EDL to partner with QUT on hydrogen project

EDL is proud to announce its new partnership with the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in the collaborative Hydrogen Process Research and Development project.

Funded through the Australian Renewable Energy Agency’s (ARENA’s) Advancing Renewables program, the project aims to develop a scalable and systematic process to evaluate the viability of producing hydrogen from renewable energy systems.

As local industry partner, EDL will provide $300,000 in funding support and in-kind assistance stemming from the organisation’s experience with the commercialisation of renewable energy and the delivery of sustainable energy solutions to meet customer need.

EDL CEO James Harman explained that this three-year research project was focused on the cost-effective production, storage and transport of hydrogen using renewable energy sources and involves establishing a Demonstration Facility to test the compatibility of the components of a hydrogen supply chain.

“This $7.5 million collaborative research project is a very exciting opportunity and we are very proud to partner with QUT,” Mr Harman said.

A smart micro-grid is planned to be included as part of the Demonstration Facility at the Redlands Research Facility east of Brisbane in Queensland and will use locally produced solar energy to extract hydrogen from treated non-drinking water, such as seawater.

The project is being led by Professor Ian Mackinnon from QUT’s Institute for Future Environments who said it was anticipated that hydrogen would become a major clean carrier of energy in the future.

Professor Mackinnon said energy would be drawn from a Concentrated Photovoltaic (CPV) array at the Redlands facility which QUT has been testing in an existing joint project with Japanese energy company Sumitomo Electric Industries which is also one of the research project partners.

“This solar energy will be supplemented by commercially available battery packs to extract hydrogen from treated water,” he said. “The hydrogen will then be fed into a fuel cell and back into the grid to re-supply power to the local system.”

Professor Mackinnon said the collaborative project also involves Griffith University, Swinburne University of Technology and The University of Tokyo.

For more information please visit https://arena.gov.au/projects/qut-hydrogen-process-research-and-development/ or https://www.qut.edu.au/institute-for-future-environments/about/news/news?news-id=135489

EDL Contact:

Lisa France
Global Corporate Affairs EDL
+61 7 3275 5555
Lisa.France@edlenergy.com