Green Hydrogen

Partnering/Collaboration Strategy

Lion signed a partnership agreement with Queensland based BLK Auto Pty Ltd (“BLK Auto”) for a collaboration to assess opportunities to grow Australia’s hydrogen transport and infrastructure capabilities. BLK Auto has already delivered Australia’s first hydrogen fuel cell powered coach and is in the process of delivering a further 9 under contract with a leading WA based group. Lion and BLK Auto are pursuing specific opportunities for both coach and city bus transport solutions.

In December 2021, Lion firmed up its relationship with the Pulitano Group, a leading transport and property group headquartered in Queensland. The Pulitano Group is a major bus operator in Australia managing more than 400 buses in Queensland and Victoria. Both these jurisdictions have zero emission targets and Pulitano are keen to position themselves for the transition to zero emission targets.

Lion has also partnered with one of the world’s leading zero emission bus manufacturers, Foton. Foton Mobility is associated with Foton Group, who have already sold more than 44,000 zero emission buses, including over 600 hydrogen fuel cell buses. Lion and Foton are collaboratively marketing an integrated solution to fleet operators.

As our initial conversations with public sector authorities indicated a limited understanding of the fuel cell electric bus value proposition, Lion appointed the Australia Road Research Board (“ARRB”) to develop a business case for hydrogen buses in Queensland. Our partners and the authorities cooperated to participate in the study. ARRB delivered to Lion a comprehensive economic case and transition plan which Lion is now sharing with regulators, bus fleet owners and operators to assist decision making and transition planning.

The key conclusion of the report was that fuel cell electric buses (FCEB’s) are a core Zero Emission Bus (ZEB) technology alongside Battery Electric Buses (BEB’s) largely due to relatively high BEB infrastructure costs.

Separately, Lion worked closely with the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) to develop a geospatial tool to enable us to quickly ascertain the suitability of small to medium scale hydrogen production locations factoring in the potential hydrogen offtake market and renewable energy delivery infrastructure. Lion aims to be at the juncture of resources, technology and market.

We have the ability to over lay the presence of such things as solar farms, bus depots, bus routes, heavy vehicle routes, wind farms, water resources, the electrical network, substations, transformers, truck stops, ports and related key infrastructure. The map below represents a snap shot of the tool for southeast Queensland turning on the electrical network, ports, bus routes, inner Brisbane bus depots, rail network and truck stops.