The arrival in Victoria today of the world’s first liquid hydrogen carrier, the Suiso Frontier, marks the completion of the Hydrogen Energy Supply Chain (HESC) Pilot Project and the start of Australia’s hydrogen sector.
HESC’s objective is to manufacture carbon-neutral hydrogen by extracting it from a mix of Latrobe Valley coal and biomass, absorbing and storing CO2 via the CarbonNet Project, and optimizing the HESC supply chain’s energy efficiency.
HESC’s commercial phase production of 225,000 tonnes of carbon-neutral liquefied hydrogen (LH2) will contribute to global CO2 emissions reductions of approximately 1.8 million tonnes per year (equivalent to the emissions of approximately 350,000 gasoline-powered cars), while also providing critical infrastructure for other hydrogen projects in the region.
During the commercial phase, the project will produce 30,000 full-time jobs across Gippsland and the Mornington Peninsula.
During the Pilot Project, 99.999 percent pure hydrogen was produced via gasification from Latrobe Valley coal and biomass, trucked to Hastings, chilled to -253 degrees, and then liquefied to fewer than 800 times its gaseous volume to yield highly valued liquefied hydrogen.
The loading of liquefied hydrogen onto the Suiso Frontier for the return journey to Kobe, Japan, establishes the HESC Project as Australia’s most advanced and scalable hydrogen project and the world’s first to manufacture, liquefy, and transport liquid hydrogen by sea to an international market.
Australia-Japan HESC collaboration is at the forefront of developing new technology, cleaner energy, and jobs for both countries.
The Pilot’s findings will serve as the foundation for future work toward commercializing HESC. The project partners will spend the next two years conducting comprehensive research and developing the technical and operational requirements for a commercial-scale project.
The HESC project partners are: Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd (KHI), Electric Power Development Co., Ltd. (J-POWER), Iwatani Corporation (Iwatani), Marubeni Corporation (Marubeni), AGL Energy (AGL) and Sumitomo Corporation (Sumitomo). Royal Dutch Shell (Shell), ENEOS Corporation and Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Ltd. (K-Line) are also involved in the Japanese portion of the project.
