> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://nexi.fund/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # What A$15 Million Buys in Green Hydrogen: Hadean's Seven-Kilogram Bet - URL: https://nexi.fund/hadean-hydrogen-steel-pilot-2026/ - Published: 2026-11-09T15:30:43.000Z - Updated: 2026-11-09T15:30:43.000Z - Description: ARENA is putting A$15 million into a 200-300 kW waste-heat electrolysis pilot at BOC's Hastings site in Victoria. Hadean's tubular solid-oxide design claims about 30% less electricity than conventional electrolysers. The demo will test that claim on real steelworks steam. - Author: Nexi.fund Labs - Tags: Energy & Climate, #mode-1, #hook-question, #track-A, #layout-thesis-spine, #brand-heavy What does A$15 million buy in green hydrogen? A 200โ€“300 kW plant that makes up to seven kilograms an hour โ€” roughly enough for one steel annealing line. Seven kilograms. Every hour. The savings case rests on the electricity the plant does not use. ๐ŸŽฏ ARENA's A$15 million covers half of a A$30 million industrial demonstration at BOC's Hastings site in Victoria. Hadean claims about 30% less electricity than conventional electrolysers by using waste heat; a prior 1,000-hour steelworks trial used under 36 kWh per kilogram. The grant funds a claim to be tested at 200โ€“300 kW, not a proven commercial cost curve. The money was announced on 5 November 2026\. Hadean Energy is a Melbourne-based company spun out of CSIRO in 2023 with RFC Ambrian. Its tubular solid-oxide electrolyser is the asset. The industrial plant next door is the test bed. ## The seven-kilogram number Seven kilograms of hydrogen an hour is about 0.17 tonnes a day, assuming the plant runs flat out without stopping. A single steel annealing line can consume that much in a shift. ARENA says the pilot will supply around 85% of the hydrogen needed for one annealing process, the step that protects steel surfaces from oxidation before further processing. That is a useful niche. It is also a small one. Global hydrogen demand dwarfs one annealing line, and the projects that move that market are utility-scale. Hadean's first industrial demonstration is 200โ€“300 kW, with an output a single truck could carry. Scale is the honest way to read the announcement. The grant buys one data point on a cost curve. It does not buy a hydrogen plant that will change steelmaking next year, and nobody involved says it does. 7 kg/h per hour #### Hadean pilot hydrogen output Up to 7 kg an hour, about 85% of one steel annealing line's demand. ยท *ARENA / CSIRO, Nov 2026* Why hydrogen for annealing at all? The gas provides a reducing atmosphere that keeps oxygen away from hot steel. Operators already buy hydrogen or make it on site from natural gas. A cleaner molecule that costs less per kilogram would slot into an existing demand, which is a stronger starting point than inventing a new use. ## Why the tubes change the electricity bill Electrolysis splits water into hydrogen and oxygen. Electricity dominates the cost of the hydrogen that comes out, and both ARENA and CSIRO frame that cost as the main barrier to wider industrial use. Conventional high-temperature electrolysers use flat ceramic cells. Flat cells need long seals around their edges, and those seals are where leaks and degradation begin. Hadean's tubular solid-oxide design has two ends to seal instead of multiple long edges. CSIRO, which developed the technology over about eight years, says the shape simplifies manufacturing and reduces failure points. Hadean also says the design avoids rare and expensive metals. The second lever is temperature. Solid-oxide cells run hot, and industrial plants already produce heat they vent. Plumb that heat into the electrolyser and the stack needs less electricity to break the same water molecules. Hadean ran a 1,000-hour pilot at BlueScope's Port Kembla steelworks using steam generated by the steelmaking process. CSIRO reports the trial produced hydrogen using less than 36 kWh of electricity per kilogram. Conventional electrolysers typically need around 50โ€“55 kWh per kilogram, the benchmark Hadean cites. That gap is the commercial argument. It is also the part a short pilot cannot settle on its own. A 1,000-hour run covers about six weeks. Industrial buyers think in years of uptime, not weeks of operation. | Parameter | Hadean tubular SOE | Conventional electrolyser | | ---------------------- | ---------------------------------- | ---------------------------- | | **Electricity per kg** | โœ” Under 36 kWh (Port Kembla trial) | โ— 50โ€“55 kWh | | **Heat source** | โœ” Industrial waste heat and steam | โ— Process heat or grid power | | **Sealing points** | โœ” Two tube ends | โ— Multiple flat-cell edges | | **Demonstration size** | 200โ€“300 kW | Commercial units are larger | | **Readiness** | TRL 6 โ†’ 9 target | TRL 9, in commercial use | Sources: CSIRO partner release and ARENA media release, 5โ€“6 November 2026\. The conventional range is the benchmark Hadean cites. There is a second product hiding in the same stack. By feeding steam and carbon dioxide together, the electrolyser can make synthesis gas, the building block for low-carbon fuels. That optionality matters because aviation fuel and renewable methanol buyers may pay more per kilogram than steel plants do. ## A