Fusion Fuel and Magnesitas to explore hydrogen for decarbonising mining
Fusion Fuel Green Plc (a green hydrogen technology company) and Magnesitas De Rubian, S.A. (a Spanish mining company) to explore the feasibility of combining green hydrogen and carbon capture technology to cut carbon intensity in the mining sector.
The project’s scope includes installing around 10k Hevo-Solar units at Magnesitas’ site in Lugo, Spain, to produce 20k tonnes of green hydrogen annually. A portion of hydrogen will then be used to generate industrial heat for the Magnesitas’ natural gas/hydrogen combi furnaces. The remaining hydrogen will be used with 125k tonnes of CO2 captured by Magnesitas to produce up to 45k tonnes/year synthetic fuel.
Joao Wahnon, Head of Business Development at Fusion Fuel, said, “Spain is an excellent market for our technology and an important market for us strategically.”
Eduardo Jiménez Aguirre, Managing Director of Magnesitas De Rubian, commented: “The mining industry is only just beginning to think about climate risk and set emission-reduction targets.” The company sees this as a unique opportunity to spearhead the decarbonisation effort while using Hevo technology to generate renewable hydrogen.
It is estimated that mining is responsible for around 1% of total greenhouse gas emissions globally. The mining operation is also a heavy user of primary energy. Fusion and Magnesitas project to use green hydrogen for producing heat and then combining it with captured CO2 to produce synthetic fuels is a unique step towards cutting emission in the mining sector.
Hevo is Fusion Fuel’s proprietary miniaturised PEM based electrolyser. This technology benefits from direct access to the electrical energy created without transport and conversion losses, and the freely available thermal energy, when combined, can efficiently split the water molecule.
Each Hevo-Solar has a surface area of around 100m2, weighs nearly 4 tonnes and includes about 288 Hevo. Each Hevo-Solar unit can produce one tonne per year of green hydrogen using solar energy and can be doubled by using other renewable sources such as thermal.
