Renewable-powered hydrogen economy from Australia's perspective

This article broadly reviews the state-of-the-art technologies for hydrogen production routes, and methods of renewable integration. It outlines the main techno-economic enabler factors for Australia to transform and lead the regional energy market. Two main categories for competitive and commercial-scale hydrogen production routes in Australia are identified: 1) electrolysis powered by renewable, and 2) fossil fuel cracking via steam methane reforming (SMR) or coal gasification which must be coupled with carbon capture and sequestration (CCS). It is reported that Australia is able to competitively lower the levelized cost of hydrogen (LCOH) to a record $(1.88-2.30)/kg(H2 )for SMR technologies, and $(2.02-2.47)/kg(H2 )for black-coal gasification technologies. Comparatively, the LCOH via electrolysis technologies is in the range of $(4.78-5.84)/kg(H2) for the alkaline electrolysis (AE) and $(6.08-7.43)/kg(H2 )for the proton exchange membrane (PEM) counterparts. Nevertheless, hydrogen production must be linked to the right infrastructure in transportstorage-conversion to demonstrate appealing business models. (C) 2020 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.