Woodside plans to develop a hydrogen and ammonia project dubbed as H2Perth in Perth, Western Australia with an investment of more than A$1bn ($750.8m) for the first phase.
Backed by the Western Australian government, the H2Perth project will be constructed in the Kwinana Strategic Industrial Area and Rockingham Industrial Zone in the southern metropolitan region of Perth.
The domestic and export-scale production facility will occupy nearly 130ha of vacant industrial land to be leased from the government.
Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan said: “The H2Perth facility is a great example of the type of renewable energy projects we want to bring to Western Australia.
“Woodside will fully fund the construction and operation of this project to create one of the world’s largest clean energy production facilities.”
To be developed in phases, H2Perth will have a production of up to 1,500 tonnes per day (tpd) of hydrogen for export in the form of ammonia and liquid hydrogen.
The initial target of the carbon neutral project is to produce 300tpd of hydrogen, which is expected to be converted into 600,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) of ammonia or 110,000tpa of liquid hydrogen.
Hydrogen and ammonia will be produced at the H2Perth project by employing electrolysis technologies as well as natural gas reforming.
The electrolysis component of the project’s production will have an initial capacity of 250MW, which can be potentially scaled to over 3GW.
According to Woodside, the initial phase of the steam methane reformer at the project will use 40 terajoules per day of natural gas.
The objectives of the project will be to produce low cost, low carbon hydrogen-based energy as well as stimulate and facilitate increased renewable power generation in the state.
Its construction will involve more than 2,000 roles. Once commissioned, the H2Perth hydrogen and ammonia project will support over 200 ongoing local jobs.
Woodside CEO Meg O’Neill said: “The land being leased from the State Government in the Kwinana and Rockingham areas is ideally located close to existing gas, power, water and port infrastructure, as well as a skilled local residential workforce.
“These advantages will make a huge difference to cost of supply and schedule and help H2Perth deliver competitively priced hydrogen to customers.
“Building in this location is not just about hydrogen. H2Perth will also facilitate substantial growth of renewables in Western Australia by providing to the grid a flexible and stabilising load that benefits uptake of intermittent renewable electricity by households and local industry.”
