Government, industry and academia came together on the weekend to celebrate the 4th Australia Hydrogen Day 2022.

Since 2019, Hydrogen Day has been celebrated on 8 October each year - in recognition of the atomic weight of Hydrogen (10.08).

Welcoming guests to Murdoch University, Vice Chancellor Professor Andrew Deeks said the hydrogen industry is well placed to become a significant factor in Western Australia’s – and Australia’s – transition to a low carbon economy.

“Murdoch has for some time been leading in research and education in this area,” Professor Deeks said.

“We have been instrumental, for example, in establishing the Peel and South-West Metro Hydrogen Technology Cluster. 

“We are also undertaking a feasibility study for the Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation on a Hybrid Solar PV-Battery-Hydrogen System for regional communities.”

Keynote speaker and State Minister for Hydrogen Industry, Alannah MacTiernan said the amount of renewable hydrogen that was produced would need to increase “very, very dramatically” to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, and to have made some progress by 2030.

“At the moment the total world capacity of electrolyser manufacturing is 0.3 of a gigawatt,” Ms MacTiernan said. 

“If we are to reach these projections that the International Energy Agency says we have to, we need to go up in our electrolyser manufacturing from 0.3 of a gigawatt up to 850 gigawatts by 2030 and 3600 gigawatts by 2050.

“As well as the generation of hydrogen, we think it's really important for us to get the upstream processing. We don't want this just to be another version of dig and ship. So we're out there attempting to find manufacturers that are keen to have the development here because if we have this generation, it just makes sense for us to have electrolyser manufacturing and the manufacturing of hydrogen vehicles.”

Professor Parisa Bahri, Head of Engineering and Energy at Murdoch University said, with its long standing history in renewable energy research and training, Murdoch University continues to make a major contribution to the development of innovative solutions and skills training. 

“Given the rapid changes in climate, we need to develop solutions to respond to such a global challenge,” Professor Bahri said.

Associate Professor GM Shafiullah from Engineering and Energy, Murdoch University said Murdoch is working towards industry-driven translational research on sustainable energy through climate-friendly green energy and smart grid infrastructure to support international decarbonization efforts and the Paris Agreement.

“We are working with industry and government to strengthen this emerging hydrogen industry. We do have some natural advantages, but we recognise that this is an industry that we will need to work extremely hard and, more importantly, skilfully to be internationally competitive,” Associate Professor Shafiullah said.

The Minister praised Murdoch University for it’s progress in research and development in the hydrogen sector.

“We've got to make sure that our researchers, and what we're doing in the department, that we're really keeping abreast of what is going on in industry and we're not studying things where the commercial sector has already made its decisions and moved on,” Ms MacTiernan said.

So I really commend Murdoch for its engagement with the private sector because that is going to be absolutely critical to keep that going and we look forward to continuing our relationship with the Murdoch team.”

Professor Deeks said Murdoch also recognises that it must partner with industry and government both in research and skilled workforce development to support a viable local hydrogen industry.

“Our School of Engineering & Energy offers three courses in the Master of Engineering Practices program, with cutting-edge industry-focused technologies integrated into a core unit on Hydrogen Systems.”