Fortescue lecture challenges Australia to embrace hydrogen as green steel future
Fortescue Metals Group chairman and founder, Andrew Forrest, gave the first ABC Boyer Lecture for 2021 and roundly told Australia to focus on hydrogen for energy.
The Boyer lectures usually present visions of a way forward for Australia, and the talk, titled Oil vs Water: Confessions of a Carbon Emitter focused on industry and climate change.
Forrest said, 'Fortescue generates just over two million tonnes of greenhouse gas – every year,' noting that this accounts for 0.004% of the greenhouse gases that enter the atmosphere every year.
'The answer isn’t to stop mining iron ore – which is critical to the production of steel and to humanity. The answer is iron ore and steel – made using, zero-emissions energy.'
'The solution is hydrogen,' he said.
He stated that the green hydrogen market could generate revenues over US$12tln by 2050, noting that Australia is in a good position to capitalise on the gas. 'The board and I decided Fortescue would be that first mover.'
'We’re now undertaking feasibility studies that could lead to some 300 GW of power – more than four times what Australia can produce. We have targeted hydro-electricity – generated by rivers – and geothermal…Our final aim is 1,000 gigawatts of zero-emissions energy.
'Steel is fundamental to everything you see around you, from your home, to your car, the roads you drive on, to your ability to watch this Boyer lecture. But right now, Australia makes barely any of that steel. We just dig up the iron ore, process and export it.
'In some ways, that’s a blessing: blast furnaces, where most steel is made, generate 8% of global emissions – because coal is used in the process…Now imagine if we could find a way to make steel without coal – zero-carbon steel – in Australia.'
He went on to describe two possible routes, replace coal in the furnace with green hydrogen and strengthen the steel by adding carbon separately. Or scrap the blast furnace altogether and process the ore with renewable electricity. Fortescue is trialling both methods.
Fortescue has, he said, committed to by the end of the decade running all its trucks on renewable energy. As well as working to develop iron ore trains powered by either renewable electricity or green ammonia and settling designs that allow its ships to also run on green ammonia.
Forrest set out his vision, had a dig at Tesla as peddling 'a battery technology as green – when it runs on fossil fuel,' and challenged Australia to embrace his vision of a cleaner industry.
