Hazer Group announces ARENA funding milestone

Hazer Group has announced that it has achieved a key progress milestone under its Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) Funding Agreement, facilitating the drawdown of $500,000 after the successful completion of a fourth milestone. The milestone involved the independent verification of the conclusion of 12 months of operations of the Hazer Process Commercial Demonstration Plant (CDP).

As announced on 19 November 2024, Hazer successfully completed the CDP performance and reactor test program achieving significant operational milestones substantially de-risking the scale-up and commercialisation strategy. In total, the CDP achieved more than 1250 hours of continuous operation, and the strong results provide confidence in the reliability of the Hazer Process and validate the design basis and operability of commercial-scale projects.

The CDP is demonstrating Hazer’s differentiated, low-cost, clean hydrogen solution at commercial scale. The Hazer Process is a novel method to produce low-emissions hydrogen from a renewable form of methane. According to ARENA, “the process utilises methane as a feedstock to produce hydrogen without producing CO₂ in the reaction process — instead capturing the carbon in the feedstock as solid graphite”.

A further $1 million in ARENA funding is expected to be released between 2025 and 2026, subject to the achievement of future milestones.

Image caption: Hazer’s CDP site in Perth, Western Australia.