Green hydrogen key part of process

• Published date: 02 December 2021

With a renewable energy source ready to be used after the planned closure of the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter in 2024, there has been much attention on what can be done with it.

Establishing a green hydrogen facility is one of the projects being investigated by multiple groups.

Ngai Tahu ki Murihiku and Fortescue Future Industries was one.

Fortescue chairman and founder Dr Andrew Forrest explained it was a zero emissions, zero pollution production.

His views were outlined at a Murihiku Regeneration Science and Innovation Wanaga in Invercargill last week, via a pre-recorded message as he was at the COP26 (United Nations Climate Change Conference) in Glasgow, Scotland.

Dr Forrest spoke of work under way in Australia, which included green hydrogen and green ammonia projects.

It was an idea of conversion for decarbonisation: the company announced recently it would be the first to convert a ship to run almost entirely on green ammonia in a year.

Southland could be at the forefront of a great green energy industrial revolution, and that global revolution began locally, he said.

Cars, planes, ships, factories, farming and rail could all be converted for decarbonisation, and it could be exported.

The partnership would encourage local vision, and he explained the relationship with Ngai Tahu would mean vocational training centres be created for people to learn specific skills.

Fortescue director Felicity Underhill took questions via livestream, but not before giving a shout-out to her Invercargill father.

For New Zealand, the hydrogen produced here would be some of the greenest in the world with a low carbon footprint, as opposed to other projects that produced hydrogen from coal and natural gas or by planting trees to offset emissions, she said.

‘‘There’s actually more emissions from that.’’

Having noted the relationship between greenhouse gases and climate change with decarbonisation, University of Otago professor Sally Brooker explained how New Zealand was in a better position than most.

Globally, more than 80% of energy came from coal, natural gas and oil. New Zealand runs on 40% renewables.

‘‘We need to do much better than that again... even before we think of exports there is a lot to tidy up in our own backyard.’’

With hydrogen, when produced and then burned, you get water back again — a cycle as close to zero carbon as you could get, she said.

Some things would need different energy sources again, such as long-duration flights that may need to run on...