South Africa aims to become a major exporter of green hydrogen, president Cyril Ramaphosa said in a speech to the Sustainable Infrastructure Development Symposium.

The nation is to develop a special economic zone (SEZ)  at Boegoebaai, with chemicals firm Sasol as an anchor investor, to export green hydrogen.

Sasol has signed a memorandum of agreement with the Northern Cape Development Agency to lead the feasibility study to explore the potential of Boegoebaai as an export hub.

It has also signed agreements with local industrial zones in an effort to establish offtake and grow domestic demand for hydrogen.

“[This] points to a future where tens of gigawatts of renewable energy feed electrolysers at massive scale, producing the hydrogen power fuels of the future,” says Ramaphosa.

“We stand ready to be a major exporter in this market, to use hydrogen to rapidly decarbonise our existing industries, and attract industrial investment from across the globe seeking to meet new standards of green power in the production process.”

“We stand ready to be a major exporter in this market” Ramaphosa, South African president

The Boegoebaai SEZ will also source green hydrogen volumes from emerging players such as Mahlako, according to Ramaphosa.

Sasol has separately agreed a partnership with the Gauteng provincial government to create decarbonised industrial power grids and supply lines for hydrogen-based green aviation fuel.

Elsewhere in the country, mining firm Anglo American is spearheading the development of a hydrogen valley in South Africa stretching from the firm’s Mogalakwena platinum mine near Mokopane to the south coast at Durban.

Collaborating with public and private sector partners, the firm will look to encourage the development of hydrogen production facilities that can primarily be used to decarbonise the heavy-duty road transport sector.

South Africa approved a hydrogen strategy in 2007, well before most other countries, as it made efforts to decarbonise its mining sector. But the strategy does not contain electrolyser or investment targets.

These targets should be put in place as soon as possible, according to a report from professional services firm PwC last year titled Unlocking South Africa’s Hydrogen Potential.

The report adds that blue hydrogen could be used as a stepping stone to green in order to accelerate deployment.

“Clarity is needed from government on the classification, regulation, production methods and taxation of blue hydrogen, with preferential incentives being granted to green hydrogen production,” says the report.

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Author: Tom Young