https://www.miningweekly.com

CNN-flighted advert projecting huge growth for platinum-using fuel cells

CNN-flighted advertisement projecting fuel cell growth.

CNN-flighted advertisement projecting fuel cell growth.

18th September 2018

By: Martin Creamer

Creamer Media Editor

     

Font size: - +

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – French company Air Liquide, a member of the Davos-launched Hydrogen Council that includes platinum-mining company Anglo American, is currently flighting an advertisement on the global television network CNN, which forecasts exceptional growth for the hydrogen and fuel cell market.

Quoting the Institute of Energy Economics, Japan, and flighting the advertisement in association with Invest Japan, the gas company is forecasting a hydrogen and fuel cell market size in Japan that will be valued at eight-trillion yen by 2050.

The graphic displayed in the globally flighted advert further projects a Japanese fuel cell vehicle market worth two-trillion yen and a stationary fuel cell market worth a trillion yen. (See image attached).

In major countries around the world, strident steps are being taken to establish hydrogen infrastructure to provide ready access for emission-free platinum-catalysed fuel cell vehicles, with commentators pointing to fuel cells being where solar and wind energy were in the early 2000s.

The Chinese government is targeting two million platinum-using hydrogen fuel cell vehicles by 2030, which will require 1 000 hydrogen fuelling stations, according to global reports.

Germany last week opened its fiftieth hydrogen station. In Japan, ten large companies have formed a consortium to accelerate the deployment of hydrogen stations and platinum-catalysed fuel cell electric vehicles. In Denmark, a pilot site for the production of carbon-free hydrogen has been inaugurated. In the US, the Department of Energy reports that there are nearly 40 hydrogen refuelling stations in predominantly California. In Canada, fuel cell manufacturer Ballard Power Systems is collaborating with the Chinese engine, auto parts and logistics conglomerate Weichai Power, and Toyota has announced plans to increase fuel cell stack and hydrogen tank production tenfold as part of a plan to raise its fuel cell stack production from roughly 3 000 to 30 000 a year.

A fuel cell is a device that converts chemical potential energy into electrical energy with the help of platinum’s inherent catalytic characteristic. A proton exchange membrane cell uses hydrogen gas and oxygen gas as fuel to produce electricity, heat and water.

Fuel cell vehicles are considered electric vehicles with conventional distance and refuelling processes.

“At the moment, you'll be able to fill up your 2017 Toyota Mirai for $16.63 a kilogram. That's a cost per mile of around $0.33 based on the average consumption pattern,” says an article in the Los Angeles Times.

Black-controlled, black-managed and sole community-led South African mining company Royal Bafokeng Platinum (RBPlat) believes South Africa should play its part in the world’s move towards a decarbonised future by introducing anti-emission legislation in South Africa to promote the use of platinum-catalysed vehicles in South Africa.

As the custodian of the world’s largest platinum endowment, RBPlat CEO Steve Phiri expresses concern that South Africa has failed to promulgate emission legislation beyond the relatively low Euro 2 level.

South Africa's State-owned Public Investment Corporation (PIC) earlier this year joined forces with Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) to promote the development of innovative and competitive technological uses of PGMs. The PIC and Amplats have each committed R1.3-billion to stimulate and sustain the demand for PGMs.

In the Eighties, former Amplats CEO Barry Davison regularly forecast significant proton exchange membrane fuel cell use, but adoption proved exceedingly slow.

In 2015, Minerals Council South Africa unveiled a 100 kW platinum-using fuel cell to power its central Johannesburg headquarters and a year later Impala Platinum (Implats) unveiled a fuel cell forklift and hydrogen refuelling station at its refinery in Springs.

In 2017, Implats identified an original-equipment manufacturer for the development of fuel cell driven load haul dumpers (LHD) and stated that 8 000 oz of platinum would be needed for every 1 000 fuel cell LHDs.

This year, Implats stated that it was involved in the creation of a special economic zone (SEZ) for fuel cell development under the auspices of the Gauteng Industrial Development Zone initiative.

Implats has invested R25-million in bus and LHD niche applications where the mobile space is best served by a minimum number of refuelling points, the lowest infrastructure hurdle.

It is also working with a partner on developing fuel-cell componentry that includes power modules, storage systems and the very heart of the fuel cell, the stack, to ensure that there is a local feed into the local manufacture of fuel cells in the proposed SEZ.

Last year at Davos, Anglo American CEO Mark Cutifani was one 13 CEOs and chairpersons from different industries and energy companies that formed the Hydrogen Council to help achieve the ambitious goal of reaching the 2 °C above-preindustrial-levels target agreed in the 2015 Paris Agreement.

The challenge of meeting reduced emission targets is reshaping the automotive industry, with South Africa-produced PGMs a major role player. There is a limit to the extent to which tailpipe emissions from internal combustion engines can be further reduced. To meet emissions targets, electrification of the engines cars use has to occur.

While current studies suggest that battery electric vehicles will make up the lion’s share of the small car electric vehicle market, fuel cells are expected to be powering buses, trucks, trams, trains and cars used on longer trips. Many believe that ready access to public hydrogen refuelling infrastructure could play a major role in advancing fuel cell electric cars into a much more competitive position.

“Chinese people breathe some of the most foul air in the world. India has that problem as well. The solution lies in fuel cell automobiles,” Ivanhoe Mines head Robert Friedland told this year's Investing in African Mining Indaba, adding that China was poised to be the world’s largest producer of fuel cell cars and was well aware that it was in the country's national security interest to cooperate with Africa to make sure there was a sustainable way to lead the clean-air revolution.

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

Comments

Showroom

WearCheck
WearCheck

Leading condition monitoring specialists, WearCheck, help boost machinery lifespan and reduce catastrophic component failure through the scientific...

VISIT SHOWROOM 
Booyco Electronics
Booyco Electronics

Booyco Electronics, South African pioneer of Proximity Detection Systems, offers safety solutions for underground and surface mining, quarrying,...

VISIT SHOWROOM 

Latest Multimedia

sponsored by

Hyphen, Eva mine, ferrochrome price make headlines
Hyphen, Eva mine, ferrochrome price make headlines
27th March 2024
Resources Watch
Resources Watch
27th March 2024

Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):

Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format

Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):

All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.

Already a subscriber?

Forgotten your password?

MAGAZINE & ONLINE

SUBSCRIBE

RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA

SUBSCRIBE

CORPORATE PACKAGES

CLICK FOR A QUOTATION







sq:0.144 0.18s - 90pq - 2rq
Subscribe Now