South Africa hosted its fifth South Africa Investment Conference (SAIC) on 13 April 2023 in Johannesburg.
The conference was the final leg of our current investment drive to attract R1.2 trillion over five years.
The initiative is hosted by InvestSA, South Africa’s pre-eminent investment promotion agency which is a key part of South Africa’s Department of Trade Industry and Competition.
A valuable tool, used to attract investment is the use of Special Economic Zones. In this regard the Eastern Cape serves as a location that is proving to be an international asset.
This province has been allocated two of South Africa’s five industrial development zones (IDZs).
A list provided of companies that will be present at the conference indicates that 33% of the total proposed investments will come from the energy sector.
At first sight this looks promising in the light of our current energy crises and our eternal battle with load shedding.
We took a closer look at the list of what is proposed, and there are serious question marks over some of these proposed projects. South Africans can be forgiven for questioning the viability of projects as projects such as Kusile, Medupi, the SANRAL fiasco with toll roads, various Lotto projects, the Estina Diary project and a host of other projects.
One of the companies that attracts attention is Hive Africa with its ambitious R105 Billion green hydrogen and ammonia project.
“Hive Hydrogen SA are paving the way to a sustainable future by developing innovative green ammonia projects around the globe.” Hive Energy and Built Africa back Hive Ammonia South Africa. The team has been operating since September 2019. Hive Ammonia are establishing five large scale Hydrogen and Ammonia plants in South Africa, powered by 15GW of renewable energy. In 2021 they announced the establishment of a $4.6bn Green Ammonia Plant. The plant will have a dedicated power supply at the Coega Special Economic Zone, alongside the Port of Ngqura.
Built Africa is a company founded by Ms Gertze and co-founded by Mr Bongo in 2016. It registered at the Department of Social Development (DSD) on 22nd March 2017 under registration number 187-542 as a Non-Profit Organisation (NPO) but also registered at the same Department as Community Based Services (CBS) on 19th August 2022. Thulani Gcabashe is the executive Chairperson at Built Environment Africa Capital (Pty) Ltd and has been a businessperson who has been at the helm of 8 different companies. Presently, Mr. Gcabashe holds the position of Chairman for Standard Bank Group Ltd., Chairman for The Standard Bank of South Africa Ltd. (a subsidiary of Standard Bank Group Ltd.) Mr. Gcabashe is also on the board of South African National Energy Association, Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa, and The Retail Motor Industry Organisation.
Hive Hydrogen’s plan is for a combined 3200MW of renewable sun and wind energy to electrolyse 3.4megalitres of seawater a day as part of the hydrogen extraction process. Proton exchange membrane, or PEM, electrolysers, which make use of South Africa’s prized platinum and iridium metals, will separate the hydrogen from the oxygen, as the project operates closely with salt-making company Cerebos, which has an adjacent Coega desalination works in need of switching to green hydrogen.
The process to make green ammonia is quite simple, Loubser (Hive Energy) says, requiring just water, air and energy. Electrolysis is used to separate water into hydrogen and oxygen, and an air separation unit extracts nitrogen from the air. The hydrogen and nitrogen are then combined to produce ammonia.
Ammonia – made up of three parts hydrogen and one part nitrogen (or NH3) – has had a momentous impact on society. Without the mass production of this chemical, it is estimated that as many as a third of us won't be alive. This is because its main use is to make fertilisers, which have helped improve crop yields and sustain a large population.
Developed in 1909, the Haber-Bosch process – often cited as the most important invention of the 20th century – involves heating purified nitrogen and hydrogen gas at very high temperature and pressure in presence of an iron catalyst.
The Royal Society’s work is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. This policy briefing considers the opportunities and challenges associated with the manufacture and future use of zero-carbon or green ammonia.
What is green ammonia? Ammonia is a pungent gas that is widely used to make agricultural fertilisers. Green ammonia production is where the process of making ammonia is 100% renewable and carbon-free. One way of making green ammonia is by using hydrogen from water electrolysis and nitrogen separated from the air. These are then fed into the Haber process (also known as Haber-Bosch), all powered by sustainable electricity. In the Haber process, hydrogen and nitrogen are reacted together at high temperatures and pressures to produce ammonia, NH3.
Finding affordable and effective solutions to all these challenges, demonstrating technical feasibility, developing the appropriate regulations, and implementing safety procedures will be vital to open more flexible routes on a global scale towards a low-carbon energy future.
Overall, the amount of water and energy required to produce green ammonia will depend on the efficiency of each of these steps and the specific process used. According to some estimates, producing one ton of green ammonia can require up to 54,000 kWh of electricity and around 1.8 tons of water. However, these numbers can vary widely depending on the specific production process and the source of energy used.
Desalination is an energy-intensive process that requires a significant amount of electricity or fuel to operate. The most used desalination technologies are reverse osmosis and thermal desalination, both of which have different costs and energy requirements. According to the International Desalination Association, the cost of desalinated water can range from $0.50 to $3 per cubic meter (1,000 litres), depending on the factors mentioned above. A cubic meter (m3) of seawater may contain some 20 to more than 50 kilograms (kg.) of dissolved solids. Based on recent contracts for the purchase of desalinated water, a competitive process today must be able to separate these constituents for well less than one dollar ($1.00) in total product water costs. Israel is widely recognised as the most advanced nation with regards to desalination, where more than 70% of their total drinkable water come from desalination. However, the price of a 250 ml drinkable water bottle in Israel is almost double that of such water in South Africa.
The problem is South Africa is short on energy. How can we warrant innovative technology that is energy intensive to produce expensive water as a by-product. Desalination is not an easy or cheap process, producing hydrogen is also a more complicated process best left to companies with years of chemical processing experience. A good example of how easy it is to get things wrong on a gigantic scale is the Sasol plant at lake Charles in the USA. Intermittent water production may require an over-sized desalination component plus water storage. It is always a matter of trade-offs:
- Energy efficiency vs.
- Capital cost, vs.
- Percent recovery, vs.
- Reliability, vs.
- Lifetime, vs.
- Size/area, vs.
- Other parameters.
It will be interesting to hear what the experts say. I suggest Hive Energy could do well to engage local expert Mr. Donald McGillivray, Director at Ocean Swell Investments and at Africoast Consulting Engineers for the last 21 years in Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape.
Corrie Kruger is an Independent Analyst.
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