To replace declining demand for the autocatalysis that curbs emissions from vehicle exhausts, new longer-term platinum group metal (PGM) applications are required, Sibanye-Stillwater headlined at its South Africa Capital Markets Day.

Flashed on to the screen under the headline were three initiatives in which the Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed PGM mining and marketing company is investing. 

These initiatives include:

• the substitution of iridium with ruthenium in proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyser catalysts;
• a palladium-based application for the purification of hydrogen;
• the substitution of platinum with palladium in glass bushing applications;
• a multi-year programme focused on identification, evaluation, development and commercialisation of industrial applications using PGMs; and
• the development of a radioactive palladium isotope derived from rhodium for use in targeted radionuclide therapy.

“We’re investing in creating new demand. We prefer industrial demand. It’s stickier, it’s in an application for longer, and it’s certainly not metal that’s suddenly going to come back to market and flood it over,” Sibanye-Stillwater sales and marketing EVP Kleantha Pillay commented.

Sibanye-Stillwater’s electrolyser catalyst project with Heraeus is focused on replacing an iridium oxide catalyst with ruthenium, a more cost-effective catalyst and a less scarce metal. “What this does is it provides more confidence to OEMs and users that this technology is actually something sustainable that can be used. We’ve got the metal for it, and it’s not going to cost an arm and a leg,” Pillay explained at the event covered by Engineering News & Mining Weekly.

The other initiative Pillay singled out for reiteration was Sibanye-Stillwater’s collaboration with Johnson Matthey and Valterra.

“We’ve kicked off a longer-term programme, and here the real initial focus is on actually finding the projects and originating ideas, technologies, chemistries that we can work on, develop and commercialise into applications that start using our PGMs.

“So, the early part of the collaboration is really focused on origination, and we’re not just looking at projects coming out of Johnson Matthey. We’re also looking at projects coming out of startups, academic institutions, and research groups,” Pillay added.

As Pillay re-emphasised the need, in her conclusion, for longer-term investment in market demand amid internal combustion engines decline in her conclusion, flashed on to the screen were these words: “Longer term green hydrogen market grows and market development investments to create new applications for PGMs.”

Interestingly, shortly before Sibanye-Stillwater’s Capital Day, South Africa’s government communication medium #GovZAUpdates reported that as part of a working visit to China, a South African delegation led by Deputy President Paul Mashatile had met with the International Hydrogen Fuel Cell Association, led by secretary-general Wang Ju, who promotes the development and adoption of hydrogen energy and fuel cell technologies. 

The working meeting is said to have provided an important opportunity to advance technology transfer, build local manufacturing capabilities and support skills development in South Africa.

As part of its 15th Five-Year Plan now under way to 2030, China is accelerating structural shifts across AI, hydrogen, environmental protection, and carbon reduction. PGMs, which underpin these national priorities, are being reinforced as critical and strategic. The World Economic Forum noted in a release on June 25 that China’s Five-Year Plan prioritises green energy.

“China’s AI ambitions are a defining pillar. With their distinctive catalytic, thermal, and electrical properties making PGMs indispensable to the rollout of AI infrastructure, AI is rapidly emerging as a new end-use market for PGMs, with demand spanning semiconductors, optical interconnection, printed circuit boards, sensors, data storage, advanced materials, and energy supply for data centres,” the World Platinum Investment Council’s 60 Seconds In Platinum has pointed out.

Hydrogen is potentially a key factor in developing energy resilience and energy security, and that South Africa, over time, is ideally positioned to be a hub for green hydrogen production owing to its renewable-energy resources is a view that is being expounded.