Hydrogen technology is now reaping the benefits of unprecedented political and business momentum, with many rapidly expanding hydrogen strategies, policies and projects around the world. In the mining sector, hydrogen is part of the decarbonisation pathways of many miners, either as a carbon-free fuel to replace heavy-duty diesel or to produce electricity in an energy processing plant, with testing already under way and potential for wider use by the end of the decade.
The following are key technological trends affecting the hydrogen industry, as identified by GlobalData.
Electrolyzers
Electrolyzers are evolving rapidly, increasing from megawatts (MW) to gigawatts (GW), while hydrogen technology continues to evolve and advance. According to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the price of electrolyzers, from 840 USD / kV today, has fallen by 60% since 2010 and could fall by another 40% in the short-term scenario and 80% in the long-term scenario.
Achieving these reductions depends on innovations to improve electrolyzer performance, increase production capacity, standardize along with growing economies of scale. This could lead to a green hydrogen price of less than $ 2 / kg - a major improvement in cost competitiveness - and a 40% reduction in electrolytic costs, which is $ 336 / kV by 2030, with over 100 GW of capacity. By 2030, IHI Engineering Australia Pti Ltd (IEA) estimates that renewable hydrogen (green hydrogen) will become the cheapest option for supplying pure hydrogen for many greenfield uses.
It has emerged through new market entrants, such as H2PRO and HiNet, focusing on improving electrolyzer capacity and technology. The energy leader of Iberdrol, in partnership with Ingeteam, founded a company called Iberlizer, dedicated to electrolyzer technology.
Electrolyzers are expected to play a key role in shaping areas of application such as industrial hydrogen production, Power-to-X strategy management, and power grid stabilization.
Hydrogen energy storage
Hydrogen produced using renewable electricity - obtained through electrolysis - could enable the integration of large amounts of variable renewable energy such as wind and solar photovoltaic (PV) into the energy system. Electrolyzers can enable the integration of variable renewable energy into power systems, as their electricity consumption can be modified to monitor solar PV and wind energy production, with hydrogen serving as a source of energy storage for renewable electricity.
They provide flexible load and offer network balancing services such as increasing or decreasing frequency regulation, while operating with optimal capacity to meet industrial hydrogen demand along with the transportation sector or for injection into the natural gas network.
Hydrogen energy storage has shown its benefits outside the laboratory through real-world projects. In the United States, Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas), a supplier of natural gas to Southern California, has been involved in several partnerships related to hydrogen energy storage projects. The company is a leader in bringing electricity to gas (P2G) technology in the United States. With the National Fuel Cell Research Center (NFCRC) at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), SoCalGas has installed an electrolyzer that runs a solar electric system on campus that delivers renewable hydrogen to the campus power plant.
Improvements in renewable energy technology
Renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar energy, are expected to be a building block for the realization of the green hydrogen economy. Therefore, the economy of renewable energy production is crucial for the growth of green hydrogen uptake. According to Lazard’s Analysis of Equalized Energy Costs (LCOE), in 2020, technologies, including onshore wind and onshore solar energy, have become increasingly competitive with the marginal costs of existing conventional production technologies. The cost of energy from renewable sources, especially new wind and solar projects launched in 2021, has fallen below the cost of over 800 GW of existing coal-fired power plants globally.
Technological advances in wind energy, such as larger wind turbines and longer wind turbine rotor blades; together with increasing the efficiency of solar photovoltaic cells would prove useful for the implementation of green hydrogen projects. The cost of new solar PV projects fell below $ 1,000 per kWh, while the average cost of new wind projects fell to about $ 1,400 per kWh. This improves the uniform costs of green hydrogen projects.
Growing use of carbon capture and storage (CCS).
CCS technology is a potential response to global concerns about carbon emissions in the energy sector, as it prevents the release of large amounts of CO2 atmospheric emissions from fossil fuel power plants. CCS technology encompasses a three-step process where anthropogenic CO2 emissions are collected, transported and stored in deep geological formations to prevent the release of hazardous gas into the atmosphere.
CO2 capture processes can be considered new in the power industry, but have been used for the last 60 years in the oil, gas and chemical sectors. The technology has the potential to capture 90% of CO2 emissions from conventional fossil fuel plants.
Hydrogen is considered the clean energy fuel of the future and will play a key role in decarbonizing the industrial segment. A process involving natural gas reform with carbon capture technology in itself serves as the cheapest option for producing pure hydrogen. This process produces blue hydrogen by reforming natural gas into H2 and CO2; CO2 the by-product will then be captured, transported as well as stored in deep geological formations.
Waste to hydrogen technology
Hydrogen can be produced from biomass as well as from bio waste. A new niche for converting waste into hydrogen has developed on the market. Available project capacities are limited in terms of size. But the prospects for waste elimination are being tested in several low- to medium-level hydrogen production projects. The municipality of Wuppertal in Germany has adopted hydrogen fuel cell-based buses under its jurisdiction to reduce emissions. Raw materials for hydrogen production were obtained from municipal waste collected by waste segregation.
New technologies for hydrogen waste are being developed by suppliers such as Vais2H, SGH2 Energi and Standard Hydrogen. Vais2H has developed hydrogen waste projects in Asia, Europe, and the United States. Projects from biomass to hydrogen are suitable for large agricultural districts, while cities can rely on municipal waste generated after careful separation.
This results in almost a multi-year source of production while dealing with the issue of waste generation. Such small-scale projects can be implemented in various cities around the world, especially with the cooperation of the government.
This is an edited excerpt from Hydrogen in mining - case studies report made by GlobalData Thematic Research.