JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – JSE-listed Anglo American Platinum and South Africa-linked AP Ventures are supporting the next vital steps towards the realisation of industrial-scale green hydrogen value chains.

Both companies have once again featured in the latest raising of additional funding by the German company that is on its way towards enabling green hydrogen to be globally transported and traded in the same way as oil is currently, through the liquid organic hydrogen carrier (LOHC) technology that it has developed.

Owing to its diesel-like nature, Hydrogenious' LOHC can be transported and distributed in the existing infrastructure for oil-based fuels.

LOHC, which Mining Weekly first wrote about in 2014, has now attracted another €17-million-plus in its latest financing round.

Interestingly, independent venture capital firm AP Ventures is backed by South Africa’s Public Investment Corporation (PIC), Mitsubishi Corporation, Mirai Creation Fund and Plastic Omnium and the ventures in which it invests make use of, or enable the use of, platinum group metals (PGMs), often in association with hydrgogen, the most abundant element in the universe, which can be stored in large quantities and for long periods of time. These are features which enable it to optimise the integration of renewable energy.

Chevron Technology Ventures, Temasek, Winkelmann Group and Covestro are other companies providing additional funding to Hydrogenious LOHC in its latest capital raising exercise.

Moreover, LOHC is being supported by numerous policies and legislation at both federal and EU level, as well as financially, reflecting the recognition it is being given within the energy transition space.

Hydrogenious last year received a grant notification from the German federal government and the state of Bavaria for its Green Hydrogen @ Blue Danube project totaling €72.5-million.

“Hydrogenious' new funding and leadership structure signals that LOHC technology is at a critical inflection point and must be supported in taking the next steps towards industrial-scale hydrogen value chains,” Anglo American Platinum executive head marketing Hilton Ingram is quoted as saying in a media release on LinkedIn put out by Hydrogenious.

As an original seed investor in 2014, Anglo American Platinum has for long had a strongly held view on the potential of LOHC technology to help enable the emerging hydrogen economy, for which its PGMs are critical.

“We believe that Hydrogenious and its innovative LOHC technology are critical to enabling the hydrogen economy,” AP Ventures founding partner Kevin Eggers is quoted as saying in the same release.

“LOHC technology represents a crucial component for enabling the hydrogen economy and advancing the global energy transition,” Winkelmann Group CEO Christian Knechtel is quoted as saying.

Mining Weekly can point out that AP Ventures was attracted to invest in Hydrogenious because of LOHC making it possible for current infrastructure to be used in the transition to hydrogen.

The storage density of hydrogen in the LOHC is up to five times higher than conventional high pressure storage.

A cubic metre of LOHC can carry about 57 kg of hydrogen.

Thus, transport capacities on trucks, trains, buses, ships and such like are increased, significantly reducing total cost for hydrogen supply to the customer.

The readily available carrier oil is non-toxic, hardly flammable, non-explosive and remains in a useable and convenient liquid state through a broad temperature range of –39 ºC to 390 ºC, which makes transport in the existing global fuel infrastructure feasible.

The technology as such is thus simple since it is based on a reversible catalytic hydrogenation and then dehydrogenation process.

After the release of the hydrogen, the carrier substance can be reused as carrier for several hundred times.

With hydrogen being the smallest and the lightest molecule, the efficient storage and transport of hydrogen is the key to connect the upstream and downstream of the complete hydrogen supply chain.

Hydrogen is also capable of decarbonising transportation and heavy industry. Through fuel cell technology, green hydrogen enables zero emission transport and offers a compelling solution to air quality challenges, especially in densely populated cities. It also can be used for heat, decarbonising industries which currently rely on hydrocarbon fuels such as steel and cement manufacturing. 

Hydrogen also has several end-use applications, many of which enable so called Power-to-X opportunities. For example, renewable hydrogen and carbon dioxide can be combined to produce a number of synthetic chemicals and fuels including jet fuel and diesel.

Owing to their remarkable properties, PGMs are used across the entire hydrogen value chain. Their use is most mature in hydrogen fuel cells and in some electrolyser technologies that produce hydrogen from renewable energy. 

Other areas include hydrogen storage, sensors and photocatalysis. LOHC uses PGMs to bind hydrogen to a carrier molecule, allowing large volumes of hydrogen to be stored and transported safely at high density under ambient temperature and pressure.