10-03-06
The hydrogen economy is a billion-dollar research industry. South Africa,
with its R 5 mm/year investment, is a mere dabbler. But now government wants to
join a hi-tech game that could add value to South Africa's most precious
resources and position the country as a player in a new technology arena.
Two years ago government had no stake or interest in what flows from one of the
most fundamental laws of physics: that hydrogen and oxygen, when combined,
generate energy and water. This simple law is at the heart of the so-called
"hydrogen economy", a future world where humanity's energy needs are met by
hydrogen rather than fossil fuels.
Until a couple of years ago, isolated pockets of research existed within
South Africa and local companies had little choice but to explore hydrogen
possibilities abroad. Only in 2004 did government become aware that South Africa
had an opportunity to treat its own raw materials and export technologies and
products that could place the country in a powerful position in future. South
Africa's mineral resources and technology assets hold the key to this future.
"In the spectrum of technologies that interconnect to build up the hydrogen
economy vision, platinum plays a crucial role as a catalyst that converts
hydrogen to electricity (in fuel cells)," said science and technology minister
Mosibudi Mangena at the South African hydrogen economy and fuel cells conference
last year. In addition, South Africa's nuclear technology and its
coal-to-liquids technology could become vital cogs in this hydrogen future.
Since 2004, government has acted quickly. By June this year, government will
have articulated a clear strategy that will focus research efforts and chart the
course for further innovation and development around the hydrogen economy. A
secretariat, housed at minerals processing specialist Mintek, is being formed to
co-ordinate activities and support the implementation of the strategy.
A baseline study that examines South Africa's strengths and weaknessesin this
field has been completed and will inform the strategy. About 50 local
stakeholders and a core team of consultants -- two local and two international
-- will provide government with input.
The hydrogen economy is no longer the pie-in-the-sky preserve of futurists
and scientists. While 90 % of all commercial energy is generated from fossil
fuels such as oil, coal and gas, these fuels contribute to global warming
through the production of greenhouse gases like CO2.
Adding a measure of urgency to this are issues of global politics, energy
security, surging energy demand from burgeoning economies, and, more
importantly, dwindling oil reserves. Pessimists believe these reserves will run
out as early as 2010. Optimists argue for 2050. But whatever the timing, oil
reserves are not being replaced as fast as they are being consumed and this will
continue to drive up the oil price.
So the search for alternative energy sources is heating up. Renewable sources
such as the sun, wind, water and biomass provide clean energy. Nuclear energy,
too, does not produce harmful greenhouse gases. But electrical energy that is
produced from the sun or wind needs to be converted into chemical energy if it
is to be stored and distributed to a general energy market.
Hydrogen, the world's most abundant element, can store, move and deliver energy
in a usable form to consumers in the same way as electricity and liquid fuels
do. There is already a large and growing market for hydrogen, but it is used as
an additive in chemical and petroleum refining and in a variety of products,
from rocket fuel to peanut butter. Also, because it is produced from fossil
fuels such as coal and gas, the hydrogen production process releases harmful
emissions into the atmosphere.
In future, though, the focus is likely to be on using hydrogen that has been
produced without CO2 release, as an energy carrier or a fuel. Future uses
include fuel for electricity in internal combustion engines, gas turbines and
fuel cells, as well as use in the coal-to-liquids process.
Though platinum provides South Africa with the most obvious and immediate
advantage, South Africa has a number of other strategic advantages. The pebble
bed modular reactor (PBMR) technology is well placed for the hydrogen economy.
This is because nuclear-based technologies are at the forefront of new hydrogen
production research.
"One of the technical challenges the hydrogen economy faces is that a large
amount of energy -- usually heat or electricity -- is needed to produce
hydrogen," explains the PBMR's process heat plant design engineer, Rene
Greyvenstein.
"The PBMR plant produces both heat and electricity. We can harness the heat
(called process heat) to produce hydrogen without CO2 pollution by applying
nuclear heat of 900 degrees Celsius to water to split it into its components --
hydrogen and oxygen. At this point there is no other carbon dioxide-free,
high-temperature heat source available to mankind."
Because of this, US nuclear technology company Westinghouse has begun the
tortuous application process to license the PBMR's nuclear technology in the US.
The PBMR company has partnered Westinghouse, US engineering firm Shaw and
Technology Insights, a consulting firm focused on the development of emerging
technologies in the energy field, to develop and pilot the PBMR's process heat
technology.
"We hope to announce a consortium of global companies within the next two years
which will work together to build a demonstration unit for this process heat
plant," says the project manager for the PBMR process heat plant demonstration
unit, Willem Kriel. "This will be a $ 300 mm-$ 1,5 bn effort over eight years."
British Nuclear Fuels technical director Sue Ion told a packed audience at a
British Nuclear Industry conference in January this year that pebble bed
technology, as a heat source for hydrogen and other synthetic fuels, gives us
"the first real breakthrough" when it comes to providing fuel for the transport
industry in the hydrogen economy.
