Australia’s early advantage in green metals could fade if the nation keeps relying on its old “mine-and-ship” approach, says Dr Rahman Daiyan from UNSW Sydney. Speaking at the Green Metals Forum during COP30 in Brazil, Dr Daiyan called for investment in downstream processing and low-carbon supply chains that make use of the country’s renewable energy and technical capability.
Dr Daiyan, from the School of Minerals and Energy Resources Engineering, works on technologies that use renewable electricity to produce hydrogen, renewable ammonia, low-carbon fuels and processed minerals. He said Australia’s chance to lead the next industrial wave depends on transforming its resources at home, not just exporting raw ores.
“The initiative was less about the supply chain numbers and more about a dialogue – about what Europe needs, and what Australia can provide,” he said of the Australia-Germany green iron supply chain project mentioned by Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen at COP30.
That dialogue has become more urgent as Europe faces tight energy supply while pursuing carbon neutrality. Dr Daiyan said these pressures had opened the way for new partnerships with resource-rich nations such as Australia – countries with the land, sunshine and technical depth to make renewable-based metals and fuels.
Three waves of cooperation
Dr Daiyan described Europe’s transition as occurring in three waves. First came the realisation that Europe could not meet all its clean-energy demand domestically and would need to import fuels produced with renewable electricity. Then politics entered the picture, with governments keen to move quickly while protecting sovereign manufacturing capacity.
The third phase, which he called the “green metal wave”, emerged when European firms saw that producing their own green iron was unlikely to be feasible at scale. Shipping hydrogen remained expensive, while exporting iron that had already been processed using hydrogen offered a practical alternative.
“Taking green iron from Australia can potentially save you 263 petajoules of hydrogen import and 20 terawatt-hours of electricity annually,” Dr Daiyan said. “That energy can be used for what Europe does with specialty steel, to make their wind turbines and other advanced manufacturing where Europe enjoys competitive advantage.”
This model, he said, creates shared value: Australia processes part of its iron using renewable energy, while Europe focuses on high-end manufacturing. His team’s modelling suggests green iron from Australia could reach Europe at lower cost than producing it locally with imported hydrogen, reducing the strain on Europe’s limited renewable capacity.
Building on collaboration
Australia’s advantage, Dr Daiyan said, lies not just in cheap renewable power but in the ability to integrate new technology across universities, startups and industry. Previous projects such as HyGATE – a hydrogen supply chain partnership backed by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency and Germany’s PtJ – have already linked early-stage technologies from both countries.
He noted that Australia has strengths in developing new catalysts from local minerals, while Germany excels at scaling up technologies for industrial use. This model of international cooperation, he said, mirrors the success of solar research originally developed at UNSW and later scaled up in China, which helped cut solar costs worldwide.
“The next generation [of technology] that we’re looking into … can reduce that cost of hydrogen, reduce that cost of green iron production, improve on that electrolysis pathway for iron making, and at the same time make all these systems with material that you’re effectively mining in Australia,” he said.
Research momentum in Australia
Dani Alexander, Chief Executive of the UNSW Energy Institute, said Australia’s research base provides a strong platform for clean industrial development.
“If you look at the work that someone like Dr Rahman Daiyan is involved in, it’s remarkable,” Ms Alexander said. “He’s scaling up renewable jet fuel production using waste CO₂ and green hydrogen, contributing to an $8.2 million program to commercialise hydrogen-low-carbon liquid ammonia technologies for export, and helping design systems that convert captured CO₂ into high-value catalysts – turning carbon waste into fuels and chemicals.”
Dr Daiyan’s open-source modelling tools are also helping governments and industry compare the costs and emissions of emerging green-metal supply chains. For regions like the Hunter – where renewable energy zones, heavy industry and research institutions intersect – this kind of analysis could shape how Australia adds value to its resources and embeds itself in the global low-carbon economy.
