A PILOT project to produce hydrogen from brown coal will require the gas to be liquefied near Hastings before being shipped to Japan.
Kawasaki Heavy Industries says it will release more details of the project “in the first quarter of 2017 for consideration and consultation”.
The company says it has been “exploring the opportunity” to create a hydrogen energy supply chain from Australia to Japan for more than six.
During that time discussions had been held with state and federal governments, industry and research organisations.
“The initiative is well known,” general manager of Kawasaki’s hydrogen development centre, Dr Eiichi Harada, said in a statement issued by consultants, GHD Australia.
Mr Harada said Kawasaki “is not and has never been involved in plans to process coal at Western Port”.
Flinders Liberal MP Greg Hunt, who was environment minister during the time that Kawasaki was in high level government discussions about its brown coal to liquid hydrogen project, last week repeated that he was opposed to any “reindustrialisation” of Crib Point but would not rule out a coal gasification plant at Hastings (“Secret deal for toxic plant – MP” The Times 23/1/17).
Mr Hunt said he was “utterly opposed” to Western Port being used as a coal port, adding “I have made it clear that Crib Point should not be reindustrialised for hydrogen or bitumen”. However, the proposal would involve hydrogen, not coal, being exported from Hastings.
Mr Hunt said he knew of discussions between the state and Kawasaki but “as far as I am aware, at this stage no decisions have been made as to the port they will use”.
Acting Resources Minister Philip Dalidakis said the state government “has been working with Kawasaki Heavy Industries and the Commonwealth on an engineering study to investigate the possible production of hydrogen from brown coal”.
“This project is in the very early stages and we are keen to explore all serious investments that have the potential to create much needed jobs in the Latrobe Valley.”
Hastings Liberal MP Neale Burgess last week said Kawasaki Heavy Industries has signed a “secret deal” with the state government that could lead to “long coal trains or a coal slurry pipe bringing huge amounts of coal to Hastings, building of a huge coal gasification plant at Hastings and the produced hydrogen being shipped through Western Port”.
Mr Burgess’s opposition to the plant being located at Hastings or anywhere in Western Port contrasts with that of his federal Liberal colleague, Mr Hunt.
“Western Port is not the appropriate place to ship coal to, whether via long coal trains, slurry pipe or any other means, or to develop a huge gasification plant for turning that coal into hydrogen.”
It is understood Kawasaki is already building a ship to transport liquid hydrogen which would initially be produced at a pilot plant in the Latrobe Valley. If proved viable, a much larger plant would be built at Hastings.
Environmentalists argue that the process adds to Australia’s carbon emissions while Japan gets the benefit of a much cleaner fuel.
Many of Mr Burgess’s concerns are echoed by Jenny Warfe, of the Blue Wedges environmental action group.
“Although representatives from the Australian Maritime Safety Authority and Japan’s transport ministry signed an agreement in Canberra, the public has been kept well in the dark about the ‘initiative’. As far as I can ascertain, there has been no public consultation about Hastings and Western Port being the unlucky recipient of an industry – or at the very least the likely shipping hub – for a fuel responsible for some of the most horrendous incidents on the planet and loss of human life. Are we mad?”
Ms Warfe described brown coal as “the dirtiest coal on the planet”.
