Adelaide experts at centre of global hydrogen research

The Global Hydrogen Production Technologies (HyPT) Centre is pioneering large-scale net-zero hydrogen production methods. It explores three innovative technologies: renewable energy-integrated water electrolysis, methane pyrolysis with valuable solid carbon co-products, and solar-driven water splitting.

The University of Adelaide, Flinders University, and Curtin University represent Australia in this international collaboration, working with partners from the US, Canada, the UK, Egypt, and Germany.

The University of Adelaide’s Professor Anton Middelberg is Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research).

“The University of Adelaide is delighted to be working with CSIRO and other partners to advance the commercialisation of technology that has the potential to be game-changing for hydrogen production,” he said.

“Our world-class researchers will be collaborating on finding solutions that will help create a more sustainable future for society.”

The University of Adelaide’s Professor Greg Metha, from the School of Physics, Chemistry and Earth Sciences will lead Australia’s researchers in the Centre.

“Large-scale hydrogen production with net-zero emissions of carbon dioxide is essential to meet the Paris Agreement’s climate targets and limit global warming to 2˚C,” said Professor Metha who will be leading work on photocatalysis research for the new centre.

“Net-zero hydrogen enables decarbonisation of many energy-intensive and hard-to-abate industries such as ammonia, steel, cement, aluminium, transportation, energy storage, among many others.

“However, net-zero hydrogen is currently several times more expensive than hydrogen produced from fossil fuels, which hinders its wide adoption.”

The HyPT Centre will establish an international partnership of 34 experts from 19 institutions in six countries to formulate a pathway to low-cost large-scale net-zero hydrogen production from a platform of complementary technologies.

Our world-class researchers will be collaborating on finding solutions that will help create a more sustainable future for society.Professor Anton Middelberg, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research), University of Adelaide

University of Adelaide’s Professor Gus Nathan, Director of the Centre for Energy Technology will be one of the Australian experts involved in perfecting methane pyrolysis technology, which is one of the new Centre’s aims.

“Methane pyrolysis technology produces hydrogen without any carbon emissions unlike conventional methods of hydrogen production,” he said.

“It is technology like this that we will work on with other leading experts with the ultimate goal of achieving low-cost and large-scale net-zero hydrogen production.”

Arizona State University (ASU) is the lead institution of HyPT which is being funded by the US National Science Federation (NSF), Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).