Japanese companies strike Australian green hydrogen deal

• MoU with infrastructure firms to analyze gas production and export from Queensland

Japan-based Iwatani Corporation, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Kansai Electric Power and Marubeni Corporation have signed a MoU to discover large scale green hydrogen generation in Australia.

The agreement with two energy facilities companies headquartered in Australia, Stanwell Corporation as well as APT Management Services Pty, to jointly carry out an usefulness research study of the Central Queensland Hydrogen Project (CQ- H2).

This project will produce hydrogen on a large scale making use of renewable resource, melt it at the Port of Gladstone, Queensland, Australia, and afterwards export the liquefied hydrogen to Japan.

Given that hydrogen is extensively expected to be an indispensable energy source for the awareness of a zero-carbon society, the production of a hydrogen supply chain, that includes transportation from overseas, is considered crucial.

However, because the currently developed hydrogen production innovation using fossil fuels discharges CO2 during the production procedure, in order to attain a zero-carbon culture, it is necessary to establish CO2-free hydrogen manufacturing in combination with CO2 capture as well as storage modern technology and using renewable energy.

Considering that the competitors for the procurement of CO2-free hydrogen sources has actually increased worldwide, it is very important to protect an inexpensive power supply from renewable energy resources and export ports.

Against this backdrop, the Queensland government has been promoting the energy shift from nonrenewable fuel sources to renewable resource as well as hydrogen.

In addition, Queensland has an extremely high potential for renewable energy, considering that the location experiences beneficial weather for greater than 300 days a year.

Stanwell, an electric power corporation possessed by the Queensland federal government, also plays a vital duty in attaining this energy transition goal.

As such, from 2019 to 2020 Iwatani and also Stanwell performed a concept research study of the manufacturing of green dissolved hydrogen as well as its export to Japan.

Based upon the findings of the study, the 6 Japanese and also Australian business consented to totally execute a feasibility study to check out the industrial viability of the project.

The system intends to produce and supply low-priced hydrogen dependably over the long-lasting and also has established objectives of creating at the very least 100 tonnes of hydrogen daily around 2026, as well as 800 tonnes of hydrogen daily from 2031.

Currently, the production volume of melted hydrogen in Japan is 30 tonnes daily optimum, implying that the target production quantity of 800 tonnes each day from 2031 is about 26 times as high as the present manufacturing quantity in Japan.

Making use of the Aldoga website (235 hectares), a hydrogen manufacturing base secured by Stanwell in the Gladstone region, will certainly be taken into consideration for the project, and also a site of about 100 hectares in Fisherman's Touchdown is to be gotten as a hydrogen liquefaction and also packing base.

The project will also take into consideration providing green hydrogen, not only for export to Japan, yet additionally to meet neighborhood need.

The feasibility study will certainly concentrate on assessments of production modern technology mainly for green hydrogen, the building of hydrogen liquefaction plants as well as melted hydrogen carriers, connected financing and also ecological assessments, and also commercialisation designs.

Through the tasks of the project, all 6 firms will make every effort to produce a bilateral large- scale hydrogen supply chain promoted by the Japanese as well as Australian governments as well as thereby add to the realisation of a zero-carbon society.