The development of a first-of-its-kind pilot plant will demonstrate the potential of photocatalysis as a method to produce green hydrogen at commercial scale, including for use in hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs).
A collaboration framework agreement has been entered into with Shinshu University in Japan, a leading developer of photocatalyst materials, targeting pilot testing, says Sparc Hydrogen which proposes the hydrogen pilot plant near Adelaide.
It says the University of Adelaide provides in-principal support to locate the hydrogen pilot plant at its Roseworthy Campus, about 50km north of Adelaide in South Australia.
The pilot scale reactor design is well progressed, says Sparc Hydrogen – a joint venture between Sparc Technologies, the University of Adelaide and Fortescue.
The pilot scale water splitting reactor seamlessly integrates with the Fresnel concentrated solar field.
Each milestone represents material de-risking of the pilot plant development workstreams building on from the pre-FEED study and the successful prototyping work completed at the CSIRO Energy Centre in early April 2024, says Sparc Hydrogen.
A decision to proceed with the pilot plant remains subject to Sparc Hydrogen board approval.
“Sparc is delighted with the progress that the Sparc Hydrogen team has made over recent weeks and months with respect to key development workstreams for the pilot plant,” says Sparc Technologies managing director Nick O’Loughlin.
“In particular, formalising a relationship with Shinshu University providing a collaboration for the supply of their world-leading photocatalysts for testing in Sparc Hydrogen’s reactors, is a significant milestone.”
Shinshu University special contract professor Kazunari Domen says the university is pleased to collaborate with Sparc Hydrogen on the research, development and field testing of a concentrated sunlight water splitting photocatalytic reaction system.
“Such reaction environments have not been tested at Shinshu University before, and we are very interested to see what kind of activity and reaction characteristics our photocatalyst will exhibit.”
Shinshu University is a key participant in Japan’s ARPChem project, a collaborative research initiative backed by Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) which has demonstrated the feasibility of producing hydrogen through photocatalytic water splitting on an area scale of 100 square metres over a greater than one year period.
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