South Africa capitalizes on growing hydrogen and fuel-cell market
- PDF / 229,768 Bytes
- 2 Pages / 585 x 783 pts Page_size
- 108 Downloads / 166 Views
South Africa capitalizes on growing hydrogen and fuel-cell market www.hysacatalysis.uct.ac.za www.hysainfrastructure.org www.hysasystems.org
T
he global trend toward the replacement of fossil fuels with clean energy alternatives has driven development of both resources and technologies and provided new economic opportunities. The Republic of South Africa possesses 75% of known platinum group metal (PGM) reserves, and these metals are key catalytic materials used in most fuel cells. While mining and exporting raw PGM will generate some economic development in South Africa, the government’s aim is to move from a resource-based to a knowledge-based economy. This type of transition is facilitated by the development of new high-tech industries, creating jobs, and adding value to the PGM by producing high-tech products in South Africa. Hydrogen South Africa (HySA) is a 15-year program created by South Africa’s Department of Science and Technology (DST) to capitalize on the emergent hydrogen and fuel-cell market. South Africa has specifically targeted this market because it is expected to expand internationally in the medium and long term, and their vast PGM resources give South Africans a competitive advantage. The strategic objectives for HySA are to develop local cost-competitive hydrogen generation, catalysis, and manufacturing systems based on existing and developing technologies, to supply 25% of global catalyst demand by 2020, and to promote equity and inclusion in the economic gains realized through the beneficiation of South Africa’s PGM resources. The first five-year stage of the HySA program ran from 2008 to 2012 and focused on establishing competency in current hydrogen and fuel-cell technologies. International experts from academia and industry were recruited and three Centers of Competence were established in Systems, Infrastructure, and Catalysis.
364
MRS BULLETIN
•
VOLUME 38 • MAY 2013
•
This strategy effectively jump-started the program by providing technological knowledge and establishing collaborations across the spectrum of hydrogen and fuel-cell research, development, and manufacturing. With the completion of the first stage, HySA Infrastructure Director Dmitri Bessarabov expressed confidence that “HySA will contribute to the South African mineral resource beneficiation strategy and will help to transform the resource-based economy into a knowledge-based one.” HySA Catalysis Director Olaf Conrad shares this confidence and pointed out, “We have accomplished the first objective—in five years’ time, South Africa has caught up on 30-plus years of progress and can now provide catalysts and some components equivalent to the current commercially available standard.” The beginning of the second phase of the HySA strategy was marked by the inauguration of the DST-mandated HySA Advisory Board on February 13, 2013. The Board is tasked with advising the DST on the HySA program and providing guidance as activities expand toward in-house technology development and
manufacturing. Independent panels will be
Data Loading...
