Australian experts are on a new mission to increase the use of hydrogen fuel. 

CSIRO has launched its new Hydrogen Industry Mission, which seeks to help support the world’s transition to clean energy, create new jobs and boost the economy.

Hydrogen, when mixed with oxygen, can be used as an emissions-free fuel source to generate electricity, power or heat. However, it remains expensive to turn into a fuel.

The research mission seeks to drive down the cost of hydrogen production to under $2 per kilogram.

Over the next five years, more than  100 projects worth $68 million have been planned by partners including the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources (DISER), Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) , Fortescue Metals Group,  Swinburne University, the Victorian Government, the Future Fuels CRC, National Energy Resources Australia (NERA), and the Australian Hydrogen Council, along with collaborators Toyota and Hyundai.

CSIRO Chief Executive Dr Larry Marshall says the mission-based partnership will create a new industry for the future.

“Australia can become a renewable energy leader through the production, use and export of hydrogen, but it will only become a reality if we break through the $2/kg barrier. That needs Australia’s world class science working with CSIRO’s commercialisation expertise turning breakthrough science into real-world solutions,” Dr Marshall said. 

“Taking a Team Australia approach is essential to creating the 8,000 jobs and $11 billion a year in GDP that hydrogen can contribute to Australia’s economy as we build back better from the impacts of COVID-19.”

CEO of the Australian Hydrogen Council Dr Fiona Simon said the mission came at a critical time for the emerging Australian hydrogen industry.

“We need a coordinated series of investments in industrial-scale research and demonstration activities, along with the supporting research and infrastructure that can bring the technologies that are available and emerging to the industry that needs to deploy them,” Dr Simon said.

“Focussed efforts like the Hydrogen Industry Mission will help realise these goals, and the Hydrogen Council is delighted to be part of it.”

The Mission will focus on four key work programs:

  • Hydrogen Knowledge Centre to capture and promote hydrogen projects and industry developments across Australia. The first module, HyResource, was launched in September with NERA, the Future Fuels CRC and The Australian Hydrogen Council

  • Feasibility and strategy studies to deliver trusted advice to government, industry and the community. This builds on recent hydrogen cost modelling and barrier analysis provided as part of developing the National Hydrogen Strategy 

  • Demonstration projects that validate hydrogen value chains and de-risk enabling technologies. Development is underway at a new facility in Clayton, Victoria, with Swinburne University and the Victorian Government

  • Enabling science and technology through investment in breakthrough science, including a $20 million partnership with Fortescue which focuses on the development and commercialisation of new hydrogen technologies.