(Latrobe Valley, Victoria/Australia) – In Australia, a consortium of industry and politics has launched a pilot project called “Hydrogen Energy Supply Chain” (HESC). The goal is to develop a complete supply chain for hydrogen. This includes its production by gasification of brown coal from the Latrobe Valley mining areas, liquefaction, transport to the port of Hastings in the Melbourne metropolitan area and shipping to Japan. 
The HESC consortium, founded in 2018, includes Kawasaki Heavy Industries, J-Power, Iwatani Corporation, Marubeni Corporation, AGL Loy Yang Pty Ltd and Sumitomo Corporation. The governments of Australia, Japan and the state of Victoria are supporting the project.
Next stage: transport to Japan
According to Hirofumi Kawazoe of Hydrogen Engineering Australia, a Kawasaki subsidiary based in Melbourne, the "next major development is the transport of hydrogen between Australia and Japan" aboard the world's first purpose-built liquid hydrogen tanker, Suiso Frontier. The ship, developed by Kawasaki, was launched in Kobe, Japan, in 2019. 
The 116-meter-long transporter is scheduled to bring liquefied hydrogen cooled to minus 253 degrees on its journey this year. The data and insights collected in the pilot project will be incorporated into commercialization. HESC creates around 400 jobs in the supply chain, says Jeremy Stone from the Japanese energy company J-Power.
Bury CO2
In parallel with HESC, the CarbonNet project is being developed by Victoria and the Australian central government. In later commercial operation, CarbonNet's CO2 captured during hydrogen production will be stored using carbon capture and storage technology (CCS) in rock layers 1,5 kilometers deep beneath the Bass Strait, a strait off Melbourne between Tasmania and the Australian mainland. According to forecasts, 225.000 tonnes of hydrogen could be produced annually using carbon capture and storage. “We estimate that our project will reduce CO2 emissions by 1,8 million tonnes per year,” said Stone.
deep link
https://hydrogenenergysupplychain.com/major-milestone-for-victorias-world-first-hydrogen-project/
Photo above
Rendering of the hydrogen terminal at Port Hastings in Victoria as part of the HESC project. © Kawasaki Heavy Industries
Photo middle
Latrobe Valley with its brown coal mining area in the state of Victoria, Australia © WikipediaCCA
Photo below
Hydrogen Energy Supply Chain Technology Research Association (HySTRA) schematic of the hydrogen supply chain from Australia to Japan. The industrial consortium was founded by the Japanese in 2016 with the aim of developing technologies and demonstration projects that include the realization and commercialization of a CO2-free hydrogen supply chain from production (using lignite) to transport and storage. © Kawasaki Heavy Industries
