Fabrum and Fortescue commission Australia’s largest liquid hydrogen plant on a mine site
17 August 2024
Fabrum, a New Zealand company, has collaborated on the design, build and commissioning of Australia’s largest liquid hydrogen plant at a mine site with and for Fortescue, a global green technology, energy and metals company headquartered in Western Australia.
The liquid hydrogen plant at Christmas Creek comprises a hydrogen liquefaction facility, liquid hydrogen storage and a liquid hydrogen refueling station. Liquid hydrogen from the plant will be used to power Fortescue’s zero-emissions mining equipment prototypes including its Offboard Power Unit and its hydrogen-powered haul truck prototype.
Fortescue’s hydrogen-powered haul truck prototype, dubbed “Europa”, recently made the 1,100-kilometer journey from Perth to the Pilbara where it will now complete site-based testing. Over the coming months, the Liebherr T 264 haul truck will be tested in a real-life mining environment at Christmas Creek. This will help inform the company’s future fleet of zero emission haul trucks.
Once commissioned on site, Europa will be refueled with liquid hydrogen from the gaseous and liquid hydrogen plant at Christmas Creek.
The liquid hydrogen plant can produce ~350 kg of liquid hydrogen per day and has ~600 kg of storage.
This is the first project we’ve collaborated on with Fortescue, an investor in Fabrum, and it highlights the great opportunities we see to help each other be successful in the future. This project also represents our entry into the mining and minerals industry to add to our work in heavy transport, aviation and other industries.
—Dr Ojas Mahapatra, Chief Executive Officer of Fabrum
what do they make the H2 from ?
If electricity, what do they make the electricity from ?
Coal?
Solar?
If solar, do they only run the hydrolysers during the day?
Posted by: mahonj | 17 August 2024 at 12:31 AM
Jim,
Here is what Fortescue is building to provide the hydrogen:
https://reneweconomy.com.au/fortescue-opens-first-solar-farm-as-it-gathers-wind-assets-to-help-real-zero-and-green-hydrogen-plans/
' The company announced on Thursday that production has begun at the 100 megawatt (MW) North Star Junction solar farm near the new Iron Bridge mine in the Pilbara.
It is the first solar asset to be built by Fortescue, although the 60 MW Chichester solar project (pictured above), built by Alinta Energy and now owned by APA Group, has been helping to power its Cloudbreak and Christmas Creek iron ore mines in the Pilbara.
The North Star solar farm is not yet complete, but forms the first major step, along with some recently completed battery storage projects, in the company’s ambitious goal of reaching “real zero” by 2030 for its iron ore operations – meaning it will burn no fossil fuels for power or transport.
To achieve this, Fortescue will need to build several gigawatts of new wind and solar capacity, along with storage back-up, to replace the gas and diesel generators that currently power its operations, and the diesel used for its giant haul trucks and other transport and mining needs.'
Cost is a problem though:
' “As the green hydrogen market develops around the world, it is really clear that the cost of green power, which is obviously the way you start with green hydrogen, has to be in the $US30 range to make projects viable,” Hutchinson said.
“Therefore, where the power costs are not at this level, we will work steadfastly with those economies to help bring down the cost of electricity by producing electrons. For example, we will consider opportunities to produce electrons from our portfolio with Australia and Queensland.
“Longer term, we totally believe that green hydrogen is what the world ultimately need. That is why we’ll continue to maintain a significant portfolio project. We are realistic about the pace of the current global energy transition, and that is why our initial focus is on four green hydrogen projects across Australia, the United States, Norway and Brazil.”
Asked if that $30/MWh price was possible in Australia, Hutchinson said it was difficult – but most likely in its home base of Western Australia, and in Queensland where it is pursuing several projects, and has announced the first customers of its Gladstone hydrogen electrolyser plant.'
So it is tough to do, but they are still plugging away.
Kudos.
Posted by: Davemart | 17 August 2024 at 03:25 AM
$30/MWh for solar should not be difficult to achieve if the electricity is consumed nearby, WITHOUT the significant expense of long-distance power transmission lines to bring the power from low-cost desert lands to high-population area.
To put in perspective, utility solar PV farm now costs around $1,000 USD per kW of peak power, while the cost to build power lines to transmit this power is around $1 per kW-mile. So, if you have to move this power to a city 1,000 miles away, then the cost of this solar farm per kW will DOUBLE, to $2,000 per kW at the end users.
This does not including further distribution cost of power substations and city power lines to reduce the voltage to each end users, nor does it include spinning reserves by gas turbine power plants required to backup those solar farms, which can again DOUBLE the solar PV cost, essentially QUADRUPLE the cost of PV solar farms at the source.
By contrast, if we are to build a H2 pipeline for transporting the energy of this solar PV farm to the end users over 1,000 miles, then the cost of pipelines would be 1/8 to 1/10 that of power lines per kW-mile. For fueling mobile vehicles, industrial uses, and for combined heat and power (CHP) purposes, we can see that it would cost far less to produce the H2 near the farm then to pipe it long-distance to end users.
For electricity generated by CHP purposes done on heat-led basis, the efficiency of H2 would equal the efficiency of direct-use of solar and wind, without all the costs of power lines and power distribution and the cost of power back-up during periods of calm and cloudy/rainy days. With increasingly lower and lower costs of electrolyzers and other H2-handling equipment, we will that see that the H2 economy will cost far less per kWh of energy than the cost of direct-use solar and wind electricity via long-distance power transmission.
Posted by: Roger Pham | 23 August 2024 at 01:35 PM
My rough calculation of solar PV cost per MWh:
It costs $1,000 USD per kW for utility, then assuming low-interest loan and minimal maintenance requirement, increasing this cost to $1,500 for the 25-year operational span of the solar PV.
In desert areas with high solar irradiation of 2,000 kWh per year x 25 ;years = 50,000 kWh = 50 MWh.
Dividing $1,500 by 50 MWh = $30 USD per MWh.
Of course, solar installation can last more than 25 years, and the solar irradiation level may be higher, as high as 2,500 kWh per kW annually, so the actual cost may be lower, although the loan interest and operating cost may be higher...so this is a very rough ballpark figure only, to show that $30 USD per MWh is within the realm of possibility, although this doesn't figure in any profit nor any potential gov subsidy. Without gov subsidy and with 20% profit, then it would cost $36 per MWh, or higher.
Posted by: Roger Pham | 23 August 2024 at 02:35 PM