Iridium metal in haiti4/4/2024 Wood Mackenzie analysts have been modeling the outlook for PGM demand, to give a sense of the potential impact of the green hydrogen industry. Melany Vargas, Wood Mackenzie’s head of Americas hydrogen consulting, said: “From an energy security perspective, there is certainly the potential for disruption to supplies that would be a constraint on the growth of green hydrogen production.” But the green hydrogen industry is aiming to grow rapidly, and a materials supply chain that is rooted almost entirely in southern Africa and Russia looks like a critical vulnerability. If the flow of PGMs were cut off, the electrolysers already in operation would be able to continue producing hydrogen. South Africa also has the great bulk of the world’s PGM reserves: about 91%, followed by Russia with about 6%, Zimbabwe with about 2% and the US with about 1%, again according to the USGS.ĭependence on a handful of sources for critical materials for low-carbon energy is different in some respects from dependence on fossil fuels. In 2018 South Africa accounted for 87% of global iridium production, with a further 8% coming from Zimbabwe and 3% each from Russia and Canada, according to the US Geological Survey. World iridium supply is currently dominated by South Africa, as a by-product of platinum and palladium production. For PGMs, hydrogen producers will have to look elsewhere. The partnership with Australia is focused on lithium, cobalt, and rare earth elements, however. The two governments’ joint statement highlighted “the crucial role critical minerals and materials will play in the energy transition” and in enabling the deployment of technologies such as hydrogen production. Jennifer Granholm, the US energy secretary, this week announced a new partnership with Australia, intended to accelerate progress towards a net-zero emissions energy system. The administration’s statement argued that support for PGM catalysts “will enhance national and energy security by reducing US reliance on imported fossil fuels, particularly Russia (the world’s second-largest producer of PGMs) and China.” President Joe Biden last month issued a series of executive orders invoking powers under the 1950 Defense Production Act to stimulate production of clean energy technologies, including electrolysers and PGMs. The Biden administration has acknowledged that supplies of platinum group metals (PGMs), including iridium, were a critical issue for the development of the low-carbon hydrogen industry that was endorsed in the bipartisan infrastructure bill passed last year. Meeting just the EU’s goals for green hydrogen production could by 2030 lead to demand for iridium for electrolysers that is several times current global supply. But companies’ plans for green hydrogen projects suggest there will be a steep increase in demand over the coming decade. The uncertainties in the demand outlook for iridium are large, reflecting a range of possible outcomes for hydrogen producers’ growth rates and technological choices. My colleague Julian Kettle, Wood Mackenzie’s Vice Chair for Metals and Mining, likes to say that “the energy transition will be built with metals.” That is true not only for the obvious high-volume commodities such as steel, copper, and lithium, but also for lesser-known metals such as iridium. So it is potentially a problem that iridium is one of the critical inputs for a key fuel in a low-carbon energy system: green hydrogen, produced by electrolysing water.Ĭatalysts made from iridium and platinum - today typically 65% iridium and 35% platinum - are essential for what is currently the most popular electrolyser technology, known as a proton exchange membrane (PEM) system. And although iridium has a range of uses, mostly in high-performance alloys, worldwide production is only about 7 tons per year. The richest concentrations are found in geological strata laid down when the Chicxulub asteroid hit the earth about 66 million years ago, wiping out the dinosaurs. Iridium is one of the rarest naturally occurring elements: it makes up only about 0.00000003% of the weight of the Earth’s crust, according to the UK’s Natural History Museum.
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