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JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The prolonged strike of the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union in the platinum belt is highlighting the colossal potential opportunity loss to the South African economy should the country lose out on its platinum patrimony, which has an amazingly bright latent future.
Platinum has the potential to tick all the important economic boxes for a South Africa that is striving to add maximum value to its metals and minerals. A fuel cell industry, with platinum at its heart, would support South Africa’s drive for economic growth and jobs. Early projections point to massive future global demand for platinum, but blurring the metal’s great potential future are concerns around security of supply.
Hydrogen South Africa (HySA)/Catalysis, a project backed by the South African taxpayer and co-hosted by the University of Cape Town and the State-owned Mintek, estimates that future global demand for platinum catalysts in fuel cells – at only 0.1 g for every kilowatt of output – would absorb South Africa’s entire current platinum mining capacity.
“When the fuel cell technology industry takes off, it’s going to be a multibillion-dollar market,” says HySA/Catalysis Centre of Competence director Dr Olaf Conrad, who, with HySA/Catalysis key programme manager Dr Sharon Blair, spoke to Mining Weekly Online from Cape Town.
The centre is targeting 25% of the global fuel cell and hydrogen catalyst market by 2020, against the background of platinum-catalyst hydrogen fuel cells being recognised globally as an efficient, versatile and scaleable proven technology that ensures clean, reliable and cost-effective power.
While many countries have their eye on the fuel cell market, they do not have South Africa’s advantage of hosting 80% of the world’s platinum.
Through HySA, South Africa already has a globally competitive Pt/C catalyst fuel cell product.
“Now we need to get it into the hands of actual customers,” the centre’s top brass report in a media release.
The global market for hydrogen catalyst demand is expected to be $207-million in 2016, well up on the $77-million estimate of 2012.
The rate of growth puts this market segment at $555-million by 2020, of which South Africa aims to capture $139-million and produce catalyst at a rate of 100 production runs a year.
Besides direct catalyst supply, HySA’s objective is also to develop the supply chain to support this market.
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