Hydrogen industry ramp-up in Germany faces raw material supply challenge – agency

The lack of mineral resources could become a challenge for the planned ramp-up of hydrogen industry in Germany, Europe and worldwide, news agency dpa writes in an article published by magazine Der Stern. Minerals like iridium or scandium are often used in electrolysers which split water into hydrogen and oxygen. A report by the German Mineral Resources Agency (DERA) had found that global demand for scandium could be about 24 tonnes by 2040, 150 percent more than was produced in 2018, while demand for iridium could rise five-fold to 34 tonnes. Iridium, which is mainly mined in South Africa and Russia, is currently considered irreplaceable, DERA geologist Viktoriya Tremareva said. “A significant increase in iridium production is unlikely,” the agency said, adding that production outages, which last occurred in 2021, pose the risk of price hikes. Scandium is mostly mined in China and Russia, but Canada and the Philippines also hold sizeable resources, the agency said. However, setting up extraction capacities for these resources takes years and is contingent on secure long-term demand, which will depend on the prospects of a functioning international hydrogen industry, geologist Christoph Hilgers from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) said. “Germany might be a large industrialised country. But you don’t open new mines for a single country,” Hilgers argued. Alternative electrolysis procedures rely on nickel, of which Russia and China are the main suppliers. Other hydrogen production procedures, such as pyrolysis, are being developed, but could only replace a small fraction of electrolysis-based production in a large-scale green hydrogen production industry, says the article.

Raw material supply for the construction of renewable power installations and other clean energy infrastructure is seen as a potential bottleneck for the energy transition, especially since climate action plans in many countries are set to cause a parallel increase in demand for key resources. Apart from developing alternative construction procedures that reduce reliance on certain materials and suppliers, recycling and greater efficiency are regarded as key levers for reducing the risk of supply bottlenecks.