In world-first trial, Japan-Australia venture starts producing hydrogen from dirty coal (updated)
12/03/2021 04:35
* Project key to showing safe export of liquid hydrogen
* Brown coal-to-hydrogen will include carbon capture,
storage
* Project seen as transition to green hydrogen
(Updates dateline)
By Sonali Paul
LOY YANG, Australia, March 12 (Reuters) - A
Japanese-Australian venture has begun producing hydrogen from
brown coal in a A$500 million ($390 million) pilot project that
aims to show liquefied hydrogen can be produced commercially and
exported safely overseas.
The plan is to create the first international supply chain
for liquefied hydrogen and the next big step will be to ship a
cargo on the world's first liquefied hydrogen carrier.
"We have the potential here to be world leaders in the
production and export of hydrogen and this project is developing
up that technology to do exactly that," Australian Energy
Minister Angus Taylor told Reuters on the sidelines of a
ceremony marking the event.
Australia, already dominant in global liquefied natural gas
(LNG) trade, is hoping liquefied hydrogen will give it a greener
market for its coal and gas.
Run by Kawasaki Heavy Industries 7012.T and located 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.
Brown coal is considered the lowest rank of coal due to its
relatively low energy content and has fuelled some of
Australia's dirtiest power stations, some of which have already
shut or are slated for closure. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2L800T
"The important thing is hydrogen should be cost competitive,
and Victorian brown coal is a cheap source of hydrogen," said
Hirofumi Kawazoe, general manager of Kawasaki's Hydrogen
Engineering Australia unit.
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 carbon dioxide would be
buried off the coast of Victoria. The Australian and Victoria
state governments are running a parallel project to test
transporting and injecting carbon dioxide under the seabed.
Studies show hydrogen produced from coal with carbon capture
and storage is half to one-third the cost of producing green
hydrogen, said Jeremy Stone, a J-Power 9513.T director on the
project.
Green hydrogen is produced using wind and solar power to
split water and unlike hydrogen produced from coal is dependent
on the weather.
Groups campaigning to end the use of brown coal say,
however, that the project is a waste of money.
"The technology will be superseded in the next few years by
clean hydrogen sourced from renewable energy. Any investment in
coal-to-hydrogen infrastructure will quickly become a white
elephant," said Environment Victoria campaigns manager Nicholas
Aberle.
The hydrogen produced in the 70 kilograms a day
demonstration plant will be transported by trailer to a port
site where it will be liquefied for export.
The first cargo to Japan has been delayed to the second half
of this year due to COVID-19 restrictions which have slowed
final checks on the tanker. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2JZ07G urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL2N2L10OU
Partners in the project include Iwatani Corp 8088.T ,
Marubeni Corp 8002.T , Sumitomo Corp 8053.T and AGL Energy
Ltd AGL.AX , whose mine is supplying the brown coal.
($1 = 1.2922 Australian dollars)
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Hydrogen production from coal, electrolysis https://tmsnrt.rs/3vdpygX
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(Reporting by Sonali Paul; Editing by Richard Pullin and Edwina
Gibbs)
((Sonali.Paul@thomsonreuters.com; +61 407 119 523;))