The partners in Australia's HyEnergy green hydrogen project have agreed to work with compressed shipping developer Global Energy Ventures (GEV) to investigate the possibility of using compression for exports from the project.

GEV will carry out a study to evaluate the technical feasibility and delivered cost of shipping compressed hydrogen from the project to markets in Asia. The study is intended to provide the HyEnergy partners with sufficient confidence to warrant the selection of compressed hydrogen as their preferred export method.

“We are keen to understand the benefits of compressed hydrogen in relation to other means of transporting our potential green hydrogen product to market” Frances, Province Re-sources

 “We are keen to understand the benefits of compressed hydrogen in relation to other means of transporting our potential green hydrogen product to market. GEV are leaders in this technology and will bring that experience to the study,” said David Frances, CEO of Australia’s Province Resources, equal partner in the HyEnergy project with French renewables developer Total Eren.

Hydrogen is expensive and difficult to ship, and no single technology has emerged as the most cost-effective solution. Although all fuels encounter efficiency losses along the value chain, such losses are particularly acute in the case of hydrogen—sometimes running to as much as 30pc below the amount of energy in the original electricity input.

Shipping options

Most hydrogen shipped internationally is first converted into ammonia, but this method has high reconversion costs and some technical issues still remain in attaining hydrogen pure enough for use in proton-exchange membrane fuel cells.

Liquid organic hydrogen carriers (LOHCs) can also be used to transport the fuel. Making an LOHC involves attaching hydrogen molecules to carrier molecules and then re-extracting pure hydrogen at the destination. LOHCs are similar in form to oil products and can be carried on product tankers.

Firms such as Japan’s Kawasaki Heavy Industries have developed liquefied hydrogen shipping vessels, but the technology is still in the nascent phase.

One of the advantages of compressed hydrogen ships is that their capacities can be scaled to the size of the market, whereas liquefied hydrogen ships must be relatively large to be economic, according to Martin Carolan, GEV managing director, tells Hydrogen Economist.

Province Resources and Total Eren—which is 30pc owned by TotalEnergies—have been evaluating the feasibility of developing a major green hydrogen project in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia (WA) since last year. Initially, the two firms said they wanted to develop a 1GW project, although in more recent presentations they have mentioned a figure of 8GW.

8GW – Potential size of project

The chosen region for the project in WA has good wind and geothermal resources and is close to a site that could be developed as a loading facility for exports.

Total Eren has more than 3.3GW of renewable energy assets in operation or under construction worldwide.

WA has developed a strategy to support renewable hydrogen industry with a goal of 10pc mix of renewable hydrogen in the gas network by 2030.

A number of projects are being developed in the region including the 5GW Murchison Renewable Hydrogen Project and the Asian Renewable Energy Hub.

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Author: Tom Young