you find it difficult to come back to school after working in the industry?
Yeah, it was a challenge, for sure. I don't know if difficult is the right word, but it's just a change, a very big change in mindset and daily activities, so I enjoyed that. I find it’s fun to change gears for a while, to be back in the classroom and just get to sit and learn rather than focus on output and work deadlines. It was a nice little period in my life to learn more and meet new people before heading back to the workplace.
My advice would be to complete a deeper job search that includes a wide range of target employers. If you're on campus looking at job boards or at job fairs, you'll see a lot of large multinational corporations, and you might think that they're the only ones out there offering work. That is very much not the case.
“You may also see the tech startups that are very hyped and exciting, but there are also a lot of other well-established companies in the small to medium size range. “
They are effective, niche companies that often have compelling job opportunities. And so, I think there were a lot of great opportunities that I was unaware of. The second part of this is how to land those jobs, and it becomes more about networking and getting involved in clubs, extracurriculars or associations. Those soft job search skills are often more important than what goes on your resume when it comes to landing these types of opportunities at small and medium-sized companies.
Do you find yourself doing multiple things and have more chances to grow at these types of companies?
It depends on your preferences. In a large company, sometimes you can be very specialized and have a narrow but deep set of responsibilities. I think these are great opportunities, but they don’t necessarily fit everyone’s style. At small to medium-sized companies, you can have a wider area of influence and make a larger impact on the company’s success. For example, I helped build the website for StormFisher Hydrogen when we were first getting started. Also, as I mentioned the policy earlier, I get involved in policy and government relations at a provincial and federal level in Canada and even at the US level. At the same time, I also have my technical and business development work. So, I have a range of responsibilities that are quite different, which is quite engaging and rewarding.
I have to say hydrogen; it's an easy one for me right now. I did a quick review of hydrogen as an element rather than a fuel. I was reading about it today, and it is the most abundant chemical substance in the universe, including being the largest component of stars, so that's cool. Whereas for work, I spend most of my time thinking about hydrogen as a fuel. That comes down to how we can produce it, store it, and move it in a safe and cost-effective manner. And for background, I'm sure many of you know that it's one of the only carbon-free fuels we have. It allows us to remove the carbon from hydrocarbon, and that's why it has the opportunity to make a huge difference in the fight against climate change.
