UK supermajor BP has received government funding in Australia to carry out a study into exploring scaling up renewable hydrogen for export, while APA Group has also received backing for a renewable methane project.

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (Arena) confirmed it was providing A$1.71 million (US$1.11 million) in funding to BP to assess the feasibility of building a renewable hydrogen and ammonia production facility in Western Australia.

The overall A$4.42 million feasibility study, which will also be supported by GHD Advisory, is expected to be completed by February next year and will investigate producing renewable hydrogen using electrolysis.

It is hoped the study will help shed light on the technical and financial implications of a fully integrated renewable hydrogen supply chain, while it will also analyse the economic opportunity and determine how it can be scaled-up to satisfy future demand.

“This study presents an important opportunity to support heavy industry to reduce its emissions," Arena chief executive Darren Miller said.

"Early investments in feasibility studies like this will help us to realise the opportunity that renewable hydrogen represents and will ultimately help us to achieve our goal of producing renewable hydrogen and ammonia at a competitive price.”

BP is proposing to use grid connected power and procure renewable electricity through a power purchase agreement, with renewable hydrogen to then be used instead of natural gas to produce renewable ammonia.

The concept aims to produce about 20,000 tonnes of renewable ammonia per annum from the facility BP is proposing to build in Geraldton, north of Perth, due to its vast solar and wind resources, existing port infrastructure and proximity to large, long-term Asian market.

“BP believes that ‘green’ hydrogen, produced using renewable energy, will play an increasingly important role, particularly in parts of the world with high renewable energy potential, such as Western Australia,” BP chief operating officer - Asia Pacific, Frederic Baudry said.

The produced ammonia would initially be for domestic use, but BP intends to pursue export opportunities using its existing trade relationships.

Renewable methane

Arena also announced Friday it was providing a further A$1.1 million in funding to local company APA Group ) to build a modular renewable methane production demonstration plant, near Roma in Queensland.

APA is partnering with Southern Green Gas on the A$2.2 million project, with the hope that renewable methane could decarbonise Australia’s existing gas infrastructure, including gas transmission and distribution networks and export supply chains.

The project will demonstrate the viability of producing renewable methane from solar power via a new approach which captures moisture in the air to produce renewable hydrogen as a precursor to renewable methane.

“This unique project is the first step in testing whether it is possible on an industrial scale to create methane, using solar-generated electricity, water and CO2 (carbon dioxide) from the atmosphere,” APA chief executive Rob Wheals said.

“With this project we’re aiming to determine whether this carbon neutral process might be part of the green energy solution of the future, and if our pipelines can be used to transport pure renewable energy domestically or to be exported.”

The plant will produce about 620 kilograms of hydrogen per year and convert it to 74 gigajoules of methane, which could then be injected into APA’s existing natural gas pipeline, which provides gas to Australia’s east coast.

Cost and technical data gathered from the demonstration plant will then be used to assess the feasibility of a larger, commercial scale, renewable methane plant.

Miller noted that the renewable methane produced by the plant would, in effect, be indistinguishable from the methane which is currently used in the existing pipeline network.

“At scale, renewable methane has the potential to be a significant source of Australia’s future natural gas requirements all through the deployment of solar energy and capturing the water from the atmosphere,” he added.

“Renewable methane is compatible with Australia’s developing hydrogen sector in that known technologies can convert methane to hydrogen and vice versa.”

The grants from Arena come after the government agency last month launched a A$70 million renewable hydrogen deployment funding round to help fast track the development of renewable hydrogen in Australia.

Energy Transition

BP gets funding for renewable hydrogen study in Australia