Venn Brown sat down with Glenn Corrie, CEO of Hazer Group, todiscuss the progress of the commercialisation demonstration plant, customers,lower estimated levelized cost of hydrogen, revenue outlook and key milestones.
Commercialisation Demonstration Plant (CDP): Hazer hasjust announced that its CDP has completed a continuous 240-hour stable operatingcampaign, a 30% step up from the 182-hour operation completed in May. The plantis operating as designed with almost 98% uptime, and only a few minor issues arisingfrom peripheral systems. Results from the CDP continue to allow Hazer to refineits modelling, with the group confirming the process requires significantly lowerenergy than expected: 8-10kWh rather than 10-13kWh per kilogram of hydrogen. Managementexpects to declare commercial readiness by the end of 2024
Customer progress: Hazer continues to advance its existingcommercial projects, which are part of more than 30 commercial discussionscurrently underway.
· FortisBC: Signed binding agreement for acommercial scale, 2.5kt/yr plant. Hazer will start generating revenue fordevelopment costs plus margin for work completed as part of the plant planning.The final investment decision (FID) is expected in 2025.
· POSCO: After two years of due diligence,POSCO and Hazer have signed a MOU. Hazer sees a 10-year path to scale POSCO plantsfrom 2.5kt/yr to over 100kt/yr. Management expects a licencing framework to besigned in CY25.
· Mitsui: Continues to develop a market forHazer graphite. Hazer’s models assume a price of ~US$400/t, but sees a pricepoint emerging in the range US$600-$1,000/t based on feedback from prospectivecustomers.
Reduction in Levelised Cost of Hydrogen: Process optimisations,improved energy efficiency, higher graphite price expectations and loweroperating expenditure have lowered Hazer’s expected LCOH expectations.
Revenueoutlook: The240-hour operation unlocks the next round of ARENA funding, with cash expectedin January 2025. Hazer also expects to start receiving FortisBC project revenueover the next six months, as well as additional State and Federal governmentgrants.
