A Japanese-Australian venture that generates hydrogen from brown coal is expected to sail its first cargo aboard the world’s first liquid hydrogen carrier from near Melbourne to Kobe on Friday, in a test that has been delayed by over a year because to the COVID-19 outbreak.
The Suiso Frontier, built by Japan’s Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI), arrived on Friday from Kobe, in southern Japan, after a longer-than-expected 16-day journey as the owners sought to avoid bad weather and rough seas, according to a spokesperson for the venture, known as the Hydrogen Energy Supply Chain (HESC).
HESC, led by KHI, is a A$500 million ($360 million) project supported by the Japanese and Australian governments as a means of transitioning to cleaner energy and reducing carbon emissions.
Hydrogen is seen as a way to decarbonize industries that rely on coal, gas, and oil, and it is critical to Japan’s aim of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050. Australia aspires to be a significant fuel exporter.
Last year, the initiative began extracting hydrogen from brown coal at a 70 kg per day demonstration unit in the Latrobe Valley of Victoria, some 135 kilometres (84 miles) east of Melbourne, where brown coal mines have long powered some of Australia’s most polluting power plants.
The hydrogen is created by reacting coal with oxygen and steam at high temperatures and pressures, which also produces carbon dioxide. The hydrogen is then trucked to a port and cooled to minus 253 degrees Celsius (minus 423 degrees Fahrenheit), where it is liquefied for export.
If the project is finally scaled up to 225,000 tonnes per year, the partners intend to produce carbon-neutral hydrogen by burying the carbon dioxide produced in the process beneath the seabed off the coast of Victoria.
Japan’s Electric Power Development Co (J-Power), Iwatani Corp, Marubeni Corp, Sumitomo Corp and Australia’s AGL Energy Ltd, whose mine supplies the brown coal, are partners in the project.
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