pilot is not a product The A$30 million project has two halves. ARENA provides A$15 million. RFC Ambrian Funds Management, engineering partner Amarna Energy and private investors cover the rest, ReNewEconomy reported. The private money pays for engineering and design work now. The ARENA money is drawn down as the project advances through its phases. Construction capital is still missing. Hadean expects to raise more over the next twelve months to fund the build. The plant also needs final deployment arrangements and approvals. The partners describe the schedule as a sequence: engineering, procurement, safety work, site integration, then construction and commissioning. > We don't often put our own money into the projects we work on, but Hadean was an easy decision. The Port Kembla results showed this technology works in a real industrial environment, and that's what gets engineers interested.โ€” Andrew Lelliott, director, Amarna Energy The site choice matters. BOC's Hastings plant sits at the Port of Hastings in Victoria. ReNewEconomy notes BlueScope's Victorian operations are next door, though the steelmaker is not named as the hydrogen recipient. Co-locating the electrolyser with a heat source and a hydrogen buyer removes transport and storage from the bill. Investors are being asked to fund a demonstration during a reset in hydrogen sentiment. ReNewEconomy reports that Australia's federal government wound down its broad green-hydrogen commitment this year. ARENA is still writing targeted cheques for industrial decarbonisation, and this is one of them. RFC Ambrian executive chairman Rob Adamson said investors now want evidence that a technology works, solves a genuine economic problem, and has customers who need it. Hadean has been assembling that evidence in small steps. It won an almost-A$1 million grant in 2024 to build a 5 kW electrolyser for an EDF power plant in the UK. It ran a small test system at Port Kembla before the 1,000-hour trial. The Hastings plant is its fourth pilot at a commercial site, according to ReNewEconomy. ## The 2030 test A waste-heat electrolyser becomes interesting when it runs for months inside a working plant. Three conditions decide that. The host must have continuous waste heat at the right temperature. The electricity price must be low enough for the remaining load. The hydrogen must displace delivered gas or trucked hydrogen at the same site. The Port Kembla trial answered a narrower question: whether the stack works on real steelworks steam. It did, for 1,000 hours. The new pilot has to answer the boring questions โ€” uptime, maintenance, heat integration, and the delivered cost per kilogram after everything is bolted together. ### Will waste-heat electrolysis reach A$5 per kilogram by 2030? ๐Ÿ”ฎ **By 2030, a waste-heat electrolyser will run at an industrial site at a delivered hydrogen cost below A$5 per kilogram without subsidy.** Probability: 30% โ€” the electricity saving is real only when waste heat is free, continuous, and co-located with a buyer. #### โœ… Arguments for The stack already ran 1,000 hours on steelworks steam at Port Kembla. Tubular cells cut sealing points and avoid rare metals, which helps manufacturing cost. Co-location removes hydrogen transport and storage from the delivered cost. **Confirmation criteria:** sustained uptime above 80% over six months at the Hastings site. #### โŒ Arguments against Seven kilograms an hour is roughly 0.17 tonnes a day, far below commercial scale. Heat integration, power source and uptime are site-specific and still unproven together. Approvals are pending and construction capital has not been raised. **Refutation criteria:** delivered cost stays above the site's current hydrogen supply after commissioning. Watch the second plant. If it is ten times larger and still running, the cost curve is real. If the next announcement is another grant for another pilot, the electricity saving will remain a laboratory result with a press release attached. [ ARENA commits A$15 million to Hadean's steelmaking hydrogen pilot The funding agency's release sets out the grant size, the 200โ€“300 kW pilot scope, and the 30% electricity claim that the demonstration is meant to test. Australian Renewable Energy Agency ](https://arena.gov.au/news/australian-hydrogen-technology-backed-for-steelmaking-pilot?ref=nexi.fund) Primary source for the grant, the pilot site and the output figures. [ Hadean's tubular electrolyser: trial data and the path to TRL 9 The science agency's partner release carries the 1,000-hour BlueScope results, the under-36 kWh per kilogram figure, and the investor quotes. CSIRO ](https://www.csiro.au/en/news/All/News/2026/November/Breakthrough-Australian-tech-turning-waste-heat-into-cleaner-hydrogen-wins-ARENA-backing?ref=nexi.fund) Most detailed technical account, with the caveat that CSIRO co-founded the company. [ Australian government backs waste-heat hydrogen for low-emissions steel Joint release from Chris Bowen and Tim Ayres framing the grant as industrial policy and domestic manufacturing capability. Australian Government ](https://minister.dcceew.gov.au/bowen/media-releases/joint-media-release-backing-australian-hydrogen-innovation-target-low-emissions-steel?ref=nexi.fund) The political framing: why taxpayers are funding this pilot now.