12 July 2023
Australia

SC and Rio Tinto have agreed to build a pilot plant in Gladstone to trial use hydrogen to replace natural gas in the alumina refining process.

SC and Rio Tinto have proceeded with a study on the construction of a hydrogen pilot plant at Rio Tinto’s Yarwun alumina refinery in Gladstone under a partnership in August 2021. SC completed its front-end engineering and design study (FEED) in March 2022. The A$111 million joint Rio Tinto and SC Yarwun Hydrogen Calcination Pilot Demonstration Programme is the first of its kind in the world to trial use hydrogen in the refinery calcination process. It will consist of a hydrogen plant at the refinery and retrofit of processing equipment. The plant will be co-funded through a A$32 million grant from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (hereinafter, “ARENA”).

SC will own and operate a 2.5MW electrolyser at Yarwun alumina refinery, and supply hydrogen to one of Rio Tinto Yarwun’s calciners to operate with a hydrogen burner directly. The electrolyser will have an annual production capacity of more than 250 tonnes of hydrogen. Construction will start in 2024. The hydrogen plant and calciner are expected to be in operation by 2025. If successful, the project will demonstrate the viability of using hydrogen in the calcination process. This could pave the way for adoption at scale across the industry worldwide.

SC expects hydrogen to be one of the key energies of the future and promotes hydrogen-related businesses such as local production and consumption projects, as well as large-scale value chain projects. This is our first hydrogen production and supply project for which a final investment decision has been taken, and will be the first step in a phased approach to commercialisation, starting with a local production and consumption project, with the aim of constructing a large-scale value chain and exporting hydrogen in the future.

Hear more on this from SAPL National Hydogen Commercialisation Manager, Ms Alana Barlow!

“Meeting this remarkable milestone is the culmination of a number of years of hard work, and we could not be prouder to be working with Rio Tinto on such a crucial decarbonisation initiative.

There has been significant media interest in the announcement, and we even had a spot on Queensland’s 9-News. This event with very positive media announcements was a significant milestone for Sumitomo’s Hydrogen Dept, with our first hydrogen production project being awarded funding from the Australian Government.

With collaboration and teamwork across SC, SAPL and our external partners, the project is now officially moving into the delivery phase. We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone from SC and SAPL who are directly or indirectly involved in the project. This milestone could not have been achieved without your collaboration and teamwork. Going forward, we seek your continuous support in delivering this exciting project together as one team!”