- During the September quarter, Hazer Group (HZR) progressed its commercial demonstration plant project which is a low-emission hydrogen production facility in WA
- While a number of activities were completed, HZR faced some fabrication and materials supply delays which led to pushing back the project’s commissioning target to Q1 2022
- Hazer hopes its namesake technology, which will be processed at the project, will play a role in the future decarbonisation of industries such as steel mills and other large scale manufacturing industries
- Hazer ended the quarter with $27.3 million in cash after spending $6 million on operating and investing activities, but yielded around $8.67 million from financing activities
- Company shares are up 3.21 per cent to trade at $1.45 at 2:09 pm AEDT
Hazer Group (HZR) has provided a recap on its operations for the September 2021 quarter.
Operations
The clean tech business progressed the engineering, fabrication and construction of the Hazer Commercial Demonstration Plant (CDP) Project.
The CDP is a 100 tonnes per annum, low-emission hydrogen production facility that is set to be the first larger scale, fully integrated deployment of the “Hazer Process”.
The project is located at the Water Corporation’s Woodman Point wastewater treatment plant in Western Australia and uses biogas as feedstock to produce renewable, low-emission hydrogen and graphite.
Hazer has completed civil construction activities and has now begun mechanical construction. Specifically, HZR has commenced work on the pipe racks and main steel structure, and has also installed equipment related to the Biogas Pre-Treatment Unit (carbon dioxide removal unit).
While the company did progress certain activities, the project faced delays related to fabrication and supply of specialist high-temperature materials. This has led to Hazer updating its commissioning target from December 2021 to the first quarter of 2022.
Positively, Hazer has seen increased engagement about the potential to apply the Hazer technology in the future decarbonisation of heavy industry, such as steel mills and other large scale manufacturing industries.
As such, the company is reportedly in discussions with more than 20 international companies across Europe, Asia, North America and Australia.
To support these activities, Hazer is undertaking an engineering study with Chiyoda Corporation, which will update the concept study for a commercial Hazer plant of a
2500 tonnes per annum capacity.
Hazer also conducted research and development, which included studying the novel Electrochemical Purification (ECP) technique to purify the graphite produced in the Hazer Process without using high temperature or aggressive acid treatment.
This study is continuing to establish a scope of further testing and development programs.
Financials
Hazer spent around $1.44 million on operating activities, most of which went towards staff and admin costs. A further $4.6 million was allocated towards investing activities which included property, plant and equipment costs.
Net cash inflows from financing activities were $8.67 million, including $7 million before share issue costs from a share placement and $2 million drawdown from existing senior secured loan facilities.
Hazer ended the quarter with about $27.3 million in cash.
Company shares were up 3.21 per cent to trade at $1.45 at 2:09 pm AEDT.