Methanol for shipping | Iberdrola and partners to invest €1.1bn in Australian green hydrogen plant
Proposed renewable H2 plant in Tasmania will produce 300,000 tonnes of green CH3OH for use as a marine fuel, says Spanish giant
Spanish utility Iberdrola plans to build a €1.1bn ($1.17bn) green hydrogen plant in Tasmania, Australia, that would deliver hundreds of thousands of tonnes of green methanol to the shipping industry for use as a marine fuel.
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The firm intends to partner up with local green fuels company Abel Energy to construct the Bell Bay Powerfuels project in Tasmania, with backing from the Australian government.
The first phase can be expected to deliver 200,000 tonnes of methanol per year, Iberdrola said, before being dramatically scaled up to 300,000 tonnes in its second phase.
But the company gave no details as to when the project can expect to come on line, or when it plans to take a FID.
The Iberdrola project joins a host of other schemes scoping out the Tasmanian government’s proposed Bell Bay Hydrogen Hub, which aims to funnel federal regional development cash to companies working on hydrogen projects in the Bell Bay industrial complex in northern Tasmania.
Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue Future Industries is working on a 250MW green hydrogen project in Bell Bay, which the company says will produce 250,000 tonnes of green ammonia for local use and export – however no announcement has been made on FID.
The regional government has an ambitious 200% renewable energy target by 2040, with plans to utilise excess capacity to make green hydrogen that can be used domestically and exported abroad.
“The use of hydrogen should focus on applications where there are no other alternatives,” the company said. “That is, for the replacement of grey hydrogen (produced from fossil fuels) with green hydrogen (produced by renewables) in sectors where it is currently used, such as fertilisers, methanol or refineries.”