Impact of the Availability of Critical Minerals on Energy From Hydrogen

Abstract Critical minerals such as platinum, iridium, lithium, titanium, silver, nickel, etc., are required in all the hydrogen economy processes. The demand for critical minerals is expected to increase as the global energy sector anticipates a transition to hydrogen. This can cause demand competition with other industries, leading to economic, geographic, technical, social, and environmental obstacles in their supply chain. Excessive extraction of primary minerals can cause a depletion of quality reserves, leading to a degradation in the quality of the mined minerals. Moreover, a reduction in the reserves would lead to price escalation of these minerals, making the energy transition economically unfeasible. Therefore, understanding and mitigating these issues is imperative in facilitating a smoother transition to a resilient hydrogen-based economy. This paper discusses the possible challenges in the supply of critical minerals essential for the hydrogen economy and the possible ways to mitigate these challenges. The key philosophies behind the sustenance of the mineral supply chain are material and technology substitution, reduction in material concentration, and circularity.