BP has begun a feasibility study at its Kwinana refinery to look at using the site to produce green hydrogen.
The company announced in November 2020 that it would cease refining at the Kwinana refinery as it was no longer economically viable, and that it would convert the site into an import terminal, with operations winding down by mid-2021.
BP now has its sights on repurposing the former refinery complex as an integrated clean energy hub to produce and distribute sustainable fuels. It has already started to develop a plant to produce sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and renewable diesel.
BP believes that a Kwinana energy hub would be ideally placed to create Australian green energy chains and enable Western Australia to meet its net zero commitments. The wider Kwinana industrial cluster produces and exchanges more than 150 products, by-products and utilities, and a clean energy hub would offer green alternatives for some of these. The feasibility study is being carried out in partnership with Macquarie Capital, with funding from the Western Australian government.
Frédéric Baudry, president of BP Australia and SVP fuels & low carbon solutions, Asia Pacific, thanked the Western Australian government for its funding and added that BP is being guided by the Australian federal government’s Low Emission Technology Investment Roadmap as it seeks to create domestic green value chains and decarbonise Australia’s hard-to-abate sectors, particularly heavy industry, mining and transport.
“We are excited by the role BP’s Kwinana energy hub will play in close collaboration with our partners. BP has a strong track record as an energy provider to the industrial area and has readily accessible land, existing infrastructure including storage and distribution facilities, and a team with extensive operational capabilities and experience,” he added.
“BP is committed to developing solutions that will help accelerate the energy transition in Australia. With our unique capabilities, bp can offer increasingly complex, multi-energy solutions to its partners and customers through their decarbonisation journey,” said Baudry.
For more information visit www.bp.com
