Australia’s Unique Metals plans hydrogen project for green metals fabrication

Unique Metals, an Australian manufacturer of metal products, and energy consultancy Xodus have signed a memorandum of understanding to design a hydrogen project, dubbed Unique HyMetals, for green metals fabrication.

According to an announcement on Thursday, the project will allow the metals company, which is based in Wangara, Perth in Western Australia, to optimise energy from rooftop solar and use it for hydrogen production, while the resulting oxygen will be used for activities such as laser cutting.

Under the first phase of the project, the hydrogen produced will be used to power and decarbonise the site, with all machinery in the facility to shift from carbon intensive energy to hydrogen fuel cells, as well as fuelling forklift transport. The initial construction phase is expected to start in 2022.

Under the second phase, planned for 2025, hydrogen production will be sufficient for commercial-scale refuelling infrastructure.

The hydrogen project, described as a first of its kind in Australia, is aimed at creating a fully integrated hydrogen energy ecosystem. It targets annual production of 65 tonnes of green hydrogen, 20,000 MWh green hydrogen energy for manufacturing, seven tonnes of green hydrogen for transport and 500 tonnes of pure green oxygen.

The iniative could make Unique Metals’ site carbon neutral by the end of 2024. Samuel Lee Mohan, Xodus head of hydrogen strategy, said it is in line with the Australian government’s commitment to make the country a major hydrogen player by 2030.

“As the hydrogen industry grows, which we believe it will, it will become increasingly important that we have the capabilities to manufacture hydrogen technologies such as electrolysers. In the second objective of the project, our work with Xodus will look at the feasibility of replicating the manufacturing operations, hopefully manufacturing electrolysers, within a Hydrogen Hub in Western Australia,“ commented Unique Metals managing director Paul Figliomeni.

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