H2X and Elvin Group to develop Australian-made green hydrogen refuelling stations

The Driven

The NSW company behind newly announced plans to start producing Australian-made hydrogen-fuel cell vehicles has joined forces with an ACT-based renewables company for the local manufacture of hydrogen production units, or electrolysers, to fuel the zero-emissions cars.

Elvin Group Renewables, whose core business includes developing large-scale utility battery projects as well as green hydrogen electrolysers, said on Friday that it had teamed with newly launched hydrogen fuel cell vehicle manufacturer, H2X to fast-track Australia’s hydrogen economy.

As The Driven reported earlier this month, the Port Kembla-based H2X hopes to revive the car manufacturing industry in Australia and create up to 5,000 new jobs through the production of a locally manufactured hydrogen-fuelled SUV called Snowy, starting in 2022.

The H2X team is headed by CEO Brendan Norman, who has held executive positions in the past with VW in Saudi Arabia, Shanghai and Singapore, Audi in Japan and South Korea, and who has worked with Grove Hydrogen and Wales-based hydrogen car maker Riversimple over the past decade.

The two companies are linked by Samuel Blackadder, a former executive of the Australian arm of Chinese PV giant Jinko Solar and – as it happens – the unsuccessful Greens candidate for the “ultra-marginal” seat of Herbert, in north Queensland, in last year’s federal election.

Blackadder is currently the managing director of Elvin, as well as the chair at H2X, and in a recent interview said Elvin Group had a diverse range of targets: from creating the world’s first emissions-free concrete business to launching an Australian-made electrolyser to make cost-effective hydrogen.

On the latter goal, Elvin is ramping up its efforts, including teeing up a partnership with Australian-based company Hydrostar, in whose green hydrogen electrolyser technology Elvin has invested.

This technology, which Elvin says is ready for commercialisation, has been produced and trialled under lab conditions in Canberra using locally sourced labour and 100% recycled materials.

Blackadder said in a statement that the short-term demand and use of the electrolysers would include service station refuelling, by placing a 500kW to 1MW container for hydrogen production and hydrogen refuelling onsite for vehicles.

To read the full story on RenewEconomy’s electric vehicle dedicated news site The Driven, click here…