Towards a Large-Scale Hydrogen Industry for Australia

As nations around the world seek to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in order to mitigate climate change risks, there has been a resurgence of interest in the use of hydrogen as a zero-emissions energy carrier. Hydrogen can be produced from diverse feedstocks via a range of low-emissions pathways and has broad potential in the process of decarbonization across the energy, transport, and industrial sectors.
With an abundance of both renewable and fossil fuel energy resources, a comparatively low national energy demand and excellent existing regional resource trading links, Australia is well positioned to pursue industrial-scale hydrogen production for both domestic and export purposes. In this paper, we present an overview of the progress at the government, industry, and research levels currently undertaken to enable a large-scale hydrogen industry for Australia.