Pure Hydrogen announced it would build the plant in Brisbane and it would be commissioned within the next 12 months.

Hydrogen production processes have been colour coded and this one is what Pure called “turquoise hydrogen” in contrast to green hydrogen which uses water and renewable energy.

Pure has signed a collaboration agreement and licence term sheet with French technology company Plenesys which has patented plasma technology to separate the methane molecule into hydrogen and solid carbon. The process has no CO2 emissions but produces a solid carbon powder as a by-product for uses such as graphene.

It claims to be 50 per cent cheaper than the accepted electrolysis process and uses five times less electricity.

While green hydrogen is the accepted gold standard it is considered too expensive to be commercially viable and the industry has been pinning its hopes on costs falling. Hydrogen made from greenhouse gases like methane are much cheaper but have been sidelined because of the emissions they create.

After the Brisbane pilot, Pure claims it will build commercial scale modules for its markets in Australia, Asia Pacific and sub-Saharan Africa.

It has been investigating the process used by Plenesys for two years and has exclusive rights to the process in Australia.

Pure managing director Scott Brown said the process was a cleaner use of natural gas and graphene had many emerging applications in electronics, light-weight materials and batteries.

“Our initial program is focused on demonstrating and refining the process before commencing commercial scale operations,” Brown said.

“It is no doubt there is significant upside for the technology globally.”