Power supply
to decarbonise become increasingly pressing. In October 2021, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) announced that increased production of green hydrogen could cut carbon emissions by 10% between now and 2050.
“Hydrogen made from clean sources has been recognised as a major part of the overall solution to decarbonise hard-to-abate heavy industries,” says Andrew Stuart, president and CEO of Hydrogen Optimized, which develops and manufactures the world’s largest water electrolysers. The company’s patent-pending electrolysers, which convert renewable electricity – such as solar and wind power – into green hydrogen for industry use, are designed for the world’s largest green hydrogen plants.
Stuart notes that the mining sector in particular is working hard to reduce its carbon emissions, and that hydrogen power is one way the industry could take a large step forward in achieving its goals in this area. Moreover, the gas has the potential to address a number of challenges currently experienced by the industry.
“A lot of mines are in remote areas without direct connection to grid power,” notes Bob Oliver, CEO of H2GO Canada, a not-for-profit corporation focused on accelerating the development of the market for hydrogen as an alternative fuel and energy source. Mines that have access to high-voltage transmission- level power lines can electrify a lot of their operations directly, which should be cheaper than burning diesel for power on-site. However, for the sites without connection to grid power, this isn’t an option. “A lot of our operations can’t be electrified – they’re not near a grid interconnect. And even if they were […] it might not meet their demands,” Oliver says. Such mining sites therefore have to supplement their needs with other forms of energy, and the way to do that while decarbonising isn’t always clear.
Hydrogen neatly fills this gap. It can be produced on site through electrolysis, which can be powered with energy sources such as solar or wind. The level of power output from these renewable sources may not be sufficient to meet the demands of a mine, but it could produce enough green hydrogen make a big dent in the fossil fuel energy demands of the mine’s operations. It also offers a number of benefits from a safety perspective. Hydrogen is non-toxic, and when burned or otherwise converted to energy its main by-product is water, as opposed to the harmful carbon emissions generated by fossil fuels. When hydrogen is burned, the flame has lower radiant heat than that of fossil fuels and it tends to burn out very quickly, often reducing the risk of secondary fires.
“The way to make an accidental release of hydrogen safe is to vent it, which is usually what you try to stop other releases from doing,” Oliver notes. “Spills of other energy commodities must be contained – with
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hydrogen, you want to help it escape to atmosphere to safely disperse.”
In mining processes, heavy-duty vehicles that are currently using diesel fuel could evolve towards using hydrogen that’s produced near or at the mine site. This would be achieved by converting hydrogen directly into energy using fuel cell technology. As batteries get bigger, they get exorbitantly more expensive – but that’s not the case with hydrogen fuel cells. Batteries need to grow in size in order to store greater amounts of energy, whereas the hydrogen itself is the store of energy, and can be contained in a far smaller and lighter space. However, despite all this potential, he is concerned that there is a policy debate under way within heavy industries that pits batteries against hydrogen and fuel cells – and since batteries are further along in commercial development than hydrogen fuel cells, industries might be reluctant to use the latter. In truth, both technologies have much to offer the other. “We’re now talking about using batteries for power and for storage – that’s driving batteries to impractical sizes. And because they’re made with rare earth metals, which are limited, there’s a practical limitation to how much of that stuff we can make,” Oliver notes. Hydrogen fuel cells, therefore, can support wider, more economical use of batteries by allowing them to focus on what they do best – deliver power. “Hydrogen will bear the burden of storing energy and batteries will bear the burden of dispatching power,” Oliver says. “The success of fuel cells begets the success of batteries. And the success of batteries begets the success of fuel cells.”
Beyond the electrification of vehicles, hydrogen can be used to decarbonise a number of other areas. For example, many mines require heating, which could also be fuelled by hydrogen. There’s the added benefit of a shortened supply chain – replacing the need to extract and refine oil and gas for industrial use, and to ship these fuels along the various steps required to get them on-site, including fossil fuel-powered vessels. Hydrogen can also be used to create green ammonia or green methanol, or to replace coking coal used in steel manufacturing. The steel industry on its own produces about 8% of global CO2
emissions, so
Stuart sees huge potential in incorporating hydrogen throughout the industry’s supply chain. “Starting at the mine source and going all the way out to the steel mill, green hydrogen provides a tremendous opportunity to reduce carbon dioxide emissions,” he says.
Green, blue or grey
Fortescue also caused a stir ahead of COP26, with its chairman slamming the oil industry for promoting hydrogen made from natural gas as a clean fuel – also known as ‘blue hydrogen’, as opposed to the ‘green’ version that is made through the electrolysis of water using renewable energy sources. The company’s founder and chairman, Andrew Forrest, claimed that
35 million 15
Tonnes of green hydrogen will be produced by FFI per year by 2030.
FFI
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