Australian states join green hydrogen certification

The Australian states of Queensland and Western Australia (WA) have joined the federal Zero Carbon Certification scheme for green hydrogen.

They join Victoria state and the Australian Capital Territory as founding members for the scheme, which is being championed by the renewable energy lobby group The Smart Energy Council. The scheme is designed to assess the embedded carbon in participating hydrogen, ammonia and metals produced within Australia and give them a rating. The key states of New South Wales, Tasmania and South Australia have not yet signed up to the scheme.

The scheme is designed to work with the Australian federal government's National Hydrogen Strategy, which was released in November 2019, and to complement international certification schemes.

WA and Queensland have significant renewable hydrogen production ambitions, including exports.

The Yuri green ammonia project in the Pilbara region of WA is one of the first projects selected by the scheme for certification and the WA government has invested A$2mn ($1.5mn) in the project to encourage development. Yuri is a joint venture between the Australian renewables arm of French energy firm Engie and Yara Pilbara Fertilisers. Yara Pilbara Fertilisers operates the 850,000 t/yr liquid fertilizer facility on the Burrup peninsula in the WA's Pilbara, where it plans to build an industrial-scale renewable hydrogen plant with the help of an A$42.5mn grant from the Australian federal government.

By Jo Clarke