JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – India aims to produce five-million tonnes of green hydrogen year by 2030 under the National Green Hydrogen Mission, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced.

As a first step, two green hydrogen hubs will be established, with inaugural projects in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, worth about $27-billion.

At roughly same time as the Modi announcement, Hydrogen Europe CEO Jorgo Chatzimarkakis was stating out of Europe that “the New Year has started quite well for the hydrogen sector”, a reference to Hydrogen Europe being invited to discuss hydrogen's role in helping decarbonise the economy with European Commission clean, just and competitive transition EVP Teresa Ribera and energy and housing commissioner Dan Jørgensen.

Coming over LinkedIn too was Johnson Matthey regulatory affairs director John Goodwin remarking on how advantageous it had been to talk with European Parliament Member Hildegard Bentele on the key role that platinum group metals (PGMs) play within many technologies and processes ranging from green hydrogen production, sustainable aviation fuel, auto catalysts, and fuel cells, to anti-cancer drugs.

India is working towards becoming a $2.5-trillion economy by 2047 and moves towards renewable energy generation are increasing. The South Asian country is targeting to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels and scale up its renewable energy capacity 500 GW. It also aims to bring down the cost of green hydrogen to $1.5/kg. 

Just announced by India Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw is the development of a 1 200-horsepower hydrogen-powered train engine, which will undergo its first trial run on the Jind-Sonipat route in Haryana. Also just out is a tender to develop and commission a 70 MW grid-connected solar power plant. Invited by Coal India, the bids for this tender close on January 18.

Interestingly, Goodwin described PGMs as “super power metals” owing to their major role and importance in the green energy transition. Hosted overwhelmingly in South Africa, PGMs go hand-in-glove with green hydrogen, which is being viewed increasingly as indispensable in the fight against climate change. South Africa has had a multi-decade association with international company Johnson Matthey, which has had a long-standing local presence in Germiston, Gauteng.

Ahead of the Modi announcement, India’s National Hydrogen Mission has been a major policy enabler to make India become a hub for green hydrogen and green ammonia production.

Abundance of renewable sources of solar, wind and hydro power position it for strong global competitiveness and Modi has highlighted that green hydrogen is destined to play a major role in helping India to mitigate climate change.

Crucially, transitioning from fossil fuels to hydrogen would represent a net water use saving. This is because water consumption in the green hydrogen electrolysis process is roughly 40% less per kilowatt hour (kWh) of fuel than that of petrol or diesel, with electrolysis at about 0.27 per kWh and petrol and diesel at about 0.44 per kWh.

Additionally, the total water volume potentially used by clean hydrogen production is relatively acceptable, with the estimated 0.14 billion tonnes of water needed to achieve the production target constituting 0.00098% of the European Union’s 2020 gross water abstraction of 143-billion tonnes. In addition, there is growing and encouraging research and investment into the use of desalinated water for hydrogen production, which further alleviates water stress and can even have a substantial positive impact on regional water management.

Johnson Matthey PGMs advocacy manager Margery Ryan, who participated in last year’s PGMs Industry Day in South Africa, commented alongside Goodwin on LinkedIn about how great it is to see the growing awareness of regulators to the critical importance of PGMs in applications across energy and more.

At last year’s PGMs Industry Day, Ryan spoke of the major opportunity the clean energy future was presenting for PGMs and emphasised that PGMs were equally crucial to ensure the realisation of the world’s climate-critical energy transition.

Water electrolysis based on PGM-based proton exchange membrane (PEM) technology has demonstrated its applicability to produce hydrogen and oxygen in a clean and safe way, Johnson Matthey has shown.

Systems have been demonstrated in a wide range of niche applications. The improved materials will also be made available to current developers of PEM electrolysers to allow them to quantify the benefits, and to provide early feedback that will drive ongoing performance improvements.

Helpfully, recycling of PGMs in fuel cell technologies will leverage the existing circularity network. All the already established ecosystem for PGMs needs to do is to add fuel cells to the list.

Platinum's use in fuel cell vehicles is critical to iridium supply for the PEM electrolysers that generate the green hydrogen.

On the green steel front, where green hydrogen also plays an enabling role, the latest tie-up to reduce emissions in the mining and metals supply chain is the agreement between Vale of Brazil and GreenIron of Sweden, which focuses on key initiatives in Brazil and Sweden, including a feasibility study for a direct reduction facility in Brazil, operated by GreenIron. Additionally, Vale will also supply iron-ore to GreenIron’s commercial operations in Sweden.

“We’re focused on helping our clients achieve their decarbonisation targets and also fostering Brazil’s new industrialisation,” Vale commercial and new business EVP Rogério Nogueira stated in a release viewed by Mining Weekly.