Australian company Fortescue Future Industries (FFI) plans to begin manufacturing the first Australian-produced electrolysers after successfully delivering its first working prototype.
The electrolysers are being produced at the company’s recently-constructed electrolyser manufacturing facility in Gladstone – another Australian first.
FFI chief executive, Mark Hutchinson, noted that the facility was constructed on-time and under-budget. “We’ve also successfully completed the build of our first PEM (Polymer Electrolyte Membrane) prototype. This is no small feat, as we are the first in Australia to do anything like this. We remain firmly on track to produce Queensland-made FFI electrolysers this year.”
In fact, FFI is poised to supply its electrolysers to a number of projects around the world if they reach financial investment decisions (FID) by the end of 2023. These include two in the United States (Arkansas and Texas), and green ammonia projects in Brazil, Kenya, and Norway.
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Another, closer-to-home project may come to pass as the FFI electrolyser is used to convert an existing gas-fed ammonia facility at Gibson Island near Brisbane into a renewables-fed green ammonia facility.
If built, the proposed 500 MW plant will be one of the world’s largest, capable of producing 70,000 tonnes of renewable hydrogen annually. Gibson Island is already home to an ammonia plant, which uses hydrogen as a key ingredient in its production.
The Australian Renewable Energy Association (ARENA) is funding the project to the tune of A$13.7m. The money will go to Fortescue Future Industries in consortium with Incitec Pivot Limited.
Hutchinson admits the pace of change is dizzying, but is confident his company can keep up, “So, as an industry, we have an enormous amount to learn over the next few years as we ramp this up at scale. The technology, I think, will develop very, very fast over the next few years. So we’re just going to be part o that race.”
