The Western Australian government has allocated land to four companies in its Maitland Strategic Industrial Area, to develop allegedly ‘green’ hydrogen and ammonia projects.
The companies to get a slice of the action are Fortescue Future Industries, Hexagon Energy Materials, Yara International, and Perdaman Chemicals and Fertilisers.
A joint statement by Deputy Premier and Minister for State Development Roger Cook and Lands Minister John Carey says the land allocations in Maitland, 24km west of Karratha, will be used by the four companies to produce hydrogen and ammonia and generate renewable power.
The green credentials the various projects can claim vary, however. Let’s take a look.
Perdman
In April, Perdman announced it plans to use the land to develop a large-scale solar power plant, which will complement the 50MW facility it recently announced in partnership with Woodside.
If built, Perdman’s Maitland operation would be a 100MW solar farm, the company said, and would help decarbonise its Birrup Peninsula urea project.
Perdman says it plans to decarbonise the 2 million tonne per year urea project by 2050.
Hexagon Energy Materials
Hexagon Energy Materials is less demonstrably green: the company plans to turn natural gas into ammonia for export into Asia, using carbon sequestration to support its green claims, as part of its WAH2 “blue hydrogen” project.
In an announcement to the Australian Securities exchange (PDF), the company said the Maitland site is close to established export routes, giving it access to markets like Japan and South Korea.
Hexagon said it is in discussions with “preferred parties” for gas supply, power supply, carbon sequestration (in “depleted gas reservoirs”), water supply and infrastructure access.
Yara International, Fortescue Future Industries
Fertiliser company Yara International hasn’t made a specific announcement about the Pilbara green industrial precinct, but it is already working in the “green hydrogen” market.
In 2021, the company was awarded a $42.5 million ARENA grant to work with ENGIE to develop its renewable hydrogen and ammonia production processes.
The ARENA grant covered a 10MW electrolyser, solar power for the electrolyser, and battery storage, all in its Pilbara facility.
Fortescue Future Industries has yet to announce its Maitland plans, but its focus to date has been producing fully-green hydrogen using electrolysis.
About Richard Chirgwin
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Hmm… looks very much like “The transition to renewables you have when you are not having a transition to renewables.”
It’s a bit of a stretch, but, using the same logic, one could possibly argue that even Mount Everest is a ‘potential renewable’ source of energy: ie at some future time will be ground down to sand and thus become a mineral rich silica that will maybe the raw materials needed for solar panel and battery construction