GeelongPort, Australia’s sixth largest port, today announced it will expand its current operations with a $100 million investment to build the Geelong Hydrogen Hub. The port operation, which is owned by superfund SAS Trustee Corporation (also known as State Super) and Brookfield’s LINX Cargo Care Group, will develop the facility with Singapore-based biomass gasification outfit CAC-H2.

The hub will act as both a production and distribution facility, according to GeelongPort, though the facility’s capacity ambition has not been specified. Pending regulatory approvals, the first stage of the Geelong Hydrogen Hub is expected to be operational in December 2023, the company said.

The facility is describing itself a green hydrogen plant, though hydrogen produced from biomass gasification is yet to be assigned a “colour classification” by the International Energy Agency (IEA). Advocates argue it can be classified as green (renewable) hydrogen because technically energy produced with biomass is classed as renewable, though the inclusion of biomass there has been a heated point of debate.