As preferred engineering contractor Primero will carry out initial detailed design activities to progress the project to the full engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracting stage.

Hazer's 100-tonne-per-year commercial demonstration plant will showcase the Hazer Process, a low-emission hydrogen and graphite production process that turns natural gas and other methane feedstocks into hydrogen and high-quality graphite, while feeding on waste biogas, with iron ore as the process catalyst.

The plant will be located at the Water Corporation's wastewater treatment plant at Woodman Point south of Perth, which will also provide the biogas.

Primero will head to site later this month, with work expected to finish in November.

Once the ECI work is done, Hazer will award the EPC contract, with commissioning pencilled in for the end of 2020.

Hazer CEO Geoff Ward said Primero was an excellent fit for the capabilities needed to deliver the CDP.

Meanwhile, Mineral Resources, which has a stake in Hazer Group, has completed commissioning of its Paddle Tube Reactor pilot plant and successfully produced high-quality graphite.

In 2017, Hazer Group and Mineral Resources entered into a binding cooperation agreement to develop a Mineral Resources-owned and -operated commercial-scale synthetic graphite plant based on the Hazer process.

Under the cooperation agreement a three-stage development programme is envisaged.

Stage 1 involves developing a pilot scale plant capable of producing one tonne per annum high-quality graphite.

That facility was completed in March.

With the commissioning of the pilot plant complete, Mineral Resources will undertake a programme to test the capability of the paddle tube reactor design, and glean the engineering and performance data necessary for the commercial-scale plant envisaged in stages two and three.