The CSIRO has launched a groundbreaking $10 million technology project that can safely generate hydrogen at off-grid locations, addressing one of the major challenges to the growth of the sector.
The Australian-first project has involved the development of a device to produce the clean fuel at the point of consumption, utilising a liquid carrier which enables hydrogen to be safely and efficiently stored and transported in tanks from where it is produced – such as a solar farm or wind farm – to where the energy is to be used.
Scientists from Australia’s national science agency will build a demonstration unit based on patented technology to efficiently generate hydrogen from liquid carriers, which is supported by a $10 million investment over six years from research and innovation provider Advanced Carbon Engineering.
The project is part of CSIRO’s Hydrogen Industry Mission, which “supports global decarbonisation through the development of a commercially viable Australian hydrogen industry”.
“Australia has the potential to become an energy superpower through hydrogen, but we need to find better methods of safely transporting and storing it at scale,” says CSIRO’s deputy hydrogen industry mission lead, Dr Vicky Au.
“To get the hydrogen industry moving, we need to be able to get hydrogen where it will be used by the consumer. This generator unit will do just that. It will be compact enough to move to where it’s needed – whether that’s a farm, a festival, an industrial facility or mine site.”
CSIRO’s patented catalytic static mixers will be central to the development of the new hydrogen generator.
“Catalytic static mixers are special tools that mix fluids to speed up and better control chemical reactions without any moving parts,” says CSIRO researcher Dr John Chiefari.
“This level of control allows the process to be highly scalable without the technical challenges this usually entails. This gives us a key advantage over the current packed-bed reactor technology.
“The technology to add hydrogen to a carrier fluid is already established. Now this hydrogen generation system will enable hydrogen to be produced locally and on demand from the carrier, with the added advantage of the carrier fluid being safely stored in a similar way to diesel or petrol.”
“This is a big step forward with a goal to store the fuel in standard tanks and manage it using existing diesel or petrol infrastructure.”
Photo at top (from left): CSIRO’s deputy hydrogen industry mission lead, Dr Vicky Au, with CSIRO research scientists Dr Christian Hornung and Dr John Chiefari holding CSM rods.