Rio Tinto to build H2 plant at Australian Al refinery

Anglo-Australian mining firm Rio Tinto and Japan's Sumitomo have agreed to build a hydrogen plant at the Yarwun alumina facility in Queensland, Australia to lower CO2 emissions in the refining process.

The firms will construct a 2.5MW hydrogen plant at the Yarwun alumina refinery as part of the A$111mn ($75mn) Yarwun Hydrogen Calcination Pilot Demonstration Program, which is partly funded by the Australian federal government's Australian Renewable Energy Agency (Arena). Some refinery processing equipment will need to be retrofitted to produce about 6,000 t/yr of alumina equivalent, Rio Tinto said. The firms will begin construction in 2024 and expect the plant to be in operation by 2025.

Sumitomo will own and operate the electrolyser at Yarwun and produce more than 250 t/yr of hydrogen, cutting CO2 emissions by about 3,000 t/yr. If the entire operation was to be converted to producing green hydrogen, emissions would fall by 500,000 t/yr, according to Rio Tinto.

The pilot plant follows a joint Arena-Rio Tinto feasibility study announced in 2021 to investigate options for decarbonising the alumina sector.

Rio Tinto has three aluminium facilities in Queensland's Gladstone area - the Yarwun and Queensland alumina refineries and the Boyne smelter - that require 1,140MW of electricity to operate, making them among the nation's heaviest energy users.

The firm last year announced it was investigating options to supply the assets with renewable power by 2030. Rio Tinto is aiming to cut its greenhouse gas emissions intensity by 30pc from 2018 levels by 2030.

Gladstone is a major industry hub for the state of Queensland, and federal and state governments have committed to decarbonising its energy intensive industries via a proposed hydrogen hub known as the CQ-H2 project.

By Tom Major