Ark Energy is helping to lead the Australian renewable energy quest through its specialised work in hydrogen production.
Renewable hydrogen, a versatile fuel with applications in harder-to-abate industry sectors like heavy transport, chemicals, manufacturing and metals processing, is emerging as a key foundation for the global transition to a low-carbon economy.
Among the players leading the development of Australia’s renewable hydrogen industry is Ark Energy. Ark Energy is an Australian subsidiary of Korea Zinc, one of the world’s largest producers of non-ferrous metals and owner of the Sun Metals refinery near Townsville, Queensland.
Korea Zinc was the first major refiner to join the Climate Group’s global RE100 initiative and commit to operating from 100 per cent renewable electricity, by 2040 for Sun Metals and by 2050 globally. It aims to be the first refiner in the world to produce green metals.
In recent years, with forward thinking leadership, Korea Zinc has been pivoting and investing heavily in a sustainability roadmap titled ‘Troika Drive’. This focuses on innovation, growth and leadership in three new business areas: renewable energy and hydrogen, secondary battery materials and resource recycling.
In 2018 Sun Metals invested $200 million to build the Sun Metals Solar Farm, which remains the largest integrated industrial use solar farm in Australia, and supplies about 25 per cent of the Sun Metals refinery’s electricity needs.
Shortly after, in 2021, Ark Energy was established to progress Korea Zinc’s clean energy strategy and in the few years since has become one of Australia’s most prominent renewable energy companies.
It now has a portfolio of projects in development with an investment value of $20 billion that includes renewable energy generation, battery energy storage systems and renewable hydrogen production.
Ark Energy is leveraging its parent company’s strong financial foundation and industrial expertise to develop innovative projects in renewable hydrogen production, storage, and distribution, and has earned status as a major player in Australia’s hydrogen industry.
Expansion into hydrogen mobility and advancing hydrogen’s potential in the transportation sector is a critical element of the group’s decarbonisation strategy. Ark Energy’s first flagship renewable hydrogen project, the SunHQ Hydrogen Hub, is a production and refuelling station for road haulage, also co-located with the Sun Metals Solar Farm and zinc refinery.
Stage 1 of SunHQ involves a 1-megawatt proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyser with a behind-the-meter connection to the solar farm, built to adapt dynamically to fluctuating power prices.
The site was energised and power to the facility switched on for the first time in January. With a production capacity of 155 tonnes per annum, Ark Energy CEO Michael Choi said it will produce enough to help decarbonise the road train fleet operating between the refinery and the Port of Townsville, as well as supply third-party customers.
“We expect commissioning to be completed and the station fully operational by March this year,” Choi said.
“It is an industry-leading and pivotal project, not only as one of the largest fully integrated, renewable hydrogen production and refuelling facilities in the country, but also as a critical pilot project that has helped to advance technologies, demonstrate integration of renewable hydrogen into the value chain, reduce costs and improve efficiencies in hydrogen generation.
“We have gained valuable expertise and knowledge from developing SunHQ over the past 12 months and will leverage those learnings for other, and bigger, more ambitious renewable hydrogen projects,” Choi said.
With abundant renewable energy resources, Australia is well-positioned to become a major supplier and is expected to become one of the world’s largest net-exporters of low-emissions hydrogen, according to the International Energy Agency’s 2023 World Energy Outlook.
However, one of the biggest challenges for hydrogen that has been identified is transporting it in large quantities.
Green ammonia, produced from renewable hydrogen, is an easily transportable energy carrier that can be processed back to hydrogen for various applications.
The International Energy Agency’s 2024 Global Hydrogen Review and the 2024 Australian Hydrogen Strategy highlighted ammonia production as a way hydrogen can more specifically facilitate decarbonisation for heavy industry.
“Green ammonia will be a critical enabler to decarbonise hard-to-abate industrial processes and use as a zero-carbon fuel,” Choi said.
Ark Energy’s next major hydrogen project, the Han-Ho H2 Hub, involves an integrated renewable hydrogen and green ammonia production facility within the Abbot Point State Development Area.
The project will be supplied with renewable electricity from Ark Energy’s proposed Collinsville Green Energy Hub, which is approximately 60 km south, and will export green ammonia via the Port of Abbot Point.
Tim Davies, Senior Project Manager, Han-Ho H2 Hub, said the project is planned to be built in two stages and is an infrastructure investment for north Queensland worth around $8 billion.
Subject to approvals, the goal is to commence operations in 2030, and it will have an ultimate production capacity of about 400,000 tonnes per annum of renewable hydrogen and 2.4 million tonnes per annum of green ammonia by 2035-40.
“It will be one of the largest hydrogen and ammonia facilities with behind-the-meter renewable energy generation in Australia,” Davies said.
Abbot Point has an industrial area and existing deepwater port earmarked for further development, as well as renewable energy resources in proximity, established trade links, and a strategic location in the Asia-Pacific region.
Davies is confident this will position the Han-Ho H2 Hub to tap into a lucrative export market. A strategic, long-sighted approach to decarbonising hard-to-abate sectors and pioneering applications for renewable hydrogen requires vision, tenacity, courage, significant investment and a commitment that can span decades.
Choi said Ark Energy is determined to become a global leader in renewable hydrogen production and export.
“We are driven by a vision to be the safest and most competitive producer of renewable hydrogen, not only in Australia, but in the world, and utilise it to lead the way in decarbonisation, and carbon neutral manufacturing and business.”
Ark Energy is working with local and international stakeholders and investing heavily to develop the infrastructure for a renewable hydrogen value chain, and to produce, store, transport and export renewable hydrogen from Australia on a large scale.
With Ark Energy’s ambitious projects, the future of renewable hydrogen in Australia and its catalytic potential to establish the country as a clean energy export powerhouse is taking shape.
For more information, visit arkenergy.com.au
This article featured in the February edition of ecogeneration.
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