Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest’s Fortescue Future Industries has this week opened Western Australia’s first green hydrogen refuelling station to power its fleet of 12 Toyota Mirai hydrogen fuel cell cars.
The new refuelling station was opened in partnership with gas company Atco Australia – which has four Mirai’s of its own – and is located at Atco’s Clean Energy Innovation Hub in Perth. It will be used by Atco and Fortescue and will also be available for third parties, such as the WA Police who also have their own fleet of FCEVs.
“Green hydrogen is a practical, implementable solution that we all need to help combat global warming and our mission at Fortescue is to make this renewable alternative to fossil fuels available at a global scale and at competitive cost,” said Forrest.
“We are very proud of this project which is the embryonic start of a huge new industry across the globe. While this may be a small drop in the ocean, it is none the less worth celebrating. This is the future of our state.”
Fortescue and Atco say the station can refuel a Mirai in five minutes, which is quicker than an EV charger can top up an electric vehicle. The problem is that, like the hydrogen refuelling stations already open in Canberra, Sydney, and Melbourne, it can’t do very many in a single day.
The refuelling station in Perth will use a 200kW hydrogen electrolyser, which can make 65kg of green hydrogen a day. The Mirai uses nearly 1kg of hydrogen for every 100kms, so will need up to 6kg to refuel.
That places a limit of around ten FCEV refuellings a day, and probably half that given that the hydrogen project will also inject green hydrogen into the Atco gas pipeline.
The pipeline in the Cockburn area reaches more than 2,700 businesses and households, and the project will test blend percentages from 2% on a path towards 10%.
Still, the implementation of both green hydrogen projects also signals a milestone for Western Australia, which has now hit all four of its 2022 targets set out in its Renewable Hydrogen Strategy.
“Our 2022 goals were to help kickstart a renewable hydrogen industry in WA – and build important skills and knowledge for future growth,” said Alannah MacTiernan, WA’s hydrogen industry minister.
“The commissioning of ATCO’s hydrogen blending facility has helped us achieve the goal of distributing renewable hydrogen in the WA gas network by 2022. Through the ATCO Hydrogen Refuelling Station, we have met our goal of having an operational renewable hydrogen refuelling station in WA by 2022.
“Our goals going forward will change as we fast track our capacity to become a hydrogen world player.”
