Fortescue Metals Group may be only a second-tier global mining company based on revenue, but the Australia-based iron ore producer, founded in 2003 by multi-billionaire Andrew Forrest, appears to have the grandest green hydrogen ambitions of them all.

The company is aiming to make its mining-related operations carbon neutral by 2030, with Fortescue Future Industries (FFI), its wholly owned renewable energy business, providing the green hydrogen, ammonia and electricity needed to do so. FFI hopes to be producing green hydrogen at commercial scale as early as 2023.

“Green hydrogen is the cleanest source of energy in the world, and optimising the technology to produce green hydrogen at scale and at a competitive price to fossil fuels is the key to meaningfully reducing global greenhouse gas emissions,” FFI chief executive Julie Shuttleworth tells Hydrogen Economist.

“Optimising the technology to produce green hydrogen at scale and at a competitive price to fossil fuels is the key to meaningfully reducing global greenhouse gas emissions” Shuttleworth, FFI

“Climate change is one of the most pressing issues facing the planet today, and to achieve the target established by the Paris Agreement, the broader energy transition will need to happen far more rapidly than 2050. We want to lead by example at Fortescue, which is why we have announced an ambitious, revised target to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030,” Shuttleworth says.

Green steel

Fortescue’s ambitions for FFI include exporting green hydrogen to steelmakers and other heavy industries to support their decarbonisation efforts, and to possibly even become a vertically integrated green steelmaker itself, according to Forrest.

“Fortescue is currently conducting trials in preparation for a green steel pilot plant, and it is too early to comment further on any others details of the project,” Shuttleworth says. The company is understood to be planning a green steel pilot project in the Pilbara region.

Grand ambitions

FFI says it has identified a massive pipeline of 300GW of potential renewable power projects around the world—including 40GW in the Pilbara region of Western Australia—with the hope of building as much as 1,000GW of capacity in the longer term, much of it for the production of green hydrogen. To put the scale of these ambitions into context, global additions of renewable capacity in 2020 came to 260GW, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency.

“We aim to provide the two missing links in the climate-change battle—creating both the demand for and supply of green hydrogen and green ammonia,” says Forrest.

To support FFI’s efforts, Forrest and members of Fortescue’s management team spent four months travelling the globe in the latter part of last year in search of potential renewable energy projects and related mineral resources.

Export markets

The company has remained relatively tight-lipped about the trip overall, but during its annual general meeting in November it was revealed the group planned to visit up to 47 countries. In addition, on 14 December Fortescue announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding with Japan’s Kawasaki Heavy Industries and Iwatani Corporation to form the Global LH2 Consortium to create a business model to export liquid hydrogen from Australia to Japan.

300GW – Potential renewable capacity identified

“We know there will be many key markets for green hydrogen in the coming decade and, by building on our existing supply chain capabilities and market access, we see an opportunity for Fortescue to participate in, and be at the forefront, of developing an export market for hydrogen,” Shuttleworth says.

Fortescue has also set a deadline of 30 June for a number of key FFI initiatives. These include developing a design for ships to be powered by green ammonia; testing of large batteries for its heavy-duty haul trucks; and trialling green ammonia to power locomotives and hydrogen fuel cells in its drill rigs. 

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Author: Vincent Lauerman