Major delegation offers innovative solutions and opportunities to partner with Australia on some of the world’s biggest clean hydrogen projects.
The Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade) is leading a delegation of over 25 Australian businesses to the World Hydrogen Summit in Rotterdam next week to showcase innovation in the sector.
Australian leaders in hydrogen fuel cell technology, blockchain-enabled energy tracking platforms and catalysts are part of the delegation, which showcases Australia’s rapidly scaling clean hydrogen sector.
Austrade’s Trade and Investment Commissioner for the Netherlands, Annika Barton, says Australia is competitively placed to be a major global producer and exporter of green hydrogen.
“Australia has an abundance of natural resources to make clean hydrogen and it is already highly regarded for global supply chain partnerships,” says Ms Barton. “With decades of energy export experience and an ideal geography, Australia is leading the way in the scale-up of the global hydrogen economy.
Ms Barton says European investors have a great deal to offer in the scale-up of Australia’s major hydrogen projects.
“Austrade is looking forward to connecting Australian businesses with potential European investors at the World Hydrogen Summit – these will be partnerships that drive offtake of green hydrogen in Europe over the next decade.
“We are setting the foundations now for Australia to be a major hydrogen exporter, by building global partnerships, resilient supply chains and supporting research and development.”
Solutions on offer by companies in the Australian delegation include hydrogen fuel cell technology, thermal plasma technology, hydrogen refuelling stations and hydrogen electrolyser technology to deliver low-cost green hydrogen. Australia’s National Hydrogen Strategy outlines opportunities for Australian businesses and for investors.
Australian companies think big on hydrogen
Renewable energy company CWP Globals developing one of the world’s largest renewable power projects in the Pilbara region of Western Australia – a 26GW, wind-and-solar-to-hydrogen Asian Renewable Energy Hub.
CWP’s Development Director Andrew Dickson says the company commenced work on AREH in 2014, and work is advancing well.
“The concept is to harness the massive renewable energy potential of large coastal desert sites, with complementary wind and solar resources,” he says. “Night-time wind with day-time solar can deliver a huge amount of steady power to electrolysers to produce green hydrogen and its derivatives, such as green ammonia.
“There’s also the potential to use green ammonia fuels to power ships that export iron ore. This creates the conditions for new green shipping corridors to key export markets,” Mr Dickson says.
Global Energy Ventures (GEV) has developed an approach to hydrogen transport that includes simple and energy efficient technologies to reduce the cost of hydrogen delivery for energy businesses in Europe and Asia.
GEV switched its focus to green hydrogen in 2020 after originally setting up in 2016 aiming to construct a vessel to transport compressed natural gas.
GEV Managing Director Martin Carolan says GEV’s business model had expanded to become an integrated renewable hydrogen company.
“We are now developing upstream projects – to produce renewable power for electrolysis to produce hydrogen gas for export,” he says.
“And we’ve integrated those projects with our complete supply chain solution: being compression, loading terminal, a shipping fleet and receiving terminal,” Mr Carolan says.
Perth-based Long Pipes Limited has devised revolutionary technology that could dramatically lower the cost of piped hydrogen.
Its continuous, high-pressure composite pipes will be able to be constructed in the field, in sections of up to 6 kms without a joint. This removes the need for steel welding and reduces the number of construction workers that are needed on site.
Long Pipes Executive Chairman Neil Graham says the company is currently working with major global energy businesses to reduce the cost of transporting hydrogen and raw CO2. This includes projects in remote Western Australia, and discussions in Germany and France for projects in Europe and the North Sea.
“Traditional pipelines create challenges and so do traditional technologies,” he says. “Our Fluid Highways concept is designed to cope with the acids and other contaminants that are present in raw CO2. This can deliver massive savings in capital expenditure and operating expenditure, based on studies by our customers.
ABOUT THE AUSTRALIAN TRADE AND INVESTMENT COMMISSION
The Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade) is the Australian Government’s international trade promotion and investment attraction agency. We generate market information and insights, promote Australian capability, and facilitate connections through our extensive global network.
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