Fortescue Future Industries has taken a large stake in Sparc Technologies’ green hydrogen arm

Sparc Technologies shares have jumped after Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue Future Industries, which aims to be a global player in clean energy, took a stake in its hydrogen division.

Iron ore magnate Andrew Forrest is determined to become a major player in the hydrogen industry globally.

Fortescue Future Industries has bought a 20 per cent stake in listed junior Sparc Technologies’ hydrogen subsidiary, which is aiming to commercialise green hydrogen technology spun out of Adelaide and Flinders universities.

Sparc backdoor-listed into Acacia Coal in late 2020, raising $4m at 20c per share to be used to commercialise its graphene technology, with the company originally focused on graphene production for marine and protective coatings.

That business is still progressing, however the company late last year formed a joint venture, Sparc Hydrogen, with the University of Adelaide, to jointly progress a project which aims to produce “commercially viable ultra-green hydrogen’’ which can convert water into hydrogen and oxygen using the sun’s radiation and properties.

READ MORE:Australia pumps up its hydrogen push | Adelaide Energy consultancy sold for $36m

Using this process, known as “thermo-photocatalysis”, Sparc says it can avoid the need to produce hydrogen using electrolysis - the current, energy-hungry first choice for green hydrogen production.

“Adopting this process to produce green hydrogen means that renewable energy from wind farms and/or photovoltaic solar panels and expensive electrolysers are not needed,’’ Sparc said on Wednesday.

“As such, capital and operating expenditure is anticipated to be significantly lower than electrolysis and other forms of hydrogen production currently in use.

“Furthermore, this technology can potentially be adopted remotely and for onsite use, thereby

reducing the reliance on long distance hydrogen transportation and/or electricity transmission.’’

Fortescue will invest an initial $1.8m to earn 20 per cent of Sparc Hydrogen, with a follow-up investment following key milestones of $1.475m to earn it another 16 per cent.

FFI said Sparc’s technology “has the potential to create significant energy efficiencies and a cost competitive advantage with low capital and operating expenditure required compared to renewable energy and electrolysis’’.

“This investment builds on the announcement last week that Fortescue has entered into an agreement to acquire UK-based Williams Advanced Engineering to support the decarbonisation of Fortescue’s mining operations and deliver on the company’s target to achieve carbon neutrality for Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2030.

“FFI is aiming to utilise and develop emerging technologies to demonstrate to the world that the decarbonisation of heavy industry is possible and then deliver that technology to the significant global market.

“In the case of Sparc Hydrogen, if this early-stage technology is successful, it could ultimately be used to help produce green hydrogen at a larger and more affordable scale.’’

Sparc shares surged as much as 22 per cent on Wednesday on the news before falling back to be 1.8 per cent up at $1.68.

Originally published as Fortescue Future Industries has taken a large stake in Sparc Technologies’ green hydrogen arm