Transitioning SA's Petrochemical Value Chain

There is wide agreement that green hydrogen has an important role to play in global decarbonisation efforts, and particularly in hard-to-abate sectors. Switching from fossil to green hydrogen in existing applications (mainly in industry) has been identified as a no-regret strategy. Ultimately, the only way Secunda and Sasolburg’s fuel and chemicals product slate can be decarbonised is through the use of green hydrogen, and currently finding other products as substitution options in aviation and chemicals is not looking promising.  Technically, therefore, using green hydrogen to produce SAF and green chemicals is a priority.

There is still some debate around where green hydrogen would best be further used, given its low energy conversion efficiency. Steel manufacturing and shipping have been identified as additional applications where hydrogen will pay a critical role in decarbonization.

The potential for utilisation in other modes of transport (via hydrogen fuel cells), power generation, and process heating applications remains a question due to observed energy losses in the process. For example, a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle sees only 38% of the input energy (electricity to produce hydrogen) converted to useful energy that powers the car. This in comparison with battery electric vehicles which see around 80% of the input electricity converted to useful energy. The green hydrogen ladder provides an indication of the latest thinking on prioritisation of green hydrogen applications.

Hydrogen transport considerations also play a role in determining its preferred application areas. Hydrogen is highly explosive, and therefore difficult to transport in gaseous form.  It would need to be transported under high pressure and low temperatures, or converted to a derivative such as ammonia if supply is far from demand, adding conversion inefficiencies. Transport considerations are particularly important for a location such as South Africa, which is far from the early emerging hydrogen markets in the US, EU and Asia.