South Africa on verge of nice breakthroughs in hydrogen, says new SAIMM president
17th August 2021
By Martin Creamer

Speaking to Mining Weekly in a Zoom interview, Geldenhuys expressed the view that all the big mines with big moving machinery will have the opportunity to move away from diesel and switch to a hydrogen-based fuel system because of the contained ecosystem. While the use of green hydrogen is always first prize, Geldenhuys pointed out that many processes have grey hydrogen as a byproduct and expressed the view that where grey hydrogen is at the ready, it should be used as an imperfect solution rather than being left to go to waste.

She said that South Africa had the required hydrogen know-how as a consequence of the Department of Science and Innovation having supported the hydrogen economy concept for nearly 20 years. “What really excites me is the focus on being greener and more efficient," Geldenhuys said. On the multidisciplinary front, she said: "There are many opportunities for us to work together and bring interesting, transdisciplinary thinking into metallurgy to solve our big problems.” Under her leadership, the SAIMM plans to strengthen its online presence so that it can communicate optimally with the rest of the mining and metallurgy world at a time of rising mining fortunes. South Africa’s mining and metallurgy history extends across more than a century, which has resulted in a wealth of knowledge being accessible from SAIMM’s databases.

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