The fast-tracking of the hydrogen economy will be much quicker than most people have imagined, Sibanye-Stillwater CEO Neal Froneman said at the Financial Times (FT) Commodities Mining Summit, where he was part of a panel that included Anglo American Platinum CEO Natasha Viljoen and South32 CEO Graham Kerr.

How big an opportunity is the hydrogen economy for platinum group metals (PGMs) mining companies, the moderator of the virtual event, FT commodities correspondent Henry Sanderson, had asked Froneman, to which he responded: “It’s absolutely real. It’s already included in our forecasts and I notice many of the analysts and commentators are now starting to include a separate line for fuel cells.”

Froneman was speaking after others had outlined the amazingly broad potential applications of PGM-catalysed hydrogen fuel cells and electrolysers across not only transport, which gains most of the headlines, but also in hydrogen generation itself, energy storage, heating, cooling, clean steelmaking and a host of other industrial, mining, commercial and residential applications, at a time when cost-lowering within the hydrogen economy is gaining impressive momentum and plans are being devised to showcase hydrogen’s prowess at iconic global events, including next year’s Olympic Games in Japan.

“We intend to hold a conference in Tokyo at the Olympics next year to demonstrate that the hydrogen economy is happening. We actually see the future for platinum in a very robust light based on the transition to a hydrogen economy,” said Froneman.

“With the pressure on environmental clean-up and so on, there’s going to be a much quicker fast-tracking towards the hydrogen economy than most people imagined,” he added.

PGMs in Battery Electric Vehicles

While PGMS and fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) have always gone hand in hand, battery electric vehicles (BEVs) have not. But this could all now change following the filing of several patents by Lion Battery Technologies.

On that development, Sanderson asked Viljoen: “I know that South Africa has a history in the battery area back in the 1980s with the Zebra battery.” This was a reference to Anglo American successfully developing a Zebra battery that decades ago powered a Mercedes-Benz in which the late Anglo American chairperson Harry Oppenheimer was driven around Johannesburg to showcase its efficacy. “What kind of role is there now for PGMs in batteries, given that lithium-ion technology is so embedded in current forecasts?”

In her response, Viljoen said that at the moment, from a drivetrain point of view, the BEV is the only drivetrain that does not have any PGMs. But, as part of its marketing development effort, Anglo American Platinum had engaged with Lion Battery Technologies and a technology was being developed that would be using PGMs in that battery technology.

“It’s really enhancing the life and size of the battery and that ultimately is required,” said Viljoen, who added that PGMs would be playing a big role in improving the range of distance that BEVs could travel as well as the time it takes to recharge BEV batteries.

“With that market development that we’re doing through our AP Ventures, it creates an opportunity for PGMs to play a role independent of what the drivetrain preference will be going forward,” said Viljoen. AP Ventures, a venture capital company that supports PGMs-linked hydrogen development, includes South Africa’s Public Investment Corporation, Japan’s Toyota-linked Mirai Fund as well as Mitsubishi among its investors.

North American-listed PGMs company Platinum Group Metals (PTM), headed by CEO Michael Jones, believes PGMs will start to play a greater role in the development of more efficient lithium-ion batteries on the basis of lithium oxygen and lithium sulphur batteries performing better with the addition of PGMs to increase the energy density of batteries.

Anglo American Platinum is partnering PTM in Lion Battery Technologies, with the venture 52% PTM-owned and 48% Anglo American Platinum-owned.

As Engineering News & Mining Weekly reported recently, the first batteries of this kind are likely to go to China, which has already made significant advances in the deployment of platinum-catalysed FCEV trucks.

PTM is currently developing its Waterberg project, in South Africa, which is predominantly palladium based and has 19.5-million ounces of proven and probable reserves. Its South African investor is Hosken Consolidated Investments.

On whether FCEV-linked platinum demand would be a meaningful contributor to the growth of Anglo American Platinum going forward, Viljoen said: “Absolutely”, and pointed out that PGMs not only play a key catalytic role in FCEV stacks, but also play a role in the electrolysers that generate hydrogen.

“The platinum loading at the moment in the fuel cell is still pretty high, and thrifting of platinum will be important for the long-term sustainability,” Viljoen said.

She then went on to project potential quantities of platinum that would be in demand: “If you targeted about 1.25 g/kW, it gives about a third of an ounce for a light vehicle. If we take up in the order of ten million cars – and that is a prediction in 2050 being hydrogen vehicles – it will without thrifted values be about 13-million ounces. Thrifted values will be in the order of four-million ounces, which is a sustainable level. And that’s just for the hydrogen cells. That doesn’t include the electrolysis, where there is also an opportunity for PGMs. It doesn’t consider heavy vehicles or the other applications like stationary electricity supply or smaller applications like forklifts, which are already being used with hydrogen supply.

“So, we believe there’s a real opportunity for hydrogen. I think it’s actually a very exciting opportunity and for that reason, we are playing a role in the development of the technology such as the hydrogen truck that’s under development. We will have that on the ground by quarter one next year, and not only will that play a role for us in our journey to carbon neutrality, but it will also support the development of the technology as such and it will be fairly easy to scale up. In Anglo American, there is quite a bit of application for that,” Viljoen told the virtual event.

Hydrogen and Metallurgical Coal

With South32 exiting thermal coal and being on track to sell its South African thermal coal assets to Seriti before year-end, Sanderson asked Kerr why South32 was also not exiting metallurgical coal, where it has 3% of the total seaborne metallurgical coal market.

While there is no doubt the environment, social and governance discussions are getting more intense, there is today not a substitution for metallurgical coal in the steelmaking process, and on the point that hydrogen will have a role in steelmaking, that is not the case currently.

Sanderson: What date would you put on hydrogen playing a role in steelmaking?

Kerr: The general consensus is somewhere between the 20- to 30-year mark but in saying that, technology can move pretty quickly. I think the one advantage we have coming out of coal is that we produce a very high quality coking coal, which results in less emissions compared with cheaper coal, and allows you to get more bang for your buck from energy-intensive usage.

Sanderson: When you say that discussion with investors is becoming more intense on metallurgical coal, has it become a limiting factor yet for business?

Kerr: The distinction between thermal coal and metallurgical coal, I think, is not as strong as what it was three or four years ago. I think three or four years ago people understood the difference. The focus was very much on energy coal. I think today there is a long discussion about coal being coal. So there is a bit more pressure on people around that. But in saying that, we’re probably not attracting too much attention because we are not a huge part of that export market.

Sanderson: South32 has not released a Scope 3 emissions targets. If steel is so critical, why not work closer with your customers to reduce their emissions and set a target?

Kerr: We have very clear Scope 1 and Scope 2 targets. We initially set our first target for five years and now it is expiring at the end of this financial year, in terms of how long South32 has been demerged. As the next phase of thinking about our next carbon targets and climate change action planning, we will have a look at what the appropriate timing is around Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3. But realistically, we’re 3% of the metallurgical coal market. Our ability to actually influence steelmaking is probably not as large as some of our competitors in that space but in saying that, I think we can continue to work in different associations and with some of the customer groups about investing in technology which we think will help Scope 3 emissions as well.