PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Green energy developer Fortescue Future Industries (FFI) has completed construction of its Gladstone Electrolyser Manufacturing (GEM) facility in Queensland.

FFI CEO Mark Hutchinson earlier this week said that construction works had been completed on the facility, both in time and under budget, while the further fit-out, including the automated production line and testing facilities, would begin soon.

“We have also successfully completed the build of our first polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) prototype; this is no small feat as we are the first in Australia to do anything like this. We remain firmly on track to produce Queensland-made FFI electrolysers this year,” he said.

Construction of the project started in February of last year.

The Stage 1 A$114-million electrolyser facility will be expanded as current demand indications crystalise. The electrolyser facility will have an initial capacity of two gigawatts a year, more than doubling current global production, and enough to produce more than 200 000 t/y of green hydrogen each year.

The first electrolysers manufactured at the facility in early 2023 are earmarked to be used in Queensland at FFI’s proposed green hydrogen to ammonia project at Gibson Island.

FFI is targeting the production of 15-million tonnes of green hydrogen a year by 2030, the equivalent of removing 60-million diesel fuel cars off the road this decade.

Hutchinson told analysts during a conference call earlier this week that the company was "very excited" to have the facility complete.

“We’ve developed our own PEM technology and we’ll start producing those this year. Eventually we’ll have a 2 GW site here to supply some of the projects we’re doing in Australia, but also internationally.

“It doesn’t mean that we won’t be buying off others. Our need is going to be enormous globally, so we have, and retain, great relationships with all the suppliers around the world actually and we’ll be dealing with different suppliers in different situations around the world. But as far as our own technology goes, the technology is advancing very well. We will be in production this year, it won’t be the whole 2 GW, but we will ramp that up over the next couple of years.”

Hutchinson noted that while the technology had been around for a long time, it had never been tested at this scale.

“We as an industry have an enormous amount to learn over the next few years as we ramp this up at scale and the technology I think will develop very, very fast over the next few years. So we’re just going to be part of that race and we’re working very closely with basically every other supplier of electrolyser technology around the world to make sure that we get supply and that we get the best technology in place.”