Hadean to build $30M Victorian green hydrogen pilot

Hadean Energy will build and operate a $30 million green hydrogen pilot in Victoria, backed by $15 million from ARENA, to test a claimed 30% electricity saving.

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) grant covers half the pilot’s announced cost. Sydney-based Hadean said the facility will use tubular solid oxide electrolysis, or tSOE, to split water into hydrogen and oxygen.

Hadean will then send the hydrogen to a steel manufacturing plant for testing. The announcement gives no hydrogen output, electrolysis capacity or construction timetable, so the project remains announced rather than operating capacity.

ARENA Chief Executive Officer Darren Miller said: “This pilot will demonstrate how Hadean’s technology performs in a real-world industrial environment and provide the evidence needed to assess its commercial potential.”

Miller added: “This could open the door to broader use of green hydrogen in steelmaking and other industrial applications, while helping build Australia’s hydrogen industrial capability.”

How does the technology reduce power demand?

Hadean develops and commercialises tSOE technology that CSIRO developed from its research. The system uses waste heat from industrial processes, which Hadean says cuts electricity demand by around 30% relative to conventional electrolysers.

ARENA Chief Executive Officer Darren Miller said reducing electricity use could help make green hydrogen more affordable and practical for industry. That efficiency claim gives the pilot its main commercial argument: lower power use could make green hydrogen more affordable and improve the viability of lower-emissions steelmaking.

The plant will connect CSIRO’s research origins with a working industrial environment. Hadean will operate the facility, while its hydrogen will undergo testing at a steel manufacturing plant.

Why pair the pilot with steelmaking?

Hadean will deploy hydrogen from the pilot to a steel manufacturing plant. There, the company will test whether it can support lower-emissions steelmaking in a real industrial setting. Hadean also hopes the exercise will move the technology toward commercial use while building local skills and supply chains.

The announcement does not identify the steel plant, quantify emissions savings or set a construction completion date. For practitioners, that leaves the central questions measurable: how much electricity the system saves and what the hydrogen does in steel production.

What does the project mean for Australian industry?

Federal Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen said renewable hydrogen has an important role in cutting industrial emissions, particularly where using electricity directly is difficult. Bowen said: “Bringing down the cost of producing it is critical.”

Federal Minister for Industry and Innovation Tim Ayres said projects like this sit at the heart of the Future Made in Australia agenda. Ayres said: “[That is] rebuilding Australia’s industrial capability, growing more Australian firms, and turning Australian innovation into real businesses and good jobs.”

The statements frame the Victorian pilot as both an emissions-reduction test and an industrial development program. Bowen addressed the hard-to-electrify sectors; Ayres pointed to domestic firms, industrial capacity and jobs.

What must happen before wider deployment?

At this stage, Hadean’s $30 million Victorian facility is an announced pilot, not an operating asset. Its next steps are tightly linked:

• Build and operate: Hadean will build the plant and use industrial waste heat to produce hydrogen.
• Validate in steelmaking: The hydrogen will enter a steel plant and undergo an industrial performance test.
• Judge commercial potential: ARENA and Hadean will assess whether the evidence supports wider industrial use.

ARENA’s $15 million backing gives the research-derived system a funded route into a working industrial environment, but it does not establish commercial scale.

The market milestone is the industrial trial itself. If Hadean reproduces its claimed 30% electricity saving and demonstrates hydrogen’s value in lower-emissions steelmaking, the pilot will supply the evidence needed for a broader rollout. Until then, lower hydrogen costs, wider industrial use and commercial deployment remain possibilities rather than demonstrated outcomes.