Fortescue offers first glimpse of Australia’s first hydrogen electrolyser factory

Fortescue Future Industries has offered a first glimpse of Australia’s first electrolyser manufacturing facility, posting a picture of the shiny new facility on LinkedIn this week.

FFI, the green energy arm of Andrew Forrest’s iron ore giant, said last month that it had completed construction of the shell of the manufacturing facility in Gladstone, Queensland, and had begun fitting out the interior.

“It’s an empty warehouse right now, but our team are hard at work building the internal fit out, which will include automated production and quality assurance lines,” the LinkedIn post says.

“Once fully operational, the $114 million project will produce 2GW of electrolysers per year, which are in high demand as a critical technology needed to produce 100% renewable #GreenHydrogen.”

The company plans to start mass production of the electrolysers before the end of the year. It has also built an electrolyser prototype using its own Australian-made PEM (polymer electrolyte membrane) technology developed after the collapse of a deal with US-based Plug Power last year.

As RenewEconomy has reported, FFI has at least five major hydrogen projects across the world that could reach financial investment decisions (FID) by the end of 2023.

These include two in the US – in Arkansas and Texas – that will look to supply green hydrogen for heavy transport, one in Kenya looking at green ammonia for local fertiliser use, one in Brazil looking at green ammonia for export, and another in Norway looking to export green ammonia to Europe.

There is also a proposal to convert an existing gas-fed ammonia facility at Gibson Island near Brisbane into a renewables-fed green ammonia facility, also likely for export to Asia.