
Australia’s hydrogen fuel transition is great news for the coal sector
March 26, 2020The country is hoping to gain from Japan’s goals to become a leading H2 adopter by selling a supply.
Australia is launching into a hydrogen fuel transition to gain from Japan’s intentions to become a top H2 energy source adopter. The Australian goal is to become the leading Japanese supplier of the fuel.
The coal sector stands to win from this arrangement as it remains a low-cost production fuel.
Since coal represents the cheapest fuel to power the production of H2, it stands to gain from the hydrogen fuel transition in Australia. While this does sound as though the use of a fossil fuel nullifies any potential benefits of a clean renewable energy source, the plan is to work around that.
As a part of this strategy, any H2 producing facility will be required to use a carbon capture system. This will stop any carbon emissions from reaching the atmosphere. In this way the hope is that Australia will have a national hydrogen strategy complete by the close of 2020. By that time, Japan will start to use the country for a safe, reliable and much more affordable H2 than their current energy source.
Hydrogen fuel is currently an important focus in Japan, where the country is keen to replace its reliance on nuclear. That country experienced on of the worst nuclear meltdowns on the planet, so H2 offers considerable appeal to the 124 million people who live there.
The hydrogen fuel transition could also play a meaningful role in the Tokyo Olympics.
The Tokyo Olympics have been designed to provide a demonstration of Japan’s intentions to become an H2 fuelled carbon-free society, using the latest tech. If/when the event takes place, there will also be H2 powered buses to shuttle athletes and attendees from one place to the next.
What has people double taking over the current Australian strategy is the intention to use brown coal to produce the H2. It is, in essence, using a carbon-emitting fuel source to produce a zero-carbon fuel source. Though the carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology will be required, this doesn’t mean that no carbon will be produced, and that carbon waste will need disposal.
The main purpose for this hydrogen fuel transition is to produce the renewable energy source at as low a cost as possible in order to make it a viable opportunity in selling it to Japan.
Wouldn’t it make more sense to add PV capacity any use that to make H2 via normal electrolyzers?
Isn’t Australia already using the same P2G tech as Germany/Holland/The U.K.?
Doesn’t Australia have any salt domes that can be developed to store H2 in?
There are companies that convert coal ( carbon) to liquid hydrocarbon fuel, this was demonstrated on our Katenta Arizona Hopi/Navajo reservation. That means you don’t need a Texas or Saudi Arabia or Russia.
Is it really so politically important to kowtow to industrial magnates that we do things that are self destructive?
Wouldn’t it be cheaper to retrain the existing workers and create a coal-to-diesel/NatGas/Methane/JP4 etc. system?
Why do we need to keep paying off the 1% with public funds and lives? Factory owners with net worth in the Millions are never going to miss a meal. Store H2 & make a P2G system. Use coal to make storable hydrocarbon fuels or plastics or ?? but why burn it? Coal fired steam locomotives & boiler-style powerplants were superceeded by diesel-electrics and natural gas once-thru HRSG’s. Cheap PV panels make it stupid to use trough collector thermal cycle solar generation.
Australia doesn’t need to throw away a carbon resource to light up houses at night & pump water. P2G tech is available. Use coal to make liquid fuels for transportation needs or carbon-based structural materials or fabrics,
but there is no need anymore in 2020 to burn it to sustain obsolete technology. Readily available hydrocarbon technology can provide much better uses for this resource. You’ll breathe easier if you do.
Australia is a country with immense Solar PV potential. In India Solar PV is already lower cost energy source than coal. If not already, this will surely soon be the case for Australia. Why is Australia still mining coal when global demand for coal is falling off a cliff? Move on to more sustainable renewable energy sources wind, solar, hydro, tidal to produce H2.