JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Namibia has produced its first green hydrogen; India has announced subsidies worth $259-million for nine companies in its second green hydrogen auction;  China has fired the starting gun on a new era of long-distance hydrogen-powered freight transport; Europe has put forward a “non-price” innovation for green hydrogen-based steel; Australia has picked a Hydrogen Headstart programme winner; Scotland has placed an order for a hydrogen electrolyser; and Bulgaria is stepping on to the hydrogen stage.

Mining Weekly can report that these current-month developments have been announced amid a large number of less recent announcements, and also arise against the background of this month’s South Africa-EU Summit in Cape Town, where European Commission (EC) President Ursula von der Leyen stated in direct reference to South Africa: “You have clean energy in abundance, from wind to sun. You have raw materials that are critical for electrolysers, including 91% of the world’s platinum group metals (PGM) reserves, and you have a rising industry to produce clean hydrogen and strong export ambitions.” The summit, hosted by President Cyril Ramaphosa, positions South Africa as a future supplier of platinum-based green hydrogen to the EU.

Interestingly, green hydrogen was first generated in South Africa as long ago as 2012 by HySA with the help of a platinum-based electrolyser, with PGMls going hand-in-glove with green hydrogen and hydrogen fuel cells under the proton exchange membrane (PEM) flag.

The number of people working in platinum mining has doubled from 85 000 in 1988 to 183 000 in 2023. (Also see attached infographic.)

In Namibia, HyIron’s Oshivela green hydrogen plant is using a 12 MW electrolyser from China’s Peric Hydrogen Systems.

In India, none of nine companies that have won three-year subsidy payments for green hydrogen production has bid for the maximum subsidy across all three years, and those that bid for the maximum for one or two of the years brought down their overall average by requesting extremely low subsidies in other years.

In China, a new era of long-distance, non-stop 1 000-km-plus hydrogen truck travel has been entered. Advantages include full system diagnostics integration, and weight reduction.

In Europe, chemicals giant BASF has commissioned Europe's largest green hydrogen project at its Ludwigshafen complex in southwest Germany. The 54 MW PEM electrolyser supplied by Siemens Energy has more than twice the capacity of Yara's 24 MW PEM electrolyser in Norway, which previously held the title for Europe's largest completed green hydrogen project. In addition, German power utility RWE, in partnership with France’s TotalEnergies, is advancing more than 30 green hydrogen projects. At the heart of the partnership is RWE's 300 MW Lingen electrolyser, which is expected to be operational in 2027. Moreover, EC last week presented an action plan to foster demand for EU steel products under the Industrial Decarbonisation Accelerator Act. In addition, Germany has made the first payment to hydrogen pipeline operators building the first phase of the country's 9 041 km core hydrogen pipeline network. Payment was from the government's €24-billion amortisation account, a fund which aims to make up the difference between the up-front investment costs of building a hydrogen network, and the initial low revenues.

In Australia, Western Australia’s ambitions to become a global clean energy powerhouse received a major boost with the federal government awarding A$814-million in production incentives to the 1 500 MW Murchison green hydrogen project. The funding forms part of the Hydrogen Headstart programme, designed to accelerate large-scale renewable hydrogen projects by bridging the commercial gap between production costs and market prices.

In Scotland, the Aberdeen Hydrogen Hub project, a scalable green hydrogen production, storage and distribution facility powered by renewable energy, is being delivered through a joint venture between bp and Aberdeen City Council. For this, Hydrasun has awarded a purchase order to Nel Hydrogen for a 2.5 MW containerised PEM hydrogen electrolyser.

And, in Bulgaria, the H2Start Hydrogen Valley project is positioning the Balkan nation for green hydrogen export within Europe with €15-million in EC funding. Building blocks include partnerships with Thracian University of Stara Zagora, the Polytechnic University of Turin, and the Institute for Advanced Energy Technologies.

NAMIBIAN HYDROGEN

Key developments at Namibia’s Oshivela facility include the integration of the green hydrogen electrolyser within a smart microgrid powered by renewable energy from a 25 MW solar farm. Coupled to this is a 13.4 MW battery system. Initial production capacity is 5 t of green iron an hour, with an annual target of 15 000 t of direct reduced iron (DRI) produced through a DRI process.

Operating only during daylight hours, the plant relies entirely on its renewable infrastructure to produce emission-free iron, with plans to gradually scale up to full capacity.