JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – As part of a working visit to China, South Africa’s Deputy President Paul Mashatile has met with a key industry organisation that promotes the development and adoption of hydrogen energy and fuel cell technologies.

#GovZAUpdates reports that the working meeting provided an important opportunity to advance technology transfer, build local manufacturing capabilities and support skills development in South Africa. 

Hydrogen energy and fuel cell technologies are linked to platinum group metals (PGMs), of which South Africa is the world’s biggest producer and China is the world’s biggest consumer.

Green hydrogen is generated by splitting water using clean electricity and the proton exchange membrane electrolysis employed is catalysed by PGMs. Once the green hydrogen is generated, it can be turned into green electricity, again with PGMs playing a catalytic role.

The key industry body Mashatile met with is the International Hydrogen Fuel Cell Association, led by Secretary-General Wang Ju.

The Deputy President was accompanied by South Africa’s Trade, Industry and Competition Deputy Minister Zuko Godlimpi and senior government officials.

The meeting took place at an interesting time as the Shanghai Platinum Week takes place in Suzhou from July 6 to 10 and, as it has done so progressively since 2021, the week is expected to connect key trends across the PGMs value chain.

China, as part of its 15th Five-Year Plan now under way to 2030, is accelerating structural shifts across AI, hydrogen, environmental protection, and carbon reduction. PGMs, which underpin these national priorities, are being reinforced as critical and strategic.

“China’s AI ambitions are a defining pillar. With their distinctive catalytic, thermal, and electrical properties making PGMs indispensable to the rollout of AI infrastructure, AI is rapidly emerging as a new end-use market for PGMs, with demand spanning semiconductors, optical interconnection, printed circuit boards, sensors, data storage, advanced materials, and energy supply for data centres,” the World Platinum Investment Council’s 60 Seconds In Platinum has pointed out. 

On the mobility front, China’s BYD is reportedly expanding its footprint in the hydrogen ecosystem. Recent filings from China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology have revealed that BYD is supplying its proprietary hydrogen fuel cell systems to power two upcoming commercial vehicles – a fuel cell refrigerated truck and a heavy-duty fuel cell cargo truck.

Hydrogen is potentially a key factor in developing energy resilience and energy security, and that South Africa, over time, is ideally positioned to be a hub for green hydrogen production owing to its renewable-energy resources is a view that is being expounded.

Hydrogen green molecules can play a key role in green steel, green cement and green chemical production. A considerable component of the cost of green hydrogen is the renewable energy input, and in South Africa, superior sunshine and prime wind availability is recognised. South Africa also has large tracts of land on which gigawatt-scale hydrogen projects can be built together with solar plants and wind turbines.

A major advantage of hydrogen is that it can be stored for a very long time and with the use of liquid organic hydrogen storage technology can make use of existing infrastructure.