Woodside inks plan for Asian hydrogen run

Australian liquid hydrogen will power Singaporean data centres and Japanese cities under a feasibility project Woodside has inked with Asian partners.

A long-term supply chain of sustainable liquid hydrogen from WA to Singapore and potentially Japan could lower carbon emissions in cities.

Woodside and Singapore’s Keppel Data Centres, City-OG Gas Energy and Osaka Gas Singapore on Wednesday announced they had signed a memorandum of understanding to develop a supply chain from Australia.

Woodside’s proposed H2Perth hydrogen plant at Kwinana, one of the largest facilities of its kind in the world, is key to the proposed supply route.

“H2Perth is ideally located in Western Australia for shipping to Singapore and Japan and the project site is close to existing gas, power, water and port infrastructure, as well as a skilled local residential workforce,” Woodside chief executive Meg O’Neill said.

Designed to be net-zero emissions for both Woodside and its customers, the plant would produce up to 1500 tonnes a day of hydrogen for export in the form of ammonia and liquid hydrogen.

Local refuelling stations could operate as early as 2023.

The feasibility study for the liquid hydrogen corridor is expected to run until mid-2022, when the partners will decide on the next phase of work.

Woodside considers hydrogen to be a promising next-generation, low-carbon fuel that can be used for power generation, town gas and as an industrial feedstock.

Hydrogen can be liquefied by cooling it to below negative 253 degrees Celsius, and takes up significantly less volume as liquid than in its gaseous state so it can be stored and transported more easily.

“Hydrogen will play a significant role in the energy transition and the development of a liquefied hydrogen supply chain is vital,” head of Osaka Gas Singapore Motoyuki Hirabayashi said.

Keppel Data Centres said research efforts in LNG and hydrogen for power generation, floating data centres, and technologies for carbon capture, utilisation and sequestration would reduce emissions.

For Singapore gas suppliers, imported green hydrogen could be used in town gas manufacturing processes to further lower carbon emissions.