A businessman who says his success is a result of "doing God's will, God's way" plans to re-open a coal mine in Tasmania's Fingal Valley to fuel a hydrogen plant, claiming it will be the world's first clean coal-to-hydrogen project.
Dave Hodgson plans to mine one million tonnes of coal per year near Fingal to fuel a proposed hydrogen plant at Bell Bay.
The coal mine proposal is nothing new — HardRock Coal was given a mining licence for it in 2013.
One of Mr Hodgson's companies, Paladin Hydrogen, now has full control of the mine.
"We've actually got the technology now to produce hydrogen from coal with zero emissions whatsoever," Mr Hodgson claims.
He said he expected the hydrogen plant to be operating in 2024, but that he was still looking for land for the plant.
Mr Hodgson said he planned to "clean up the coal industry" and that this project would be "the only clean coal-to-hydrogen project in the world" — although there are questions about whether it will produce zero emissions.
Outlining the process, Mr Hodgson said coal would be crushed and mixed with water to form a slurry.
"The slurry has an agent mixed with it … that's what I can't disclose at the moment, but we will, obviously, in due course, and then that goes into reactors," he said.
"Out of the other end comes hydrogen.
"There is a by-product, but we recycle the by-product back through again and there's no emissions along the way, so the by-product is benign … by year two we expect to be using hydrogen to power the hydrogen plant."
Mr Hodgson said his plan was for the hydrogen to fuel re-fitted coal-fired power stations. The Tasmanian operation would be a prototype and expand interstate and overseas.
"There's a huge market brewing now; we've already signed deals in South Africa in the Musina-Makhardo Special Economic Zone."
Mine labelled a 'disaster'
Tasmanian Greens leader Cassy O'Connor said she believed the project "would be a disaster for the climate because coal mines are huge methane emitters".
"It would damage our clean, green brand but it would also negatively affect our competitive advantage in having certified green hydrogen products in the future," she said.
Coal mining produces fugitive emissions, which the CSIRO described as "losses, leaks and other releases of gases such as methane and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere that are associated with industries producing natural gas, oil and coal".
The science agency said all coal seams contained some level of gas, and that the gases escape and become fugitive during both open-cut and underground mining operations.
"Fugitive mine emissions are a significant component of greenhouse gas emissions. Mine methane emissions account for approximately 8 per cent of total global anthropogenic methane emissions," the agency said.
Mr Hodgson said the methane from the Fingal Valley was "next to nil" and that by the time he expanded interstate, he was confident technology would be available to capture and store methane.
Senior research fellow at the Australian National University's Engineering School Fiona Beck said the amount of fugitive emissions associated with a mine depended on the method of mining, the details of the deposit, and whether the emissions were being measured and captured properly.
There are other emissions associated with mining, but Mr Hodgson said he wanted to operate the Tasmanian mine "cleanly" with electric vehicles and would be relying on Tasmania's hydro-electricity.
"The devil really is in the details when you're doing these emissions accounting-type things," Dr Beck said.
"Without being able to look at the details it's really difficult to say that something is or isn't zero-emissions, however, even if you just look at those emissions from the feedstock that would be going into a coal-based hydrogen processing plant, it would be very difficult for it to be zero-emissions."
Dr Beck said it was also important to consider whether hydrogen was the best, cheapest, and most efficient way to de-carbonise.
"[Hydrogen] could be a way for us to use our fossil fuel assets that could potentially decarbonise processes somewhat but not get us all the way, and, in that way, it could be a bit of a distraction," she said.
"It could actually lock us into fossil fuels for much longer than we can afford to be locked into them in terms of our carbon budget.
"So, for every investment that's being made in a fossil fuel-based process, it's also important to think about where else could that money going, and is that locking us into decades longer of fossil fuel use and all the fugitive emissions that are associated with that."
Community mixed on mine plans
On the streets of nearby town St Marys, locals were unaware of Mr Hodgson's plans.
Some said they would welcome the jobs a new mine could bring, while others questioned why a new coal project was being considered.
The mining lease for the site comes up for renewal in August next year.
Ms O'Connor said the state government needed to "wake up" and put an end to the project.
"I don't think they've thought about it enough," she said.
A state government spokeswoman said if Mr Hodgson's company applied to renew the lease, "Mineral Resources Tasmania will undertake a comprehensive assessment of any application prior to making a recommendation to the [resources] minister" who will need to approve any renewal.
"Mineral Resources Tasmania advise that they have not received a revised mining plan since the granting of the lease."
Who is Dave Hodgson?
According to the website of Kingdom Initiatives — a company Mr Hodgson founded — he grew up in Africa in the 1960s and 70s and was conscripted into the army of Rhodesia (which became Zimbabwe in 1980).
He later joined the Selous Scouts — a special forces unit of the Rhodesian Army.
The website said that after Mr Hodgson left the special forces, he fought as a mercenary for two years before being "forced to leave Zimbabwe and [became] stateless".
"Eventually he emigrated to Australia, where he came to know the Lord Jesus during an amazing encounter with the Lord at a [German-American Pentecostal evangelist Reinhard] Bonnke crusade."
On the Kingdom Initiatives Facebook page, Mr Hodgson has posted about a tactic he learnt in the army — "infiltrate to remediate" — which he said could be applied to other pursuits, such as mining.
Mr Hodgson has also spoken about his task being that of creating "sheep nations" — a biblical reference and something he described as having "a culture of sharing and caring".
For that he needs "a lot of money and a lot of influence", he told 10 Talent LeaderTalk podcast in October 2020.
He credits following "God's will and God's way" with his success in business, and has described his company's takeover of the lease on the Valley Road mine as "a transformation of wealth from the wicked to the righteous".
