Hazer Group demonstration plant on track for 2024 completion after strong test results

Australian climate tech specialist Hazer Group (ASX: HZR) continues to report success with a test program aimed at producing highly sought-after hydrogen and graphite.

The company said that its commercial demonstration plant (CDP) performance test program is progressing well and in line with expectations for completion by the end of 2024.

Following minor plant optimisation and modifications, 362 hours of continuous operation have been achieved with extended periods of controlled catalyst injection.

Years of development

Hazer chief executive officer Glenn Corrie said that, while further testing is ongoing, production up-time of over 97% in the recent test campaign underpins the resilience of the Hazer process and material selection.

“These strong operational milestones are the result of many years of technology development and scale-up success and continue to demonstrate that Hazer’s technology is fast approaching commercial readiness.”

Mr Corrie said Hazer has some unique competitive advantages and a technology increasingly being viewed as a low-cost, clean hydrogen solution for industry decarbonisation at a very large scale.

“We are focused on accelerating our commercial scale-up strategy to meet the growing demand for large-scale applications in hard-to-abate sectors such as steelmaking, refining, petrochemicals and others.”

Plant optimisation

Hazer’s technology is focused on the adoption of a fluidised bed reactor (FBR), a proven scalable technology in the refining and metallurgical industries.

The company has re-purposed an FBR and undertaken substantial research and development, positioning Hazer as a leader in the methane pyrolysis space.

The company also has extensive global patent coverage, which includes over 70 patents and patent applications across five discrete technologies underpinning the Hazer process.

Plant inspection

The CDP recently entered a planned shutdown as part of a statutory plant and reactor inspection program following over 800 hours of reactor operation, with positive results recorded.

A final campaign at the plant scheduled to be completed in late 2024 will focus on the production of high-purity graphite to complete orders for larger-scale application testing.

In the interim, engineering work associated with the integration of the next-generation reactor and heat exchange equipment will be completed.

Commercial projects

The test results are concurrently being used to advance Hazer’s four existing commercial projects with FortisBC, POSCO, ENGIE and Chubu Electric/Chiyoda Corporation.

The company’s first large-scale commercial facility – to be built in Canada under licence with FortisBC – is progressing well with the binding project development agreement signed earlier this year.

Hazer is also in extensive discussions with new customers and strategic partners.