Australian green hydrogen refuelling stations and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles

Source: The Driven

In Port Kembla, NSW, a company named H2X plans to build a range of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles from cars to heavy duty trucks and even trains. It hopes to re-boot Australia's car industry with vehicles powered by green hydrogen and in doing so create many jobs.

The development of renewable hydrogen made by the electrolysis of water with power from renewable electricity has been funded by the Australian Clean Energy Finance Corporation. This will be a good move for Australia as it can make its own green fuel and export it as well. Australia imports its oil and only has a month to six weeks supply at any one time.

H2X has joined forces with Elvin Group which invests in Australia's Hydrostar's green hydrogen electrolyser technology. The Elvin Group will put small scale hydrogen electrolysers at service stations. They will be 500kW to 1MW containers for hydrogen production and hydrogen refuelling onsite for vehicles. The Queensland and ACT governments already have small fleets of hydrogen fuel cell cars and these Elvin Group systems are being trialled in the ACT (Australian Capital Territory).

Larger-scale electrolysers will be available for larger industries. The systems can be located at existing service stations or at business-based locations such as vehicle fleet depots, work sites, farms and distribution centres.

Read more: 

- H2X hopes to reboot Australia car industry with launch of hydrogen SUV. The Driven, June 12, 2020. 

- CEFC to kick-start Australia's hydrogen industry with new $300m investment fund. RenewEconomy, May 4, 2020. 

- H2X teams with Elvin Group to develop green hydrogen refuelling stations in Australia. The Driven, June 26, 2020.

Can’t buy enough sanitary pads – try reusable MyPads

Reusable MyPads (Source: MyPads)

MyPads are reusable menstrual and incontinence pads made from cotton and/or hemp. They are Australian-made and come from bushfire affected South Coast NSW. You can order them online from www.mypads.com.au and an introductory pack is available. 

Benefits of cloth pads: 
- they are cheaper over time than disposable tampons and pads, 
- they save sending single-use, plastic, synthetic pads to waste, 
- they are breathable and gentle on the skin, 
- the hemp inserts are more absorbent than disposable pads, 
- they are convenient as you never need to run out of pads again, 
- they are comfortable to wear. 

Why Hemp? 
- hemp requires no chemicals to grow so is kinder to the land and to your skin, 
- hemp fabric is antibacterial and anti-fungal, 
- hemp is ten times more stronger than cotton and thus more durable, 
- hemp is more absorbent than cotton so the inserts are thinner and less bulky. 

Read more at: 
- MyPads: www.mypads.com.au
 - MyPads – How Do They Work?: www.mypads.com.au/how-do-they-work/

Biodegradable drinking straws made from rye grain stalks left after harvest

Rye drinking straws made from the stalks left over after rye grain harvest. (ABC News)

There is a growing demand for biodegradable or reusable straws as some governments around the world legislate to reduce single-use plastics including plastic drinking straws.

Straws made from the hollow stems of wheat, rice and bamboo are already available in Australia, but are imported from overseas. Marion Vigot and Alexis Branlard aim to supply Australian biodegradable straws made from the strong, hollow stems of rye for the Australian market. They hope to produce 1 million straws from the first harvest and have formed the start-up company called Mister Rye based in Adelaide. South Australia is to ban single-use plastics next year and they are hoping to offer these rye straws as one of the alternatives.

One hectare of rye can produce 300,000 straws, so they only need a few hectares to make a million. They have formed arrangements with two organic rye farmers to do this. After harvesting the rye grain, the rye stalks are gently harvested and rolled into small bales by a vintage 1950’s hay baler. Then the straws are selected from between the nodes and hand cut by a team of workers. Marion and Alexis are hoping to mechanise this latter process. The straws are available online from Mister Rye at: https://www.misterrye.com/ 

For more information: 

- “Recycled rye straws an option to help environment and farmers in war on single-use plastics.” ABC News, October 11, 2019. 

– Also featured on Landline, 08/03/20, and available on iView for awhile: https://iview.abc.net.au/show/landline/series/0/video/RF1904Q006S00

Australian grown coffee for Australians

Jaques coffee from Queensland (Photo: Julie May)

Australia is one of the few regions in the world free of the most serious coffee diseases, coffee berry borer disease and coffee leaf rust. Thus, noxious pesticides are not used on Australian coffee, enabling the farmers to use natural production systems with some producing organic coffee.

Current production of Australian coffee occurs between northern Queensland and as far south as Coffs Harbour in New South Wales. Australia has around 600,000 coffee trees, growing on 200 hectares with potential production of 300 tonnes. At this time, production of Australian coffee is not enough to keep up supplies to the big Australia-wide supermarkets. In addition, the Australian coffee growers and roasters find it difficult to compete with imported coffee.

A list of some of the Australian grown coffee available for mail order:
- NQ Gold Coffee, Qld: https://nqgoldcoffee.com.au/.
- Mackellar Range Coffee, NSW: http://mackellarcoffee.com.au/
- Jaques Coffee, Qld: https://www.jaquescoffee.com.au/
- Mountain Top Coffee, NSW: http://www.mountaintopcoffee.com.au/
- Ewingsdale Coffee, NSW: http://www.ewingsdalecoffee.com.au/coffee
- Skybury, Qld: http://www.skybury.com.au/skybury-cafeandroastery/coffee-range
- Zentveld’s, NSW: https://shop.zentvelds.com.au/
- Mount Mee Coffee, Qld: http://www.mountmeecoffee.com.au/
- Bun Coffee, NSW: (250g $14 - also available at David Jones) http://www.buncoffee.com.au/

References:
Australian Grown: http://www.midcoast.com.au/~keno/Coffee/Homegrown.html
Australian Speciality Grown Coffee: https://australianspecialtycoffee.com.au/whats-future-australian-subtropical-coffee/
Search for a cup of Australian coffee…: http://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2015-07-08/search-for-a-good-cup-of-australian-coffee-grinding-away/6603076