From The New Daily (28/4/24)…
Alan Kohler: Australia’s future rests on net-zero promises and a global carbon price
Last week I poured cold H2O on the prospects of hydrogen becoming a good business because it costs $7 to 10 per kilogram to make and the selling price needs to be $2 per kg to be viable, so how could anyone make money?
But then on Tuesday, a press release hit my inbox from an ASX-listed company called Pure Hydrogen (ASX:PH2). The headline said: “Pure Hydrogen leases a 4000-square-metre site in Queensland for its first demonstration Hydrogen Micro-Hub.”
Someone obviously reckons they can make money making hydrogen, so I rang the CEO of Pure Hydrogen, Scott Brown, to get the lowdown.
“What’s the business model?” I asked. He confirmed that, as discussed, the cost of producing “green hydrogen” by separating the oxygen and hydrogen in water with electrolysis using renewable grid electricity is $7 to 10 per kg.
But he says he can sell it for at least $20/kg for transport use, which would give a profit margin of more than 50 per cent. He says the $2 price refers to using hydrogen to generate electricity, competing against solar and wind, which definitely won’t work and he’s not doing that.