The clean energy transition is underway with hydrogen and critical minerals

We are currently experiencing global climate and energy crises and the world's “hydrogen craze” is not only due to the ambitious decarbonization targets for 2050, but also to a strategic movement towards "energy independence," especially in Europe. Hydrogen represents a potential for reducing greenhouse gases (GHG), and thus many countries are now investing significantly in this booming market. The clean energy transition is underway. Low-carbon hydrogen and green hydrogen—so-called “renewable hydrogen”—are increasingly seen as key components towards a sustainable energy economy. Canada is uniquely and excellently positioned for its critical raw minerals (CRM) from exploration, extraction, processing, downstream product manufacturing, and recycling along the renewable energy and energy storage (e.g., battery and hydrogen) technologies value chains that will create wealth and sustainable “good-paying” jobs in the country. Recently, the Canadian government published a report, The Canadian Critical Minerals Strategy — From Exploration to Recycling: Powering the Green and Digital Economy for Canada and the World, highlighting opportunities for Canada to grow and build expertise along this green-energy value chain as well as attracting investors whilst respecting the rights of Indigenous Peoples. Amongst the 31 critical minerals highlighted in this report, the government has prioritized six to kick-start the clean energy transition: lithium, graphite, nickel, cobalt, copper, and rare earth elements (e.g., lanthanides—dysprosium, lanthanum, neodymium, etc). Bruno G. Pollet is co-director of the Institute for Hydrogen Research at the University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières. Photograph courtesy of Bruno Pollett A multitude of minerals are required in this clean energy transition. Electric cables, transformers/rectifiers/inverters, etc., for wind and solar need aluminium, copper (known as the “metal of electrification”), germanium, iron, and selenium. For energy storage devices such as batteries, fuel cells, and electrolysers, required minerals include: cerium, cobalt, gold, iridium, lithium, manganese, nickel, niobium, platinum, titanium, vanadium, and zinc, to name but a few. In the case of low-carbon hydrogen, principal minerals are: chromium, cobalt, copper, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, niobium, titanium, tungsten, vanadium, and zinc. To produce renewable hydrogen, water electrolysers (devices that convert water into hydrogen and oxygen gases) are needed if powered by renewable electricity. According to the International Renewable Energy Agency, the total installed electrolyser capacity is expected to reach 5,000 GW by 2050, while the International Energy Agency predicts a capacity of 3,670 GW. This represents a significant increase from the current installed capacity of around 0.6 GW in 2021 and two GW in 2022. This rapid growth in electrolyser deployment is expected to lead to a huge increase demand for critical raw minerals, particularly for proton exchange membrane water electrolyser (PEMWE) and alkaline water electrolyser (AWE) technologies, which have high CRM requirements. PEMWE contains chiefly iridium, platinum, and titanium, and currently iridium is very expensive (a roughly 800-1,000 per cent price increase since 2000) and scarce. Iridium is a minor mining byproduct for platinum group metals (PGM), predominantly mined in South Africa and Zimbabwe (iridium typically accounts for up to four per cent of the overall PGM grade in the ore) and its supply is not expected to increase above the current level of around seven to nine tonnes per annum. Thus, efforts to reduce significantly and to recycle these CRM demands will be necessary as PEMWE deployment increases. AWE is the oldest, most mature, most robust, and commercially available technology, and also has mineral requirements, including nickel, cobalt, and zirconium. Overall, the development and optimization of electrolyser technologies that minimize CRM content will be critical to enabling the growth of the hydrogen sector, together with reducing environmental impacts—GHG emissions and water footprint—from sourcing the CRM needed for clean hydrogen production and utilization. Currently, the greatest risk on the horizon is the geographic concentration of minerals required for this clean energy transition in China, especially in refining/transformation. Canada needs to seize this golden opportunity. The country is capable of capitalizing in this market by rapidly implementing a strong hydrogen value chain from mineral extraction, mineral transformation to low-carbon hydrogen and renewable hydrogen production, reformer, electrolyser, fuel cell and hydrogen storage manufacturing, hydrogen distribution and utilization. Canada has the prospect to become not only a domestic consumer and an exporter of CRM, but also a producer and an exporter of hydrogen technologies. However, for this to happen, there is still a great need for further investment at federal, provincial, and industrial levels, from research and development to technology development and product manufacturing. Bruno G. Pollet is co-director of the Institute for Hydrogen Research at the University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières. He holds two Research Chairs (NSERC CRC and Innergex) in Green and Renewable Hydrogen Production with a strong focus on the next generation of electrolysers and low-carbon hydrogen-generating technologies. The Hill Times