A resources producer will transition a Surat Basin operation away from fossil fuels to eco friendlier alternatives.
Glencore recently confirmed a new direction for its Wandoan Coal Project, 278km northwest of Toowoomba.
“We do not plan to develop the Wandoan coal resource as a traditional coal mine for the purpose of servicing traditional coal markets,” the company said in its latest climate change report.
The proponent will instead spend $40 million on pre-feasibility studies into using coal to produce hydrogen and ammonia.
The process involves gasifying the commodity to create syngas, which is processed into the final products. Ammonia will be used as a hydrogen carrier to “economically and safely” store and transport the flammable gas domestically and internationally.
“We are investigating the potential to produce blue hydrogen and ammonia through utilising a relatively small portion of the Wandoan coal resource (up to 4 million tonnes per annum) as feedstock,” it said in the publication.
“Based on the current pre-feasibility studies our intention is to capture around 90 per cent of emissions from this process and permanently store them deep underground using carbon capture and storage technology,” its project website added.
Emissions will be captured, transported and stored deep underground at Glencore’s EPQ10 carbon storage site in Queensland.
No final investment decision was made on the project at the time of publication.
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