Fortescue sets 2023 for green hydrogen production
Dr Andrew Forrest, Chairman of Australia’s Fortescue Metals Group, has said today (15th March) that his company aims to produce green hydrogen by 2023 for making green steel.
Dr Forrest said, “Our commitment to demonstrate green hydrogen‘s economic value in world-scale operations, and become a major energy exporter while implementing the considerable facilities to support both, means that Fortescue has emerged not simply as a thought-leader and investor, but uniquely as an executor of major green hydrogen projects.”
He said that green hydrogen and ammonia would play a pivotal role in heavy transport and steel production. The trend towards green energy will get more traction in the coming years. However, hydrogen produced through renewable would only become commercially viable in the 2030s.
He added that “Our aim is to provide the two missing links in the climate change battle, to create both the demand and the supply of green hydrogen.” Hydrogen and renewable have the potential to remove fossil fuels from supply chains.
Among other projects, the company will also trial hydrogen fuel cell power for drill rigs this year and tail using renewable energy in the Pilbara to convert iron ore to green iron at low temperatures, without coal. In addition, it will also trial ammonia in its locomotive and design an ammonia powered ship engine technology.
Fortescue also set an ambitious plan to become carbon neutral by 2030, ten years earlier than its previous target of 2040. He predicted that green hydrogen would replace coal-fired blast furnaces by 2050.
