NATIONAL HYDROGEN
STRATEGY
1471. Hon CHARLES SMITH to the Minister for Regional Development:
I refer to the Council of
Australian Governments Energy Council meeting held recently in Perth at which
ministers backed a national hydrogen
strategy, supporting the development of a clean, innovative, competitive,
technology-neutral and safe hydrogen industry and established a hydrogen
working group.
(1) What does technology-neutral
mean?
(2) What fuel sources or types of
fuel did COAG agree would be used to produce hydrogen?
Hon
ALANNAH MacTIERNAN replied:
I thank the member for the very
interesting question.
(1)–(2) There
are three main ways of producing hydrogen. One is through the electrolysis of
water. The others are coal gasification and steam methane reforming. It is
certainly true that the federal COAG strategy encompassed those three styles of
producing hydrogen. On coal gasification, ''Australia's National
Hydrogen Strategy'' states —
Using fossil fuels means there are
carbon emissions, but if these emissions can be captured at a high level and
permanently stored, clean 'CCS hydrogen' can be produced.
There is obviously a variety of views
about the possibility of carbon capture and storage. We note that the Victorian
industry is based very much on the production of hydrogen from coal, with the
aspiration towards carbon capture and storage, whereas here our focus is very
much on the renewable source. We see that there is some role for hydrogen being
produced from natural gas, but really the main aim of the project in our state
is to develop the ultimate decarbonised hydrogen.