Elixir, SB Energy progress Gobi H2 plan in Mongolia

Australia-headquartered Elixir Energy and Japanese independent power producer SB Energy are progressing plans to develop a green hydrogen project in the south Gobi region of Mongolia.

The Gobi H2 project is planned to initially focus on a 10MW electrolyser pilot to produce green hydrogen, powered by new wind and solar facilities, Elixir's managing director Neil Young said on 21 February. A pre-feasibility study indicates that the pilot can produce 1,440 t/yr.

Elixir announced the signing of a non-binding agreement with SB Energy on 20 February, with an eye on entering a formal joint development deal and a 50:50 joint venture, after a front-end engineering design (FEED) decision on the pilot later this year.

"The scalability provided by starting with a pilot is a big competitive advantage over e.g. marine transport-based green H2 projects - which will tend to have to be very large from their inception," Young said. "A pilot in this location can serve to give comfort to multiple stakeholders (customers, banks, etc) about viability, hence giving confidence over much larger future FID decisions."

It is unclear when a final investment decision (FID) on the project can be made. It "might be say 1 year later [after FEED]," Young said. "Construction could be say another year. All rough estimates at this point."

The firms have also not yet decided on which type of electrolyser technology to go with for the project. "Our PFS [pre-feasibility study] work has identified alkaline as being more suitable, given cost and other reasons," Young said. "However, given how dynamic the sector is, it does seem feasible that in the FEED stage PEM [proton exchange membrane] might get a look in."

No date has been set yet for when production is targeted to start but there are plans for a "longer term gigawatt-scale project" targeting China as an export market, he said.

"The pilot could also supply China - by CNG [compressed natural gas] truck," Young said. "But [it] could also be attractive to local demand nodes such as mine sites, long distance transport... We are canvassing multiple options at this point," Young said.

State-backed China Hydrogen Alliance predicts that national hydrogen demand could rise to 130mn t by 2060 up from 33.4mn t in 2020, and account for a fifth of final energy consumption. China is targeting 50,000 hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles on its roads by 2025, as part of its hydrogen development plan for 2021-35.

By Reena Nathan