JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – India aims to produce five-million tonnes of green hydrogen year by 2030 under the National Green Hydrogen Mission, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced.

At the same time, Hydrogen Europe CEO Jorgo Chatzimarkakis has stated out of Europe that “the New Year has started quite well for the hydrogen sector” in reference to Hydrogen Europe being invited to discuss hydrogen's role in helping decarbonise the economy with European Commission clean, just and competitive transition EVP Teresa Ribera and energy and housing commissioner Dan Jørgensen.

Modi, meanwhile, was deliberating during a virtual event to inaugurate projects worth about $27-billion in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh.

As a first step, two green hydrogen hubs will be established, one in Visakhapatnam, the Prime Minister said.

Johnson Matthey regulatory affairs director John Goodwin, coming over LinkedIn at roughly the same time, remarked on how advantageous it had been to talk with European Parliament Member Hildegard Bentele on the key role PGMs play within many technologies and processes from green hydrogen production, sustainable aviation fuel, auto catalysts, fuel cells, to anti-cancer drugs.

Goodwin described platinum group metals (PGMs) as “super power metals” owing to the major role and importance in the green energy transition. Hosted overwhelmingly in South Africa, PGMs go hand-in-glove with green hydrogen, which is being viewed increasingly as indispensable in the fight against climate change.

Interestingly, South Africa has had a long association with PGM company Johnson Matthey, which has a South African operation in Germiston, Gauteng.

Ahead of the Modi announcement, India’s National Hydrogen Mission has been a major policy enabler to make India become a hub for green hydrogen and green ammonia production.

The South Asian country is targeting to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels and scale up its renewable energy capacity 500 GW. It also aims to bring down the cost of green hydrogen to $1.5/kg. 

Abundance of renewable sources of solar, wind and hydro power position it for strong global competitiveness and Modi has highlighted that green hydrogen is destined to play a crucial role in helping India to mitigate climate change.

Johnson Matthey PGMs advocacy manager Margery Ryan, who participated in last year’s last year’s PGMs Industry Day in South Africa, has commented on LinkedIn about how great it is to see the growing awareness of regulators to the critical importance of PGMs in applications across energy and more,

At last year’s PGMs Industry Day, Ryan spoke of the major opportunity the clean energy future was presenting for PGMs and emphasised that PGMs were equally crucial to ensure the realisation of the world’s climate-critical energy transition.

Water electrolysis based on PGM-based proton exchange membrane (PEM) technology has demonstrated its applicability to produce hydrogen and oxygen in a clean and safe way, Johnson Mathey has shown.

Systems have been demonstrated in a wide range of niche applications. The improved materials will also be made available to current developers of PEM electrolysers to allow them to quantify the benefits, and to provide early feedback that will drive ongoing performance improvements

Appealingly, the latest tie-up on the metals and mining front to reduce emissions in the mining and metals supply chain is the agreement between Vale of Brazil and GreenIron of Sweden, which focuses on key initiatives in Brazil and Sweden, including a feasibility study for a direct reduction facility in Brazil operated by GreenIron.

Additionally, Vale will also supply iron-ore to GreenIron’s commercial operations in Sweden.

“We’re focused on helping our clients achieve their decarbonisation targets and also fostering Brazil’s new industrialisation,”, EVP of Commercial and New Business at Vale commercial and new business EVP Rogério Nogueira stated viewed by Mining Weekly.