February 2021

Australia

SC and JGC Holdings Corporation have signed a Front End Engineering and Design (FEED) contract for Sumitomo’s green hydrogen production facility in Gladstone.

The City of Gladstone, which is located in the State of Queensland, is attracting attention as a suitable location for hydrogen production and consumption. This is due to its existing industrial infrastructure, with government’s initiative on climate change, and having potential to decarbonise existing sectors such as industry, mobility, ports etc. It also has rich solar radiation with long daylight hours, which leads to the Green Hydrogen production site.

This project is part of a broader programme that aims long term to build local hydrogen production and consumption in Gladstone by producing hydrogen from electrolysis of water using electricity from Solar Photovoltaics (PV) as the main power source. The initial hydrogen production plant plans to produce 250-300 tonnes of hydrogen annually, with plans to scale up production. The FEED Study will be completed by mid-2021, and we are aiming to commence our hydrogen production in 2023.

In addition to producing hydrogen at the initial plant, we are in parallel creating hydrogen demand in this region. We are in discussion to explore opportunities to develop a hydrogen ecosystem in the Gladstone region with regional partner such as Gladstone Port Corporation, Gladstone Regional Council, Australian Gas Infrastructure Group and Central Queensland University.

We met with the Queensland Hydrogen Minister, Mr Mick de Brenni on 10 February to seek his evaluation on our projects. (Ishihara-san, Romina-san, Takada-san, Alana-san and myself attended from Sumitomo.) Alana-san made a short presentation of our activities, and we received positive feedback from the Minister, and with a number of commitments:

1. Ongoing open line of communication and consultation with Minister’s Office and hydrogen department, to engage with and work together on our Gladstone Project.
2. Web meeting to introduce the Minister to our executive management based in Japan, Sydney and Melbourne, to demonstrate our commitment to hydrogen, and Gladstone.

Response has been good after our press release of Gladstone project, and we are in discussion with lots of potential projects stakeholders. If you are contacted by any external parties regarding this project, Team Hydrogen (David, Matthew, Max, Romina, Alana and myself) can provide you with more information. I hope we can share more good news sometime soon.

An aerial view of Gladstone Port