IMPALA Platinum, which plans to take its
entire refinery off the national electricity grid by installing hydrogen
fuel cells, unveiled on Thursday an innovative technology that could
thrust SA to the forefront of global hydrogen fuel cell developments.
While
the choice of a modest forklift to prove the technology may appear
inauspicious, it has tested the concept for an innovative hydrogen
refuelling station that costs a fraction of the price of international
refuelling plants since October last year, and is likely to serve as an
important development in SA’s quest to become a leading player in the
global fuel cell business. And one that, importantly for platinum
producers, provides another source of demand for their metal.
Demand for platinum from fuel cell applications is small, at about 35,000oz a year. But in a decade, it could increase 10-fold to at least 300,000oz, an important market that would grow amid rising energy demands, said Paul Finney, Implats group executive of refining and marketing.
Implats and its strategic partners including the University of the Western Cape and Hydrogen SA (HySA) Systems, have deployed the first refuelling station using the unique and locally developed system called a metal hydride compressor.
This employs a combination of metals to store compressed hydrogen at low pressure, and is used in both the refuelling station and on board the vehicle.
The compressor worked at far lower pressures than other hydrogen storage devices, about 190 bar versus the 600-800 bar in other systems. This had major cost benefits for the local system, which cost R2m versus the $500,000 to $5m needed for high-pressure stations, said Cordelia Sita, a director of HySA Systems.
The next step was to build a completely locally manufactured version of the fuel cell for a second forklift, develop a commercial strategy around the technology to keep SA at the forefront of the industry, and to retain a first-mover advantage with the system to create jobs in SA, Mr Finney said.
It was the breakthrough around low-pressure hydrogen storage that could secure SA a leading role in hydrogen fuel cell technology, which is a clean energy, generating water and heat as by-products, Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor said.
"SA has started to make a number of bold moves that could well see it leapfrog into the leading countries in hydrogen and fuel cell technologies installations," she said on Thursday.
"A forklift may appear to be a small move. But great industries have developed from small moves."
As part of its hydrogen fuel strategy, in the next two years, Implats would build two fuel cell plants at its refinery in Springs, east of Johannesburg, Mr Finney said. It will have a 1.2MW Fuji plant using excess hydrogen piped to the refinery. An 8MW Doosan-built plant will use gas coming from the Mozambican gas fields, stripping hydrogen out of methane, and should be in production by the end of this year.
A second 12MW Doosan plant will be built after an environmental impact study into the plant, and should be in production within two years. The cost of the 8MW plant will be between R469m and R530m, meaning the entire project could cost up to R1.45bn.
As part of its hydrogen strategy, Implats was donating 16ha of land to create a special economic zone next to the refinery, so that Doosan and others could build fuel cells, create a recycling loop for used fuel cells at the end of their decade-long lives, and create jobs, Mr Finney said.
Demand for platinum from fuel cell applications is small, at about 35,000oz a year. But in a decade, it could increase 10-fold to at least 300,000oz, an important market that would grow amid rising energy demands, said Paul Finney, Implats group executive of refining and marketing.
Implats and its strategic partners including the University of the Western Cape and Hydrogen SA (HySA) Systems, have deployed the first refuelling station using the unique and locally developed system called a metal hydride compressor.
This employs a combination of metals to store compressed hydrogen at low pressure, and is used in both the refuelling station and on board the vehicle.
The compressor worked at far lower pressures than other hydrogen storage devices, about 190 bar versus the 600-800 bar in other systems. This had major cost benefits for the local system, which cost R2m versus the $500,000 to $5m needed for high-pressure stations, said Cordelia Sita, a director of HySA Systems.
The next step was to build a completely locally manufactured version of the fuel cell for a second forklift, develop a commercial strategy around the technology to keep SA at the forefront of the industry, and to retain a first-mover advantage with the system to create jobs in SA, Mr Finney said.
It was the breakthrough around low-pressure hydrogen storage that could secure SA a leading role in hydrogen fuel cell technology, which is a clean energy, generating water and heat as by-products, Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor said.
"SA has started to make a number of bold moves that could well see it leapfrog into the leading countries in hydrogen and fuel cell technologies installations," she said on Thursday.
"A forklift may appear to be a small move. But great industries have developed from small moves."
As part of its hydrogen fuel strategy, in the next two years, Implats would build two fuel cell plants at its refinery in Springs, east of Johannesburg, Mr Finney said. It will have a 1.2MW Fuji plant using excess hydrogen piped to the refinery. An 8MW Doosan-built plant will use gas coming from the Mozambican gas fields, stripping hydrogen out of methane, and should be in production by the end of this year.
A second 12MW Doosan plant will be built after an environmental impact study into the plant, and should be in production within two years. The cost of the 8MW plant will be between R469m and R530m, meaning the entire project could cost up to R1.45bn.
As part of its hydrogen strategy, Implats was donating 16ha of land to create a special economic zone next to the refinery, so that Doosan and others could build fuel cells, create a recycling loop for used fuel cells at the end of their decade-long lives, and create jobs, Mr Finney said.
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