Worley, a global project delivery and asset services provider, has been appointed by Stanwell Corporation and its consortium members – Iwatani Corporation, Kansai Electric Power Company, Marubeni and Keppel Infrastructure – to undertake front-end engineering design (FEED) work for the Central Queensland Hydrogen (CQ-H2) project.
CQ-H2 represents the largest investment in an Australian renewable hydrogen project to date and ranks in the global top 10 hydrogen projects at the pre-FID stage.
The scheme initially plans to install up to 640MW of electrolysers and produce up to 200 tonnes per day (t/d) of gaseous renewable hydrogen, with off-takers purchasing the gas for conversion into renewable ammonia or liquified hydrogen.
It aims to deliver renewable hydrogen via its different carriers to Japan and Singapore, as well as supplying large domestic customers in Central Queensland.
Landmark green energy scheme
“We are proud to be supporting this world-scale project within the Gladstone region, where Worley has remained invested through our local operation for the last 25 years,” says Gillian Cagney, president for Australia & New Zealand at Worley.
“The Central Queensland hydrogen project is a landmark project, set to propel Stanwell’s operations, the Gladstone region and Queensland as a whole into a leading exporter of green energy,” she adds.
The project is backed by funding from all consortium members, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), and the Queensland Government’s Queensland Renewable Energy and Hydrogen Jobs Fund.
Creating thousands of jobs
At its peak, CQ-H2 is expected to support more than 8,900 new jobs, deliver $17.2 billion in hydrogen exports and add $12.4 billion to Queensland’s gross state product over its 30-year life.
At the front-end engineering and design investment signing, Michael O’Rourke, chief executive officer of Stanwell Corporation, said: “The advancement of this important hydrogen project is great news for Central Queensland, where the project could create thousands of jobs and deliver billions of dollars in economic benefits.”
Worley worked on the project in the role of technical adviser during the initial feasibility study and is now scoped to provide the FEED study for the hydrogen-production facility (HPF) and hydrogen-transfer facility (HTF), along with the pre-FEED study for the hydrogen liquefaction facility (HLF).
Unique technical expertise
“We will be bringing together our local and global hydrogen technical expertise, along with our breadth of services, spanning multi-discipline engineering, ports and infrastructure capability, sustainability and environmental services, and our in-house construction and commissioning expertise,” says Cagney.
“Our work with Stanwell to date demonstrates our unique ability to support projects right from the early concept studies to front-end design, and we are looking to continue that support post-FID into the execution stage.”
Commercial operations are expected to start in 2028. If successful, the project will ramp up in future phases to full-scale operation, with approximately 2,240MW electrolysers producing 800t/d of gaseous renewable hydrogen by 2031.
“The project is aligned with our purpose of delivering a more sustainable world and is pivotal to the decarbonisation goals within our home region,” says Cagney.
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