Oz AGIG Starts Work on Adelaide Hydrogen Unit

Australian Gas Networks (AGN), part of the Australian Gas Infrastructure Group (AGIG), has started installing an electrolyser at a renewable hydrogen production facility, AGIG said on July 9. The facility, Hydrogen Park South Australia, is being developed in Adelaide.

AGN is installing the Siemens' 1.25-MW proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyser, which will employ electricity from renewable sources to split water into oxygen and hydrogen gas. It will produce up to 480kg/day of hydrogen, AGIG said.

The renewable hydrogen will then be blended with natural gas for feeding into AGN's existing suburban gas networks. The final site works at the A$11.4mn (US$8mn) plant, which attracted a A$4.9mn grant from the South Australian government’s Renewable Technology Fund, are near complete. Commercial hydrogen production is expected to start in the spring of 2020. 

“At AGIG, we are investing in the long-term interests of our customers and the environment. This project paves the way for the commercial deployment of a hydrogen economy as we seek to deploy 10% renewable gas in our networks before shifting to the potential conversion of entire networks,” AGIG CEO Ben Wilson said.

Once operational, more than 700 residences in parts of the Adelaide suburb of Mitchell Park will start receiving the plant's blended 5% renewable gas. AGIG has already announced plans for a similar plant in Gladstone, Queensland.

The company wants to introduce hydrogen into gas networks in both Victoria and South Australia through the Australian Hydrogen Centre; and has won Western Australian government backing to assess how hydrogen can be introduced into the AGIG-operated Dampier to Bunbury natural gas pipeline in Western Australia.