JSE-listed group Sasol expects to conclude energy buy agreements for 600 MW of renewable power “imminently” because it strikes forward with plans to fulfill a 2030 goal of decreasing its greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions by 30%, whereas sustaining power and chemical manufacturing volumes.
The renewables electrical energy will likely be wheeled to the group’s South African operations by the Eskom grid by 2025 and Sasol expects so as to add an additional 600 MW of renewables by 2030.
The emission-reduction dedication, which was unveiled in 2021, has been made in opposition to a 2017 baseline of 63.9-million carbon dioxide equal (CO2e) tons and implies a discount to 44.7-million CO2e tons by 2030.
The group has additionally pledged to be a net-zero emissions firm by 2050.
Talking to buyers throughout a local weather roundtable, CEO Fleetwood Grobler described the procurement of renewables as a key preliminary lever in its decarbonisation technique to 2030, throughout which the group would additionally search to displace coal with fuel, cut back coal use by the closure of six coal-fired boilers in Secunda and implement power effectivity initiatives.
The group was additionally investigating a number of inexperienced hydrogen and inexperienced hydrogen-derivative alternatives, notably to displace the two.4-million tons of emissions-intensive ‘gray hydrogen’ it produces presently, primarily from coal, and which the corporate makes use of to provide fuels and chemical compounds by its Fischer Tropsch (FT) expertise.
Grobler pressured, nonetheless, that assembly the 2030 GHG-reduction goal was not contingent on inexperienced hydrogen, which was being seen as a “sweetener” through the interval and was anticipated to contribute to its additional decarbonisation solely after 2030.
“Catalytic” inexperienced hydrogen initiatives would, nonetheless, be applied through the present decade, together with one to repurpose a 60 MW electrolyser at Sasolburg, within the Free State, to provide 3.5 t of the clear power provider every day. The inexperienced hydrogen arising would most definitely be used to help inexperienced mobility initiatives in South Africa, together with the fuelling of green-hydrogen mining haulage vans.
The group would additionally pursue, in partnership, sustainable aviation gas (SAF) alternatives previous to 2030, utilizing inexperienced hydrogen in its FT course of to provide jet gas that was prone to appeal to a market premium from aviation corporations.
A examine was presently underneath approach by the so-called HyShiFT programme to provide SAF in partnership with Linde, Enertrag and Hydregen, initially underneath Germany’s H2Global platform, into which the challenge could be bid.
Sasol was additionally main a feasibility examine to discover the potential for the event of a green-hydrogen derivatives export hub at Boegoebaai, within the Northern Cape, and had entered right into a green-steel partnership with ArcelorMittal South Africa, for Saldanha Bay and Vanderbijlpark.
Grobler stated that the discount of electrolyser prices to provide inexperienced hydrogen to between $1/kg and $2/kg could be a key set off for Sasol’s future green-hydrogen technique and indicated that such pricing was prone to emerge solely after 2030.
Nonetheless, he famous that the incentives obtainable within the US underneath the not too long ago launched Inflation Discount Act would bolster the competitiveness of inexperienced hydrogen in that nation and Sasol was, due to this fact, contemplating prospects for combining its FT expertise with power-to-X options to provide inexperienced fuels and chemical compounds in that nation.
The fast focus in South Africa, nonetheless, could be on changing coal electrical energy with renewables and shifting to safe the fuel it required to displace coal in its manufacturing processes at Secunda.
Latest drilling success in Mozambique had resulted in Sasol extending its fuel provide plateau to 2028.
Govt VP for power Priscillah Mabelane stated the extension had given the group extra time to shore up its fuel provide choices and likewise decreased the strain to conclude a liquefied pure fuel (LNG) provide settlement, which she described as ‘Plan B’ ought to it fail to safe extra fuel from southern Mozambique by a drilling programme.
Sasol expects to take a position between R15-billion and R25-billion to shift from coal to fuel by including extra fuel reforming capability. It expects to take a position an extra R10-billion to unlock extra fuel provide from Mozambique.
Grobler argued that its fuel technique was unlikely to lead to stranded property because it was premised on utilizing the prevailing Rompco pipeline and, ought to LNG be required, a versatile floating storage regasification unit. Sasol was not contemplating a pipeline to northern Mozambique to faucet the fuel obtainable within the Rovuma basin.
The closure of the six coal-fired boilers would additionally assist Sasol meet its minimal emission normal obligations.
As well as, govt VP for power operations and expertise Simon Baloyi reported that the closure would play a task in serving to to cut back Sasol’s yearly coal consumption, which is anticipated to say no by ten-million tons yearly by 2030 relative to the 2017 baseline.
