(AU) First Hydrogen Produced From Latrobe Valley Coal Generates Export Hopes, Emissions Fears

 ABC Gippsland - Jarrod Whittaker

The consortium is celebrating the beginning of production. (ABC Gippsland: Jarrod Whittaker)

Key Points Hydrogen has been produced from coal in Victoria's Latrobe Valley A Japanese consortium wants to test whether it is possible to export the emerging fuel source But environmental groups are sceptical about the potential of hydrogen made using coal

A Japanese consortium hopes the production of hydrogen using coal from the Latrobe Valley in a world-first trial will prove it is possible to export the emerging fuel source.

The consortium has produced the first hydrogen at a plant at the Loy Yang mine, south-east of Traralgon, and plans to transport it to Japan from the Port of Hastings in a specially designed ship later this year.

The $500 million Hydrogen Energy Supply Chain (HESC) project involves creating hydrogen gas at the plant and refining it for transport.

Hydrogen is touted as a clean energy source with a range of uses including in fuel cells and powering vehicles.

The project is in its pilot phase, and because producing hydrogen using coal creates greenhouse gases, it will not commercialise it unless it is able to capture and store the emissions.

Announced in April 2018, then-prime minister Malcolm Turnbull attended the launch of the project, which received $50 million each from the Victorian and federal governments.

Professor Alan Finkel led the development of Australia's national hydrogen strategy. (ABC Gippsland: Jarrod Whittaker)

Professor Alan Finkel, the Commonwealth's special adviser on low-emissions technology, said hydrogen was part of a "world-changing transition".

"Hydrogen is part of the future transition that around the world economies are going to go through towards zero emissions," he said.

"The world's going to need a lot of hydrogen, and so the more ways we can get that hydrogen the better."

'Very, very versatile'

A member of the consortium behind a project to export hydrogen made from brown coal says hydrogen exports have the potential to create large numbers.

Jeremy Stone from Japanese electricity provider J-Power said the pilot project had created about 400 jobs in Victoria and could create "thousands more" if it was commercialised.

"Hydrogen is a very, very versatile fuel so it can be used to make energy, electricity, but also can be used as storage, can be used as transportation, it can be used in industry," Mr Stone said.

"In full production, this project would save around about 1.8 million tonnes of CO2 per year, which is the equivalent of the emissions of around about 350,000 cars."

Jeremy Stone believes there is a lot of potential in the technology. (ABC Gippsland: Jarrod Whittaker) 

The consortium's plan is to use the Victorian government's carbon capture and storage project, Carbon Net, to store the emissions. Carbon Net is investigating the feasibility of storing greenhouse gas emissions in Bass Strait and last year drilled its first test well.

Mr Stone said there were 20 carbon capture and storage sites in operation across the world and more were in development.

"Carbon Net, which is very close by here and Gippsland, would be the perfect place to safely store that CO2 underground," he said. 
  
Hydrogen is being produced from brown coal, but is it green?

Environment groups sceptical

But there are doubts about whether carbon capture and storage is viable and whether hydrogen produced from coal has a long-term future.

Environment Victoria campaigns director Nick Aberle said the world wanted hydrogen which produced no emissions, and the best way to do that was to make it using renewables.

"The challenge that this [HESC] project has is trying to get rid of those greenhouse gases, because turning coal into hydrogen produces enormous amounts of greenhouse gases — as much as burning the coal, essentially," he said.

"Our understanding is that even your best-case scenario, this project at a commercial scale wouldn't be able to capture all of the greenhouse gases."

Dr Aberle said carbon capture and storage was a "mirage" which had "been 10 years away for decades".

Nick Aberle is sceptical hydrogen produced from coal has a long-term future. (Supplied: Nick Aberle)

Welcome jobs potential

The HESC project's launch came just days after Energy Australia announced it would close the Yallourn coal-fired power station in the Latrobe Valley in 2028, four years early

Yallourn's closure will result in the loss of 500 jobs and it will become the second Latrobe Valley plant to close after Hazelwood shut down in 2017.

Committee for Gippsland chief executive Jane Oakley said the hydrogen industry's potential offered hope to the region amid the job losses.

"It's encouraging and it will make us very buoyant in terms of the potential that it has to offer," Ms Oakley said.

"The export opportunities are pretty significant, and jobs [it creates] in turn will be really encouraging for the region to see this sort of industry evolve."

Links

• Money down for hydrogen hopes in Victoria's hottest and driest region
• World-first coal to hydrogen plant trialled in Victoria
• Victorian coal-to-hydrogen plant trial gets green light from EPA
• POWERPASTE, A High-Density, Safe, And Easily Transportable Hydrogen Energy Fuel
• (AU) World's First Domestic Hydrogen Battery Developed By Australian Firm
• (UK) New Site Will Turn Plastic Waste Into Hydrogen
• (AU) Carbon Targets On Agenda At World Leaders' Summit, But What Is Business Doing To Bring Emissions Down?
• (AU) How To Harness The Power Of Biosolids To Make Hydrogen
• Green Hydrogen: Could It Be Key To A Carbon-Free Economy?
• (AU) What Are The Key Technologies In The Coalition's Low Emissions Roadmap, And Can They Deliver?