Site items in: Australia

Trafigura plans new green export project in South Australia
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Trafigura and the South Australian state government will jointly fund FEED work into a commercial-scale green hydrogen export facility in Port Pirie, 200km north of Adelaide, the South Australian capital city. At full-scale the facility will produce 100 tonnes per day green hydrogen from 440 MW of electrolysers, with some earmarked for local use and the remainder to be exported as green ammonia (max. 200,000 tonnes per year). Oxygen produced during electrolysis will be sent next-door to Nyrstar's Port Pirie smelter, one of the world's largest producers of lead and silver. At full capacity, the electrolysis facility will meet 100% of the smelter's oxygen requirements.

Fortescue's ammonia locomotive one step closer
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R&D for ammonia-powered locomotives is full steam ahead in Perth, as Fortescue Future Industries moves onto converting two four-stroke, diesel locomotives to run on ammonia fuel. Deployment of an ammonia-powered demonstration locomotive within their current rail operations is planned for later this year. In other FFI news this week, a technical feasibility study has given the thumbs up for FFI to convert Incitec Pivot's existing Gibson Island ammonia production plant to a green ammonia facility, and a new agreement between Australian energy giant AGL and FFI will see the pair turn the current Liddell and Bayswater coal power stations into a huge green hydrogen hub near Newcastle, NSW.

Producing cheap, clean hydrogen: new updates
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Three new updates this week:

1. A team at Durham University has shown that a massive scale-up of PEM electrolyser manufacturing capability can slash the capital costs of producing electrolyser units by up to 70%.

2. A team from the University of Campinas has proposed more focus on electrolysis of waste and seawater to produce hydrogen, avoiding direct competition between drinking water and hydrogen production.

3. A team from the Australian National University has demonstrated a new pathway forward for hydrogen production directly from sunlight by demonstrating a stable, efficient photocatalyst.

Green ammonia port hubs in the UK and Australia
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H2 Green will develop a renewable energy hub at the Port of Shoreham in West Sussex. The initial focus will be the electrification and use of hydrogen fuel in the Port's vehicle fleet (heavy forklifts and trucks), before expanding to accommodate the ~800 heavy goods vehicles that enter the port daily. The second phase will be an ammonia import facility to meet growing demands for hydrogen fuel in the surrounds. In Australia, the Geelong Hydrogen Hub will be developed by CAC-H2, a developer who is also planning two carbon-negative, waste-to-ammonia projects in Australia. The Geelong Hub includes multiple, new-build infrastructure elements including import/export & cracking facilities. Similar to Shoreham, import of green ammonia to meet growing demand for hydrogen fuel is the second phase of the project.

6 GW green export project planned for South Australia
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The Moolawatana Renewable Hydrogen Project will be constructed on a cattle station north some 570km north of Adelaide, South Australia's capital city. Powered by a mixture of wind and solar generation, the project will connect to an export facility at Port Bonython (around 500km in distance) via pipeline. Water will be sourced from an on-site desalination plant. At this stage, the pipeline will be for dedicated hydrogen transport, and conversion to ammonia will take place at Port Bonython. The Port is being developed as a major hydrogen & ammonia export hub, with the SA state government recently shortlisting seven major projects totaling 1.5 million tonnes per year green hydrogen export.

Fortescue Future Industries powers ahead on green ammonia
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Fortescue Future Industries has been hitting the Ammonia Energy headlines of late. All of these various announcements point towards a singular target, announced in June by Fortescue Chairman Andrew Forrest: the supply of 15 million tonnes green hydrogen to global markets by 2030. Taken on their own these are significant steps, but COP26 was also the stage for a number of other significant ammonia and hydrogen-related announcements by FFI. Over the last fortnight we've seen the launch of green ammonia production projects in Papua New Guinea, Jordan & Argentina, buyers announced for a full 10% of FFI's global green hydrogen production, a partnership to decarbonise aviation and more developments in the electrolyser space.