JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – There is simply no doubt that fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs), which use platinum group metal (PGM) catalysts, will make a very strong global entry in the next decade, global experts said on Monday.

Speaking to Mining Weekly Online on the eve of Nedbank’s FCEV conference in Cape Town, Professor Dr Ferdinand Panik, a professor of alternative vehicle concepts at the University of Applied Sciences, Esslingen, was emphatic about FCEVs having passed the point of technology development and entering the mass commercial manufacturing stage. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

“Fuel cells are running very well and fulfilling all the requirements that the customers want at the moment,” said Panik, a speaker at Wednesday’s conference, after touching down in South Africa, along with co-speakers E4tech director Dr David Hart of Lausanne, Switzerland, Tanaka Precious Metals fuel cell catalyst head Koichi ‘Matt’ Matsutani and Tanaka Precious Metals catalyst sales department leader Michihiro Yokoo, both of Japan.

He said the cost of FCEVs would be reduced by the scale effects and hydrogen, which was once regarded as a challenge, had  instead become a driver, in conjunction with sustainable energy systems, in both the stationary and automotive fields.

“China, South Korea and Japan are giving the highest priority to fuel cells,” said Panik.

Hart concurred: “There is a real interest particularly in Asia, but increasingly across Europe and North American, to be industrially competitive in fuel cells. Japan has been pushing very hard, Korea is now really reinvigorated. They’re going to have tens of thousands of vehicles in Korea starting from next year and China has decided that this is the place where it will play next. They did solar, they did wind, they did battery vehicles, now they’re doing fuel cells. All of the OEMs in China see this as an industrial opportunity and a way to reduce the dramatic pollution problem that they have.”

In Europe, fuel cell trains are already running in Germany, fuel cell trucks are coming into Switzerland and fuel cells are being earmarked for ships.

“In South Africa, we have the opportunity to create a value stream that’s going to help reindustrialise the economy,” said Isondo Precious Metals CEO Vinay Somera, who will also be addressing Wednesday’s conference.

“The pathway to doing that is putting in the correct technology right now. Forget the fact that you don’t have a customer just yet,” said Somera, which is what South Africa-based Isondo is doing as it discerns the major local manufacturing opportunity unfolding along the key PGM-containing components in the value chain.

“Prove to the world that we can take our platinum into the fuel cell component and produce a component that will compete with any other company internationally. In that way we can capture a big portion of that value stream in South Africa,” he said, adding his confidence that South Africa could capture a good portion of the market.

South Africa, he added, had been producing fuel cell engineers and scientists at its universities in anticipation of the strong take-up of fuel cells, both in FCEVs and in stationary electricity generation applications.

Isondo Precious Metals COO Dr Sakib Khan said the special economic zones being established in South Africa would house the companies involved in the fuel cell value chain, which presented a unique opportunity.

“Though our universities and the Hydrogen South Africa initiative, we’re producing a large number of BScs, MScs, PhDs who have been involved in and educated within the fuel cell value chain.

“With these special economic zones, we’ll now have an opportunity to employ those resources. It’s a real opportunity for those excellent skills to participate in this local industry,” Khan said.

Right now one does not see fuel cell vehicles on South Africa’s roads because of the absence of hydrogen refuelling stations. Buses and passenger cars need somewhere to refuel so there is a big opportunity in hydrogen refuelling in that not only can the country use hydrogen to refuel vehicles, but it can actually use electrolysis to produce that hydrogen and that is where there is an additional value-add for PGMs.

If South Africans make use of their superior sunlight and their prime wind, they can generate a lot of carbon-free electricity at a cost potentially cheaper than when Eskom burns coal and pollutes the air.

That, in itself, is in line with the world’s decarbonisation demands. But if that clean electricity is used to electrolyse water, hydrogen can be generated, helped by locally mined platinum and iridium.

A fuel cell can then turn the hydrogen, which is an inherent electricity storage medium, into electricity, using platinum and ruthenium.

Unlike batteries, which run down, hydrogen can store electricity for days, weeks, months or years, and remains at the ready to become electricity at any time.

All this can be done without carbon emission.

MAJOR FUEL CELL FEATURE UPCOMING

Mining Weekly will be publishing a major feature on fuel cells in September and companies wanting to advertise in the feature should contact Creamer Media COO Sales and Marketing Reinette Classen at +27 11 622 3744. Those with news should speak to Martin Creamer at the same number.