Up to ten trucks a day leaving Port Kembla will leave behind nothing but water vapour with the opening of Australia's first commercial hydrogen refuelling station.
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The hydrogen refuelling station is located at gas producer Coregas's site within the Port Kembla steelworks and will supply the zero-emissions fuel to Coregas's fleet of trucks.
The $2 million station, partly funded through a $500,000 NSW government grant from the Port Kembla Community Investment Fund, can supply 400kg a day, enough to refuel up to 10 heavy vehicles.
Hyzon, which supplies the hydrogen trucks that Coregas will use in its fleet, touts a distance of up to 680 kilometres for models within its fleet.
This would enable Coregas trucks from Port Kembla to travel to destinations such as Canberra and Newcastle on a full tank, making the introduction of hydrogen trucks commercially viable for Coregas as well as other Illawarra-based transport businesses.
"The H2Station will allow hydrogen trucks to access the majority of the Illawarra-Shoalhaven region and reach metropolitan Sydney," Alan Watkins, executive general manager at Coregas, said.
Coregas is one of Australia's largest producers of gas for industrial uses, including healthcare and manufacturing, and produces hydrogen at its site in Port Kembla. The hydrogen produced is known as grey hydrogen, due to being created from natural gas, with greenhouse gases emitted in the process.
Coregas is exploring offsetting the predominantly methane emissions are through a biomethane offset agreement with Sydney Water, utilising the Malabar waste water treatment plant, which would turn the hydrogen 'green'.
The facility will be open to other commercial users with hydrogen-powered fleets, and Illawarra garbage collection contractor Remondis has plans to roll out a hydrogen powered fleet of garbage trucks in Wollongong and Shellharbour.
Minister for the Illawarra and the South Coast Ryan Park said the facility would support the decarbonisation of the region's 7000 heavy vehicles.
"The H2Station will facilitate the introduction of zero emissions hydrogen powered trucks to the Illawarra-Shoalhaven to demonstrate the technology's potential to improve energy security, create jobs and investment, and decarbonise the transport sector," he said.
"Zero emissions trucks will be able to refuel at the Coregas refuelling station using hydrogen produced at Port Kembla and showcase the viability of introducing hydrogen-powered fleet vehicles to greater NSW."
Other hydrogen refuelling stations have been targeted at passenger vehicles or have been located well away from hydrogen production points, leading to inefficiencies in the uptake of hydrogen-powered vehicles. The most expensive component in the hydrogen supply chain is its transportation, as the gas has to be carried as a liquid cooled to below minus 200 degrees celsius.
This has limited the uptake of hydrogen vehicles in NSW to pilot or demonstration projects.
Mr Watkins said that by being located adjacent to a hydrogen plant and with the ability to distribute large amounts of the gas, this would kickstart the uptake of hydrogen vehicles in the heavy transportation sector.
"We believe this project is a game changer for Australia that will lead the clean mobility revolution by demonstrating the suitability of hydrogen powered vehicles as a commercially ready solution," he said.
Australia's national hydrogen strategy is under review, following the rapid acceleration of hydrogen investment in North America and Europe. While the initial strategy suggested creating a network of hydrogen refuelling stations for light and heavy vehicles, including along key freight routes between Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, later developments have suggested a greater focus on producing hydrogen for export and a targeted role in heavy transport where electrification options are limited.
"Heavy road transport is a major carbon-emitting sector and one of the hardest areas to achieve emission reduction," Mr Park said.
In the future, aside from the refuelling station, hydrogen investment in Port Kembla has targeted the $28.5 million BOC hydrogen project, which would produce hydrogen for use in transport and heavy industry, and positioning the region as a hydrogen hub for local production and use in the Tallawarra power station and in future at the Port Kembla steelworks.
Member for Wollongong Paul Scully said the hydrogen refuelling station was an early step on this pathway.
"The hydrogen refuelling station represents an exciting opportunity to build our region's skills and capacity in readiness for Australia's zero emissions economy," he said.
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