As Australia eyes 15 to 30 million tonnes of annual inexperienced hydrogen manufacturing by 2050, a looming useful resource bottleneck threatens to undercut its export ambitions: water.
In accordance with authorities modelling, the projected hydrogen output would devour a minimum of 740 billion litres of water per 12 months—equal to 7% of the nation’s complete annual freshwater use by households, agriculture, mining, and coal-fired energy vegetation. Impartial analyses recommend that this estimate could also be a extreme understatement.
On the coronary heart of the difficulty is the electrolysis course of itself. Producing one kilogram of hydrogen through electrolysis requires 9 litres of ultrapure water—plus further volumes for purification, cooling, and different oblique processes. The Australian Nationwide Hydrogen Technique depends on a conservative enter determine of 30 litres per kilogram, drawing from a 2015 Argonne Nationwide Laboratory report. But latest analysis signifies water consumption might vary from 66 to over 300 litres per kilogram when accounting for all system losses.
If mid-range estimates of 95 litres per kilogram show correct, the water demand would swell to over 1.4 trillion litres yearly—roughly 22% of present nationwide freshwater use. Below the upper-range estimate of 310 litres per kilogram, hydrogen manufacturing alone might take in 72% of this determine. Such figures elevate basic questions in regards to the technique’s long-term viability and environmental trade-offs.
The Albanese authorities has positioned inexperienced hydrogen as a future export powerhouse able to decarbonising hard-to-abate sectors equivalent to metal and fertiliser manufacturing. However regardless of the rhetoric, no large-scale inexperienced hydrogen initiatives have reached operational standing in Australia. Globally, solely round 7% of introduced initiatives are reside, with monetary and technical limitations—together with entry to renewable electrical energy and water—slowing progress.
Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue Future Industries, as soon as a vocal backer of the home hydrogen sector, has notably scaled again its ambitions. And whereas Australia’s photo voltaic and wind assets stay a aggressive benefit, water entry is a geographic and logistical constraint not often addressed in feasibility research.
With Australia’s inside arid and rainfall patterns more and more erratic on account of local weather change, consideration turns to desalination as a possible workaround. However desalination introduces its personal set of challenges. The method is energy-intensive, elevating the entire carbon footprint and prices of inexperienced hydrogen. It additionally generates hyper-saline brine that requires cautious administration to keep away from marine and coastal ecosystem harm.
The business’s pivot to desalinated seawater dangers buying and selling one environmental problem for an additional, except brine administration and power restoration programs will be scaled in parallel. Furthermore, co-locating desalination with hydrogen electrolysis calls for coordinated infrastructure planning and financing that has but to materialize at scale.
The Nationwide Hydrogen Technique’s water modelling depends on essentially the most conservative assumptions accessible, leaving it uncovered to criticism from water utilities and agricultural stakeholders. The Water Providers Affiliation of Australia has known as for extra sturdy assessments, warning that water calls for are sometimes “critically underestimated.” The Queensland Farmers Federation equally raised issues about whether or not hydrogen manufacturing would compete with current water customers, particularly in drought-prone areas.
Thus far, there was little readability on how hydrogen builders would entry water rights or how competing makes use of—significantly these tied to meals safety and environmental flows—can be balanced. With out this readability, allowing large-scale hydrogen hubs stays a regulatory gamble.
Keep up to date on the newest in power! Comply with us on LinkedIn, Fb, and X for real-time information and insights. Don’t miss out on unique interviews and webinars—subscribe to our YouTube channel at this time! Be part of our neighborhood and be a part of the dialog shaping the way forward for power.
