In Australia, Japanese start producing hydrogen from brown coal
11/03/2021 23:30
By Sonali Paul
MELBOURNE, March 12 (Reuters) - A Japanese-Australian
venture has begun producing hydrogen from brown coal in a A$500
million ($387 million) test project that aims to show liquefied
hydrogen can be produced and exported safely to Japan, the
project sponsors said on Friday.
Japan's Kawasaki Heavy Industries 7012.T is running the
pilot project with government financial support from both Japan
and Australia in the state of Victoria, home to a quarter of the
world's known brown coal reserves.
The project is key to helping Japan meet its target of net
zero carbon emissions by 2050. The world's fifth-largest energy
consumer aims to boost its annual hydrogen demand tenfold to 20
million tonnes by 2050, equivalent to about 40% of its current
power generation.
At the same time, Australia is pushing to become a major
hydrogen exporter, eventually rivaling its dominance in global
liquefied natural gas (LNG) trade, which could potentially give
it a greener market for its coal and gas.
Brown coal is considered the lowest rank of coal due to its
relatively low energy content and has long fueled some of
Australia's dirtiest power stations, some of which have already
shut or are slated for closure. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2L800T
The project is producing hydrogen by reacting coal with
oxygen and steam under high heat and pressure in a process that
also yields carbon dioxide and other gases.
If the project goes commercial, the plan would be to bury
the carbon dioxide off the coast of Victoria, KHI has previously
said. The Australian and Victoria state governments are running
a parallel project to test transporting and injecting carbon
dioxide under the seabed.
The hydrogen produced in the pilot project will be
transported to a port site where it will be liquefied for
export.
The next big step will be to ship a cargo on the world's
first liquefied hydrogen carrier, built by KHI. The voyage has
been delayed to mid-year, due to COVID-19 restrictions which
have slowed final checks on the tanker. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2JZ07G
urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL2N2L10OU
"The eyes of the world will be on Victoria when shipments of
liquefied hydrogen commence in mid-2021," Hirofumi Kawazoe, from
KHI's Hydrogen Engineering Australia unit, said in a statement.
Partners in the Australian side of the project include
Japan's Electric Power Development Co (J-Power), Iwatani Corp,
Marubeni Corp, Sumitomo Corp and Australia's AGL Energy Ltd
AGL.AX , whose mine is supplying the brown coal.
($1 = 1.2922 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by Sonali Paul; editing by Richard Pullin)
((Sonali.Paul@thomsonreuters.com; +61 407 119 523;))