PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The federal and Queensland governments on Friday announced joint funding of A$117-million for the further development of the Central Queensland Hydrogen (CQ-H2) project at Gladstone.

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (Arena) will provide A$20-million in funding, while A$15-million will be provided from the Queensland government and the remaining A$81.8-million from consortium partners.

The CQ-H2 project will initially involve the installation of up to 640 MW of electrolysers to produce hydrogen for commercial operations commencing in 2028. The hydrogen production facility will produce gaseous renewable hydrogen that will be purchased by offtakers and converted to renewable ammonia and liquefied hydrogen for export.

The facility will initially produce 200 t/d of hydrogen and ramp up in 200 t/d increments as additional offtake agreements are secured, with full scale anticipated to be 800 t/d for commercial operations in 2031.

Developing a green hydrogen export industry in Gladstone will create significant economic opportunities for Queensland, with the project expected to create almost 9 000 jobs and over A$17.2-billion in hydrogen exports over its 30-year life.

“Projects like this are critical to scaling up Australia’s green hydrogen industry,” said Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen.

“The government is committed to making Australia a global hydrogen leader and projects like the CQ-H2 Project could lead the way in exporting renewable hydrogen to the international market.

“Japan, Korea and China are three of our largest trading partners and have all made clear commitments to increase the use of hydrogen, with a focus on establishing international supply chains for imports.”

Arena said on Friday that funding would go to Stanwell Corporation Limited to support a front-end engineering design study for the large-scale renewable hydrogen project, and would also investigate the development of a hydrogen liquefaction facility based at the Port of Gladstone that would produce 400 t/d of liquefied hydrogen for export by the end of 2030.

Both the hydrogen production and liquefaction facilities will be grid-connected, supported by power purchase agreements (PPAs) with Queensland wind and solar farms, provided through Stanwell’s renewable energy portfolio.

Arena CEO Darren Miller said Australia was well positioned to capitalise on export opportunities to Asia, however, unlocking it would require the rapid development of substantial hydrogen production and export facilities at a globally cost-competitive price point.

“Stanwell’s project represents a near-term renewable hydrogen production opportunity at globally significant scale. The development of a renewable hydrogen hub in Gladstone could help decarbonise heavy industrial facilities in the region and create an export supply chain between Australia and Japan and Singapore.

“We’re looking to gain valuable learnings around the current cost of producing hydrogen from renewable energy at large-scale. This understanding is critical to scaling up hydrogen production in Australia and developing both the domestic and export industry for renewable hydrogen in line with Australia’s ambitions,” Miller said.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the partnership with the CQ-H2 consortium, which included Stanwell, Iwatani Corporation, Kansai Electric Power Company, Keppel Infrastructure and Marubeni Corporation, showed Queensland’s dominant position as a global hydrogen heavyweight.

“This is excellent news for Queenslanders because it’s projects like this that will unlock huge economic opportunities by creating thousands of local jobs and billions of dollars in investment.

“Because of the investments we’re making, the Queensland economy will reap the benefits of the global clean energy transition, while ensuring Queensland has more, cheaper, cleaner renewable energy to power our businesses and homes.”