Western Australia awards land rights to five giant green hydrogen projects — and one grey H2 facility

The government of Western Australia (WA) has awarded land rights to five massive green hydrogen projects, including BP’s giant 14GW Asian Renewable Energy Hub (AREH) — as well as one grey hydrogen facility.

The state says that the six projects — plus a new lithium-processing site that was also given land rights — have a combined planned capital expenditure of A$70bn (US$48bn).

Winners of the awards, for leasing rights in the northernmost Pilbara region, include billionaire Andrew Forrest's Fortescue Future Industries (two projects), BP, and South Korean steel giant Posco, which aims to produce green iron for export.

The seven projects have been granted land rights in two of WA’s eleven Strategic Industrial Areas (SIAs) that are dotted along its vast coastline, which aim to create new industrial complexes that capitalise on the arid region’s natural resources, diversify its economy and bring much-needed jobs.

One of the two projects in the Ashburton North SIA, south of the coastal town of Onslow, was allocated to Equus Energy, a unit of Western Gas, for a project that will see the company produce grey hydrogen using fossil gas from its nearby offshore gas fields, known as the Equus Gas project.

Equus says it will “progressively” integrate solar and wind power into the project to replace fossil gas feedstock and transition to green fuels production, but gave no indication as to how quickly it would do this.

This would be an expensive undertaking as it would require two types of hydrogen technology operating concurrently — steam methane reformers and electrolysers — not to mention the solar and/or wind power required to power the electrolysis process.

The Equus Gas project is yet to be developed, which means there is potentially a 25-year supply of fossil gas available to the hydrogen project if it comes to fruition.

South Korean steel firm Posco has also secured land in the Boodarie SIA for its proposed hot briquetted iron (HBI) plant, which would use hydrogen to turn iron ore into direct reduced iron (DRI) suitable for steelmaking. The DRI would then be compressed into HBI — essentially, lumps of almost-pure iron — for export.

UK-based Tees Valley Lithium was also given the land rights to build a new plant producing lithium sulphate monohydrate, which is used in solar panels, some batteries and in medical applications.

Ashburton North SIA

Boodarie SIA