Coming clean: In a bid to lower its carbon footprint, Anglo American this year is using the world’s biggest green-hydrogen powered nuGen truck at the Mogalakwena mine in Limpopo, owned by Anglo American subsidiary Anglo American Platinum.
South Africa and the United Kingdom have agreed on an undisclosed grant for the funding of green hydrogen. The deal is part of the Just Energy Transition Partnership and will come with technical assistance.
South Africa’s minister for higher education, science and innovation, Blade Nzimande, will visit Teesside in the UK to explore hydrogen opportunities. “Work underway to build a hydrogen hub in the Tees Valley has strong parallels with South Africa’s own plans to build a South African hydrogen valley,” he said in a press statement.
But what exactly is green hydrogen and how does it work?
“Green hydrogen is the production of hydrogen using renewable energy resources, with zero emission, by water electrolysis,” said Blanche Ting, an energy expert at the University of Sussex and University of Johannesburg. “It is becoming a reality because the cost to deploy renewables has seen a significant decline, and a more serious turn towards decarbonisation.”
Green hydrogen be used for:
• decarbonisation of the transport sector, including heavy-duty trucks, shipping and aviation;
• decarbonising iron and steel, cement, chemicals, and mining; and
• creating an export market.
Energy experts Rod Crompton and Bruce Douglas Young’s article in The Conversation explained that green hydrogen is made by separating hydrogen from oxygen in water. The process is known as electrolysis.
Why green hydrogen in SA?
At a briefing on Promoting South Africa as a Green Hydrogen Investment Destination of Choice at the recent COP27 in Egypt, Masopha Moshoeshoe, a specialist in the presidency ’s investment and infrastructure office, said the country had set its sights on attracting as much as $250 billion to its green hydrogen industry by 2050 to take advantage of abundant solar and wind energy sources, as reported by Bloomberg.
He said the industry could create 1.4 million jobs and generate as much as $30 billion in annual revenue by 2050.
Ting said it is still early stages “but the pace to develop green hydrogen is swiftly moving forward. South Africa does have a competitive advantage, as it has a long history with the use of the Fischer Tropsch process for the conversion of both coal and gas for liquid fuels.”
She added that the country has favourable renewable resources, and a long coastline to develop various infrastructure for potential export.
“This could catalyse local economic activity, so it does make for a compelling case. There is also the advantage that the country holds 75% of the platinum group metals, which are essential components of electrolysers in hydrogen production and catalyst for fuel cells.”
She said the development of a green hydrogen industry must have socioeconomic benefits for people. “There are numerous benefits, which can include opportunities to decarbonise its transport sector; the potential as an energy storage solution; to replace the declining export of coal; contribute to cleaner air; and create jobs,” said Ting.
A green hydrogen commercialisation strategy is under consideration by the cabinet. The just energy plan noted the following: “The green hydrogen economy presents new opportunities for South Africa. It can enable the transition of key carbon-based and international trade-exposed sectors, protect the competitiveness of downstream industries, allow and enhance exports, boost GDP, support domestic decarbonisation, and create jobs.”
Challenges
Crompton and Young wrote that the cost of electrolysis is still not commercially competitive. There are also costs relating to transporting it. Green hydrogen production requires specific skills, so people will need to be trained.
Ting noted that load-shedding is continuing and electricity is needed for energy security, preferably electricity from green resources.
“Only after excess electricity capacity, can we then think about serving that resource for hydrogen development. As such, this can be a huge task, given the notable delay in public procurement process for renewables deployment.”
She said other challenges relate to establishing legal and regulatory frameworks, market support and infrastructure development.
The presidency and the UK’s Partnering for Accelerated Climate Transitions Programme did not respond to the Mail & Guardian’s inquiries about how much grant funding the UK is providing to South Africa.
The just transition
The Just Energy Transition Investment Plan, which President Cyril Ramaphosa released at COP27, describes how the government sees the development of a green hydrogen economy as a “key element of a just transition”.
It notes how the department of science and innovation has developed a Hydrogen Society Roadmap to position the country’s competitive advantage in the sector, its support for the decarbonisation of the country’s heavy industrial base, and opportunities for new export markets, value chains, jobs and skills.
