Hydrogen has the potential to enhance Australia’s energy security, creating new export markets and reducing carbon emissions both domestically and around the world. To realise this potential and make the most of their competitive advantage, significant and targeted supply chain investment is required.

Planning for a hydrogen-enhanced future

Arup, in collaboration with Frontier Economics and the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water is leading Australia’s first National Hydrogen Infrastructure Assessment (NHIA), an early action in Australia’s National Hydrogen Strategy.

Our role is to help identify the greatest net benefit by assessing Australia’s enabling infrastructure and determining the existing gaps and potential opportunities in the supply chain. 

We have designed the assessment in five discrete stages: industry needs and analysis, demand forecast modelling, stakeholder engagement, techno-economic assessment, and multi-criteria assessment. The assessment’s findings and recommendations will be presented to the Commonwealth,  States, and Territory governments.

Realising Australia’s hydrogen potential

The assessment takes a national approach to mapping and understanding Australia’s existing and planned enabling infrastructure, investigating every aspect of the supply chain from the generation of hydrogen through to its manufacture, storage, transportation, and end use. 

With no established industry from which to predict future growth, four potential emerging markets have been identified to help forecast demand for hydrogen in the next thirty years. These include hydrogen switching from natural gas and liquid fuel, hydrogen representing new demand, advancement, hydrogen as maritime shipping fuel, and hydrogen export. Three demand scenarios: low, central, and high, spanning eight different sectors are being modelled to investigate and identify ‘no regrets’ investment opportunities. 

We are developing a techno-economic model to assess various supply chain configurations that will meet demand across each scenario. Outputs from the techno-economic assessment will be further analysed using qualitative data considering the key political, economic, social, cultural, technical, legal, and environmental constraints. The result will be an iterative modelling process, helping to ensure robust assessment outcomes to accelerate the growth of Australia’s hydrogen industry.