Hazer Group Ltd (ASX:HZR) has crossed a major milestone by commissioning its pre-pilot plant located in St Marys in Western Sydney.

This brings Hazer closer to its goal of supplying global markets with economically competitive, clean hydrogen and synthetic graphite.

Hazer is undertaking the commercialisation of the Hazer Process, a low-emission hydrogen and graphite production process.

The Hazer Process enables the effective conversion of natural gas and similar feedstocks, into hydrogen and high quality graphite, using iron ore as a process catalyst.

Hazer’s pre-pilot plant will now be used to illustrate the impact of scale-up on process performance and graphite product quality.

Furthermore, various process design and operational optimisation opportunities have already been identified during the commissioning phase, and will be progressed as part of the pre-pilot operations.

This initial phase allows the Hazer Process to be incrementally tested and validated in sequential fashion, with an initial focus on operational optimisation, fluidisation and graphite recovery.

Following the semi-continuous stage, Hazer will upgrade the pre-pilot plant to incorporate on-line catalyst injection to facilitate fully continuous operation of the system.

Hazer anticipates full system operability including catalyst injection by the end of 2017.

With hydrogen tipped to become an important clean energy fuel, Hazer remains focused on advancing the scale of the Hazer Process to suit this market.