Can Australia decarbonise heavy industry and remain globally competitive?

In a new article for The Conversation, Dr Changlong Wang of Monash Engineering and co-author Dr Rahman Daiyan, of UNSW explore the challenges - and opportunities - facing Australia’s transition to green heavy industry.

They outline how industries such as steel, alumina and fertiliser production could be transformed using renewable energy and green hydrogen, helping Australia move from exporting raw materials to exporting higher-value, low-emissions products.

Dr Wang explains, “steel can now be made without coal,” but making the shift at scale will require major investment, infrastructure and collaboration across industry and government.

The authors note shared industrial hubs could play a key role, with integrated systems for renewable power, hydrogen production and storage potentially reducing energy costs by 20–30%.

They highlight that Australia already has many of the ingredients needed to succeed: abundant renewable resources, strong technical expertise and established export industries.

“Hard doesn’t mean impossible,” Dr Wang says. “If we succeed, our clean product exports will be a model for the future.”

Read the full article in The Conversation here.

NOTE: Dr Wang is an ARC Australian Research Council Early Career Industry Fellow; a Climate Futures Fellow at the University of Melbourne, and an Academic Visitor at the University of Oxford. He is leading International Energy Agency (IEA) Hydrogen Task 52 "Hydrogen for Iron / Steelmaking" with over 60 organisations from 17 countries participating.