AGL Energy will host a $500 million trial led by Japanese giant Kawasaki Heavy Industries to convert Victorian brown coal into liquid hydrogen for export in what represents a major scaling-up of efforts to commercialise the clean energy technology.

In the initiative to be announced on Thursday at AGL's Loy Yang A coal generator in the Latrobe Valley, Kawasaki will be joined by electricity major J-Power, industrial gases producer Iwatani and Japanese government organisations.