Producing the hydrogen is the first technical hurdle in a long journey. Once the
clean hydrogen has been produced, it can be used as feedstock in a
coal-to-liquids (CTL) process to produce clean liquid fuels. Current CTL
technology uses coal and water as feedstock as well as hydrogen and oxygen.
But CO2 emissions result when coal is burnt to produce electricity for the
process as well as to produce the hydrogen feedstock. In the future it will be
possible to produce liquid fuels from coal using hydrogen and electricity that
has been produced from clean sources -- such as nuclear power. Another link in
the hydrogen value chain where South Africa has some expertise is fuel cells.
"Fuel cells are currently the most efficient way to convert the chemical energy
of hydrogen to electricity," says the CSIR's Dawie van Vuuren. Fuel cells are
used to power motor vehicles as well as stationary facilities such as small
generators.
Eskom took the lead some years ago to develop local skills and technologies
in the fuel-cell arena.
"What started out as a R 20,000 grant to train electro-chemists 12 years ago has
led to the establishment of the Eskom Centre for Electro-Catalysis at the
University of the Western Cape," says Eskom's chief consultant for applied
chemistry, Gerhard Gericke. The centre, which is now within the globally
recognised SA Institute for Advanced Materials Chemistry (SAIAMC), has achieved
significant fuel-cell breakthroughs in locally produced catalysts and membranes
based on nanotechnology.
"This is a leading research institution in the field of fuel cells,
electrochemical hydrogen production, hydrogen separation and storage," says
SAIAMC director Vladimir Linkov.
"Though the world's motor companies are spending fortunes developing fuel cells,
and in many countries hydrogen-powered fuel cells, or hybrids of these, are
already powering motor vehicles, there are many technical challenges still to be
overcome," says Linkov.
A large part of the research is focused on membrane electrode assemblies
(MEA), the heart of the fuel cell.
"We have developed an MEA with its own characteristics that is on par with the
world's best," says Linkov. The team is now testing its research. "If you want
to be a player in this market, you must work on it -- even if you can't always
see what tomorrow holds," he says.
"Even if the hydrogen economy does not materialise, South Africa will benefit
from the development of hi-tech skills and products that will have application,"
says the department of science and technology's chief director of resources,
Boni Mehlomakulu.
For instance, the UWC centre now has eight full-time researchers, six post
doctorates, and more than 30 MSc and PhD students. In addition, it has attracted
skilled scientists from Latvia, Romania, Russia and the Netherlands as well as
postdoctoral students from Korea, Bangladesh, China, India and Kenya. Within the
fuel cell is the platinum catalyst. It is in this area that government hopes to
build significant expertise.
"It is desirable that in the area of catalytic conversion, where platinum is a
key component, South Africa becomes a global knowledge hub," says Mehlomakulu.
Anglo Platinum, South Africa's largest platinum producer, has begun investing
in the development of fuel cells with research partner Mintek. Two years ago it
also acquired a 17,5 % share of Johnson Matthey Fuel Cells, one of the leading
researchers of the platinum market. Though hydrogen fuel cell technology is in
the pre-commercialisation phase, the technology does work and applications that
make use of it are becoming evident.
At present, two fuel-cell companies, IST Telecom, which is a division of IST
Holdings, and Intelligent Energy, are actively marketing their technology to the
South African market. They are the pioneers who are educating industry and
proving that there are tangible steps from today's fossil fuel-driven world to
tomorrow's hydrogen-powered world.
Intelligent Energy, which is a local company but licenses its technology from
its UK parent, has partnered Afrox, Eskom and Sasol in a variety of fuel-cell
pilot projects.
“We are learning by doing," says MD Sakib Khan. Among its projects, Intelligent
Energy has installed a fuel cell as a back-up power supply to the Bedford
Gardens hospital in Johannesburg. It has also installed a fuel cell in rural
KwaZulu Natal to power the automatic water level monitoring equipment which
radios dam levels back to Durban Metro Water.
In another application, the fuel cell powered a small vaccination fridge that
ran off a 12 V battery in the Eastern Cape.
"This area is far from the main sources of electricity production, so the supply
is intermittent," says Khan. "Often it is impossible to say whether the
vaccinations are still active." In these cases Intelligent Energy is recovering
50 % of its costs from the Business Linkages Challenge Fund, a UK government
fund. The remainder comes from local research partners and Intelligent Energy's
own shareholders.
"We are investing in the future," says Khan, "in technology that people don't
know they need."
South Africa has other superb, but isolated, pockets of hydrogen research.
One of these is the research Prof Phuti Ngoepe is doing at the University of the
North on the storage of hydrogen.
"Hydrogen is the smallest atom, and so is extremely difficult to contain," says
Mehlomakulu. "It is also potentially hazardous, so storage solutions are a
critical part of the technology challenge."
What government's strategy aims to do is harness these collective efforts --
from research institutions to the private sector -- and focus them in one
mutually beneficial direction.
"Given our limited resources for R&D compared with developed countries, we have
to make informed and bold choices," says Mehlomakulu.
Source: Fuel Cell Works