‘All options’ needed on hydrogen: Japan ramps up push on CCS

afr.com:

The Japanese backers of a controversial project to convert Victoria’s brown coal into liquid hydrogen for export are warning that the $3 billion development will not go ahead without clearer signs of support from the state and federal government.

The Albanese government’s decision to rule out fossil-fuel-based projects from its $2 billion Hydrogen Headstart funding scheme has intensified worries voiced this year by Kawasaki Heavy Industries and others involved in the project that the policy settings around carbon capture and storage in particular are not supportive.

Yuku Fukuma from Kawasaki Heavy Industries is moving to Melbourne to push ahead with work on the HESC coal-to-hydrogen project. Christopher Jue

The Japanese government – through its Green Innovation Fund – agreed  this year to allocate about $2.35 billion of funding to the Hydrogen Energy Supply Chain project that will use carbon capture and storage to help convert the coal into hydrogen that could be shipped to Japan.

But the funds will only be disbursed when milestones have been reached, and Yuko Fukuma at Kawasaki’s Japan Suiso Energy, the group leading the development, said that a final decision on the next phase – a $3 billion commercial demonstration project – required “consistency in messaging” from governments to give the backers confidence to move forward.

“The HESC partners really want to see any clear indication of support for HESC from the Commonwealth and Victorian government,” said Ms Fukuma, who is making plans to move to Melbourne within the next few weeks to push ahead with the project, which made a world-first trial shipment of liquid hydrogen to Japan from Victoria early last year.

“I strongly believe that Kawasaki and Iwatani are committed