Internationally, green hydrogen and its derivatives are increasingly seen as an important part of the solution to addressing greenhouse gas emissions in sectors where it is difficult to reduce carbon emissions, including the transport, petrochemical, iron, steel and cement industries and, in the longer term, the energy sectors.
“Green hydrogen is critical to decarbonising the economy, with the potential to remove 10% to 15% of South Africa’s carbon emissions, while protecting and growing major downstream industrial sectors such as chemicals, cement, iron and steel,” according to the plan.
It notes how the foundation to scale up the green hydrogen economy must be established by 2030 for it to become a globally competitive industry that supports the world’s decarbonisation efforts and establishes new global energy trade routes.
Failure to develop the green hydrogen sector carries “significant social and economic risks” associated with the global market in these value chains, according to the plan. “The high carbon intensity of synthetic fuels (12% of national emissions) creates carbon border tax adjustmen risks for the chemicals sector, where 90% of emissions from the petrochemicals and chemicals sector are caused by Sasol’s Secunda and Sasolburg operations.”
As in coal and power, the transition could have severe economic consequences “if not managed well”, given the petrochemicals’ contribution to the country’s GDP and employment.
Other domestic sectors also rely on the development of green hydrogen to support their transition and protect or grow exports, including iron and steel and potential green iron ore exports, it said.
“Green hydrogen … offers a means to maintain existing competitive advantages in decarbonised sectors, while providing new export potential.”
In scenarios with green hydrogen exports and associated industries, up to 1.8 million more jobs could be created by 2050 than in those without green hydrogen exports and use.
With South Africa’s renewable capability, the country is on par with Chile, Saudi Arabia and Australia, which are also investing in green hydrogen.
“South Africa’s central global geographical location enables exports to both Europe in the west and Japanese, South Korean, and other markets in the east,” it said, noting how there is sufficient land that is not in competition with agriculture or residential uses to meet this scale of renewables.
“The production of green hydrogen also has synergies with water security, as desalination plants are only a fraction of the cost of the final product … Therefore, there is potential to overbuild desalination plants, allowing for the provision of fresh water to water-insecure communities. This also ensures that green hydrogen does not compete with water security and the need for water in other sectors of the economy.”
Serious questions
But the Climate Justice Charter Movement said there are serious questions about the plan’s emphasis on, among others, green hydrogen.
“Why an export-led green hydrogen industry, which will require more renewable energy than even what Eskom produces on the national grid and immense water resources in a water-scarce country? “Why not an emphasis on eco-centric manufacturing of wind and solar technologies and a more limited role for green hydrogen?”
Water activist Ferrial Adam said: “We don’t have proper numbers, we do know that green hydrogen requires a lot of water and clean water, which we don’t have. So what is the government thinking?
“The second issue around green hydrogen is that I think a lot of people are still trying to figure out if it’s green or not, and so that is another debate that needs more exploration.
“There have been other quick fixes and technology changes that haven’t been good for the planet. It’s not a surprise then that we have to be cautious at this point; we can’t just do knee-jerk reactions to fix the planet, it’s not going to work.”
Hydrogen economy
The hydrogen roadmap describes how four catalytic projects have been identified through discussions with the private sector.
These include the Platinum Valley Initiative, the CoalCO2 X Project, Boegoebaai Special Economic Zone and the Sustainable Aviation Fuels project.
Sustainable aviation fuels are typically made from bio-based feedstocks such as energy crops, wastes and residues, according to the World Wildlife Fund.
The implementation of these projects is expected to produce about 500 kilotonnes of hydrogen, create at least 20 000 jobs annually by 2030 and contribute at least $5 billion to the economy by 2050.
The projects will contribute to a growth of sustainable green industries that are “resource and energy efficient, low-carbon and low-waste, non-polluting and safe”.
Nzimande said hydrogen has many commercial opportunities. “Hive Energy’s $5bn project to build a green ammonia plant in South Africa has the potential to create green jobs in South Africa as well as economic opportunities for UK and other firms involved in the project.”
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