Keeping the lights on in Japan relies heavily on coal. This populous nation is located on the " ring of fire " where tectonic plates collide and earthquakes are common. The option of using nuclear energy to generate power received a setback when a quake and the tsunami it caused wrecked a nuclear power plant and the released radioactivity poisoned the nearby countryside and caused a town to be evacuated.
Australia is becoming one of the worlds biggest exporters of coal and we are selling it to countries to fuel their power generators. This is the very opposite of our stated need to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the air and keep global warming in check, but coal is a source of Australian jobs and it is a big contributor to our export economy.
Australia's coal reserves are a mixed lot. We have very high grade coal suitable for industry in New South Wales and Queensland while Victorian and Tasmanian coalfields consist of the lesser " brown coal ". This is unwanted overseas but Victorian electricity generators burn it to produce electricity and it was converted into briquettes when home heating used combustion stoves in the southern states.
Wind and solar are on the increase and Victoria's coal fired power generators are closing, and that means job losses in the massive Latrobe Valley. This has resulted in an Australian/Japanese joint venture to turn Victorian brown coal into hydrogen gas for export to Japan as fuel for power generation.
To that end, we have just seen politicians make speeches at the inauguration of a $ 495 million pilot project to extract hydrogen gas from brown coal. If obstacles can be overcome this will result in a whole new industry running in tandem with our natural gas exports and much of the Japanese power industry will be served by this Australian gas.
The sticking point seems to be overcoming " obstacles " - and the big question is whether hydrogen can be produced without also releasing the huge amounts of carbon dioxide contained in coal. This is particularly prevalent in brown coal because it is brown because of an immaturity in its evolution. If it were left untouched for a few more million years it would become high grade steaming or coking black coal like its New South Wales counterparts.
This project embraces that old bogey of carbon " capture and storage ", and the final resting place for the carbon dioxide that will be produced is porous rock strata located under the sea in Bass strait - and that poses many problems, not the least of which is how much gas it is capable of holding. There are a lot of questions remaining. How the C02 will be safely moved from the gas conversion facility to its final resting places under the waters of Bass strait and what - if any - leakage can be expected.
It also raises another interesting question. Our success in gas exports - and we will soon be the worlds biggest gas exporter - have raised prices and resulted in a gas shortage on the Australian east coast. Would it not be wise to quarantine sufficient gas from this new source to ensure that electricity generation in Australia was assured of a reliable base product at a preferable price ? Presently, our power generators have to compete with overseas demand for the gas they need and this has forced up electricity prices to unhealthy levels.
We made mistakes when we established our natural gas industry. We are back at the starting point with this new venture. Let us not make the same mistakes again !
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