CASE STUDY

Hydrogen Production & Research Facility

THE CHALLENGE

Ocean industries are almost always beyond the feasible reach of cable-supplied electricity and therefore off-grid. The challenge addressed by the Blue Economy CRC in its demonstration projects and industry-aligned research is how to decarbonise offshore industries, such as aquaculture, while maintaining reliable energy supply. With an Exclusive Economic Zone of 10 million km², Australia has enormous potential for deploying offshore renewable energy converter technologies for electricity generation, green hydrogen production, and oxygen production to power remote offshore systems and hydrogen-powered vessels.

Hydrogen Production & Research Facility

THE CHALLENGE

Ocean industries are almost always beyond the feasible reach of cable-supplied electricity and therefore off-grid. The challenge addressed by the Blue Economy CRC in its demonstration projects and industry-aligned research is how to decarbonise offshore industries, such as aquaculture, while maintaining reliable energy supply. With an Exclusive Economic Zone of 10 million km², Australia has enormous potential for deploying offshore renewable energy converter technologies for electricity generation, green hydrogen production, and oxygen production to power remote offshore systems and hydrogen-powered vessels.

The solution / outcome

Hydrogen is an effective way to store clean energy and supply electricity to offshore sites beyond the reach of subsea power cables. Additionally, hydrogen’s flexibility means it can displace diesel and other fossil fuels in aquaculture and vessels. The oxygen produced in the process of making hydrogen provides an added benefit to aquaculture. The Hydrogen Production and Research Facility has been built to support research and demonstration aimed at decarbonisation of offshore industries, by integrating a 700 kW electrolyser with an innovative DC microgrid configured flexibly to emulate electricity- and hydrogen-use scenarios in the blue economy. The 700 kW Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) electrolyser, delivered by ITM Power in the UK and installed by Optimal Group, is powered 100% by renewable energy. The electrolyser splits purified water into hydrogen and oxygen and can generate up to 262 kg of gaseous hydrogen per day, equivalent to 11 kg per hour or 1.8 t per week, producing zero carbon dioxide. The DC microgrid manages electricity flows between PV panels (28 kW), a battery (114 kWh), a hydrogen-fuelled turbine generator (30 kW), a clean 18 kW electricity source for emulating wind and wave generators, and a programmable 110 kW load to emulate end-use scenarios for research purposes.

The electrolyser can generate up to 262 kg of gaseous hydrogen per day. The turbine is a novel technology, and an alternative to employing a fuel cell to generate electricity from hydrogen. It consumes approximately 3 kg of hydrogen per hour at 30 kW electric output. The facility also includes a low-pressure storage (buffer) vessel (6.8 kg hydrogen at 20 bar pressure) and a 200 bar compressor, which is used to compress this low-pressure hydrogen into tube trailers holding 160–300 kg hydrogen at 165 bar, supplied by BOC, for storage and distribution at high pressure. The facility has been fully commissioned and is in operation, ready to carry out the Blue Economy CRC’s research program and support the industry in their decarbonisation initiatives.

We have completed commissioning of our Hydrogen Production and Research Facility at BOC Australia. As Tasmania’s first green hydrogen facility with Australia’s largest electrolyser, we are accelerating decarbonisation across industry and transport through 100% renewable hydrogen.

Professor Irene Penesis,
Research Director, Blue Economy CRC

The impact

The Blue Economy CRC’s Hydrogen Production & Research Facility has been developed to:

  • Support the decarbonisation of ocean industries through focused research and development.
  • Demonstrate the benefits of hydrogen for storage and use in broader industry and transport sectors, both onshore and offshore.
  • Build a skilled workforce capable of innovating, implementing and maintaining these new systems across the hydrogen value chain.
  • Grow social licence and community acceptance.

The Hydrogen Production & Research Facility is one of the pilot projects under the Australian Government’s Guarantee of Origin (GO) Trial, a world-class assurance scheme being designed to track and verify emissions associated with hydrogen, renewable electricity and potentially other products made in Australia. The facility’s green hydrogen is now powering electric buses as part of Metro Tasmania’s hydrogen electric bus trial in Hobart.

BOC has been safely producing, storing and transporting hydrogen in Australia for more than 80 years. For BOC, this was a perfect opportunity to bring our knowledge and skills to an important project that will lay the foundation for renewable hydrogen research and its application.

Theo Martin,
Managing Director of Linde South Pacific
and Head of BOC Australia

WHAT’S NEXT?

Initial research with the facility is focused on characterisation of the various renewable energy generators and the electrolyser, and development of models to describe their functioning.

Next steps in the research agenda include emulation of an off-grid island and an aquaculture facility powered by renewables including wave energy. In parallel with the experimental program, modelling studies aimed at optimisation of offshore hydrogen-based energy systems are in progress.

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