Thanks Plext. I have cut and paste for those that don't subscribe to AFR
The Coalition is backing Australian Companies to plug the technology gap that exists to in getting us net zero by 2050. Looks like out little ECT is streets ahead of many others imo. If I was SCOMO, I'd be donning the High Vis and making a B-line to the Latrobe Valley/Bacchus Marsh.
This is serious media coverage which will turn some heads imo.
Niche technology company Environmental Clean Technologies will build a hydrogen-producing plant to demonstrate the commercial viability of its technology, which it says can produce net zero hydrogen from brown coal without the need for carbon capture and storage.
ASX-listed ECT announced the building plans after it struck a deal with GrapheneX. The plant is expected to be operational within 18 months, which ECT said will be the springboard for its expansion plans into the Latrobe Valley.
ECT eyes using coal now destined for Yallourn to produce hydrogen without the need for carbon capture and storage. Digicam
“At the heart of what we’re doing is transforming the way in which brown coal is used,” ECT managing director Glenn Fozard told The Australian Financial Review.
“Brown coal has got a bad name because it’s being used, like black coal, just dug up and burnt in a boiler to produce electricity. That’s a terrible way of processing brown coal because it is full of amazing chemicals that you don’t get in black coal.
“It will be a commercial demonstration but a mini version of what we’re about to do in Latrobe Valley. The Latrobe Valley project will be about 10 to 20 times bigger. And we’ve already bought land down there, near Yallourn power station, to support that development.”
Mr Fozard said ECT’s ultimate goal is to acquire the mining rights for Yallourn.
Should ECT prove its technology works at a commercial scale, the development would offer Australia a way to continue mining coal and meet its net zero target.
Green-blue hydrogen
Australian coal mining communities are under sustained pressure as the energy generation source struggles to compete financially against cheaper renewables, which could leave the commodity dependent on export markets.
Global interest in hydrogen has soared in recent months as many countries pledge to reach net zero emissions by 2050. Australia hopes to be a leading player in the export of hydrogen, but there is a growing row over how to produce the energy source.
Fossil fuel producers believe coal can be used to power the electrolysis needed to produce hydrogen, which is known as blue hydrogen, but with emissions either abated by carbon capture and storage (CCS) or through the purchase of carbon credits.
Gas could be used instead of coal, producing so-called green hydrogen. This process, however, produces less carbon dioxide, but methane is emitted as a byproduct.
Mr Fozard said ECT’s process would be viridian hydrogen – a colour between blue and green – and he said the technology would produce net zero emissions, negating the need for expensive CCS.
He said ECT takes the brown coal, which is then blended to a waste biomass to produce a pellet. This is then processed to extract the moisture, which ECT said is done without combustion. From there, Mr Fozard said it goes into a rotary kiln and heated with a low oxygen environment, producing a hydrogen heavy syngas and a carbon char.
ECT will initially use the syngas to produce formic acid, which is considered one of the most promising materials for hydrogen storage.
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