Momentum in the hydrogen economy is continuing to build, Implats group executive refining and marketing Sifiso Sibiya reported when he presented an Implats slide outlining global market trends for the platinum group metals (PGM) of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed company, which this week announced half-year free cash flow generation of R11-billion generated after funding capital expenditure of R4.9-billion.

The slide, which highlighted the technological advances that will diversify and support future PGM demand, singled out hydrogen as a PGM demand sector which is continuing to gain traction, with demand projections being de-risked and showing improvement.

Mining Weekly can report that green hydrogen and PGMs are joined at the hip from the point of generating the product through proton electron membrane (PEM) electrolysis and then turning the hydrogen back into green electricity with the help of platinum-based fuel cells. These fuel cells then provide the cleanest of clean zero-emission mobility as well as having the capability to generate clean, green stationary electricity.

It is important to recall that Implats pioneered hydrogen powered forklifts several years ago at its PGM refinery in Springs. (See above picture.)

Also during its half-year financial and operational results presentation two days before the Implats' presnetation, Sibanye-Stillwater CEO Neal Froneman described the hydrogen economy as underpinning the world’s future energy requirements through PGMs.

And a week before that, Anglo American Platinum CEO Natascha Viljoen highlighted the hydrogen space as being “an exploding space”.

Viljoen also drew attention to South Africa’s own hydrogen corridor being declared a strategic integrated project, which is scheduled to get under way this year with 20 hydrogen buses being supplied by three hydrogen trucks. The corridor is expected to eventually create 14 000 jobs and consume 63 000 oz of platinum.

The first trial phase will make use of existing spare green hydrogen capacity at Anglo American Platinum’s Mogalawena PGMs mine, increasing that in 2024 to 50 trucks and 50 buses and then progressing to 500 trucks and 300 buses, with the route extending from Limpopo through Gauteng to KwaZulu-Natal.

“What's important for us as an economy is also the development that we see happening across the world,” said Viljoen, in reference to the global uptake of hydrogen as a future clean universal energy source, which is dependent on PGMs that South Africa hosts so overwhelmingly.

The PGMs are needed to:

generate green hydrogen;

turn green hydrogen back into electricity;

create the green hydrogen to power internal combustion engine (ICE) hydrogen vehicles; and

potentially also in time significantly lower the weight of batteries used by battery electric vehicles through research that is very well under way.

The lower cost of green hydrogen through EU initiatives has prompted green hydrogen end use in Uber fleets in Germany, with all global advances of this nature pointing to South Africa's PGMs industry – which employs 500 000 people directly – being boosted as the world transitions away from fossil fuels as part of the global decarbonisation imperative to mitigate climate change.

The hydrogen economy encourages the use of PGMs because PEM electrolysis is ideally suited to the variability of renewable energy. Moreover, the uniqueness of PGMs takes on both temperature and energy variance. This is crucial because of the variable flow of sun and wind energy. This reduces overall cost and improves overall efficiencies, with the key word being overall.

Important to note is that green hydrogen vehicles only need to capture 10% of the future light vehicle market to have the same demand sector of today’s ICE vehicles.

The other point is that hydrogen generation – and the fuel cell electric vehicles that turn the hydrogen back into green electricity – are far less mineral intensive when adjudged from engine to wheel. From a recyclin...