One of the problems that set Japan on a war footing that evolved into the second world war was its tiny geographical footprint on the planet, and its lack of the base natural materials needed to sustain its production industry. It took the course of invasion and conquest as the way to solve that dilemma.
Modern Japan is fast developing an industry to produce hydrogen gas as the replacement fuel for nuclear energy and to replace the import needs for oil and natural gas. That has the advantage of production from a very reliable base material - water.
Hydrogen is produced when water is subjected to a process called electrolysis, splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen, hence the scientific term for water is H20. It is estimated that when the Japanese plan for hydrogen production reaches maturity in 2030 the cost per kilogram of the Australian product will be a dollar a kilogram cheaper than the Japanese produced product price.. This has drawn an interest here from the Council of Australian Governments which has released a consultation paper on our national hydrogen strategy.
Chief Scientist Alan Finkel sees an opportunity for Australia to develop a hydrogen industry because we have something that Japan lacks - the space to create hydrogen from electrolysis without the consequent increase in the release of greenhouse gases.
The ideal combination for electrolysis is for that process to be fuelled by solar electricity and we have vast areas available for such developments close to a sustainable body of water - the ocean Hydrogen production is perfectly viable from salt water. The use of renewable energy completes the cycle where a valuable export is obtained without increasing our production of greenhouse gas.
Analysis by the International Energy Agency shows that production of hydrogen in Australia would have a price advantage over the cost to produce in Japan even when transport costs are taken into account. It is estimated that Australian hydrogen would have a price advantage of being a dollar a kilogram cheaper than the $6.50 it would cost Japan to produce when production reaches maturity in 2030.
Hydrogen has long been an energy enigma. That car industry has been looking at it as a replacement for oil derived petrol for running the internal combustion engine but that is being replaced by electric motors and batteries. It could be that hydrogen becomes the fuel component for long distance heavy transport where batteries have problems. The hydrogen fuel cell is at an advanced stage of development.
Australia is fast becoming the biggest exporter of natural gas to a world with an insatiable demand for energy. There seems no reason why we can not tap into world demand with hydrogen and allow both energy sources to compete for business.
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