Critical Materials in the Renewable Hydrogen Value Chain
In recent years, hydrogen has been shown to be one of the alternatives for decarbonising both industrial and domestic activity. Currently, hydrogen is produced through chemical processes using fossil fuels, causing this production to generate GHG emissions. There are several alternatives to fossil or non-renewable hydrogen production such as the use of electrolysers, photocatalysis reactors, hydrogen production by microorganisms or adding carbon capture and storage (CCS) to non-renewable hydrogen generation. It is estimated that renewable, or low-emission, hydrogen can avoid the generation of about 270 million tons of CO2 annually and 90 million tons in the transportation and mobility sector.
Like all equipment, appliances or objects used on a daily basis, hydrogen generation systems also require raw materials for their production. This article will describe the main materials used in the hydrogen value chain, their criticality and where the deposits and reserves of these materials are located.
Critical materials in the hydrogen value chain
The renewable hydrogen sector, and that obtained from fossil fuels with carbon dioxide capture, is expected to see rapid growth in market size over the next few years. Currently, equipment production represents a small share of global mineral resource extraction. However, due to the expected scalability of the sector, production shortages and thus price increases may become a problem.
The hydrogen value chain ranges from hydrogen production to end use. The size of the sector means that there are a wide variety of different technologies, with different needs in terms of the materials required for manufacturing, such as nickel, iron or aluminum for alkaline electrolysers and platinum and iridium for PEMs. It should also be mentioned that in order to achieve renewable hydrogen production, renewable energies such as wind and solar energy are required, which also require critical materials.
Mineral categories
The minerals mentioned in this article can be classified according to their criticality and number of uses. This division gives rise to four distinct categories:
- High-impact minerals (Q2): these have high absolute or relative future demand compared to existing production levels but are concentrated in small subset of technologies.
- Cross-cutting minerals (Q4): these will not experience a large increase in demand but will be used in a wide range of technologies.
- High-impact cross-cutting minerals (Q3): do not meet the requirements of the previous two categories. They will have high levels of demand in the future but will be in low-carbon technologies.
- Medium-impact minerals (Q1): these will not meet any of the above requirements but may be used in very particular technologies.

Figure 1. Diagram of the division of minerals.
Source: Susana Moreira, Tim Laing. Sufficiency, sustainability, and circularity of critical materials for clean hydrogen. Hydrogen Council. Available at: WB-Hydrogen-Report-2022.pdf
Hydrogen Council analysis
In 2022, the World Bank Group in collaboration with the Hydrogen Council conducted an analysis on the criticality of materials in the hydrogen value chain, under the name “Sufficiency, sustainability, and circularity of critical materials for clean hydrogen”. According to the Hydrogen Council’s analysis, the hydrogen value chain has been divided into the following technologies:
- Alkaline electrolysers (AEL).
- Polymer membrane electrolysers (PEMEL).
- Polymer exchange fuel cell (PEMFC), differentiating between heavy duty vehicles (HDV) and light duty vehicles (LDV).
- Reforming with carbon capture (R+CSS).
As a result of this division, a classification has been made according to the minerals required for each type of technology:

Figure 2. Minerals needed per technology.
Source: Susana Moreira, Tim Laing. Sufficiency, sustainability, and circularity of critical materials for clean hydrogen. Hydrogen Council. Available at: WB-Hydrogen-Report-2022.pdf
The minerals required for the renewable electricity production needed to power electrolysers have also been included in this analysis. Both wind turbines and photovoltaic panels require copper, nickel and zinc, and aluminum is only needed in the manufacture of solar photovoltaics.
With the list of the different minerals used in the different technologies of the hydrogen value chain, it is now possible to divide the sector into four stages: production, distribution and storage, and consumption.
- Production: As mentioned above, production is divided into two types of generation technologies, renewable and low-carbon with capture. Depending on the solution used for production, different minerals will be used:
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- For renewable hydrogen it is necessary to list the following materials as key to its manufacture: platinum, iridium, titanium and copper for PEM electrolysers, and copper nickel and graphite for alkaline electrolysers.
- Low-carbon hydrogen with capture requires manganese, copper, zinc, nickel, nickel, titanium, niobium, chromium, tungsten, molybdenum, cobalt and vanadium.
Within renewable hydrogen production using electrolysers, carbon-free electricity generation will make up a large part of the demand for the various minerals by 2050. This is because the technologies require a wide variety of minerals for production and consumption, but in relatively small volumes. The following illustration shows the expected demand for minerals in 2050.

Figure 3. Forecast of the volume of ore used for hydrogen generation in 2050.
Source: Susana Moreira, Tim Laing. Sufficiency, sustainability, and circularity of critical materials for clean hydrogen. Hydrogen Council. Available at: WB-Hydrogen-Report-2022.pdf
- Distribution and storage: As with the other stages of the value chain, there are several technological options for storage and distribution, such as pipelines, storage tanks and their respective types, and storage in salt caverns. Each of these solutions will, of course, require different materials.
For the distribution of diatomic gas, it is expected that the existing pipelines, which will need to be reinforced, and the possible hydrogen pipeline network can coexist. The construction of new pipelines will require a large amount of high-grade steel (X42, X52 and X60). For pipelines carrying hydrogen in high concentrations, the precise grade of steel required is not known, but it is estimated that for every 2,500 km, 4 million tons of steel will be needed. With this estimate, the European hydrogen backbone (39,700 km) will require about 20 million tons of steel, equivalent to 1% of current global production.
- Consumption: The hydrogen produced can be used in numerous applications and sectors, such as automotive, power generation, steel production and many others. The Hydrogen Council’s analysis focuses primarily on stationary and mobile power generation, differentiating between light and heavy-duty vehicles, using hydrogen fuel cells.
For example, PEM fuel cells use platinum as a catalyst for the electrochemical reaction and cerium to improve cell durability. It appears that these types of fuel cells will have greater use in certain sectors, so their more widespread use may lead to an increase in demand for cerium and platinum. It is estimated that this demand could be the next one in the year 2050:

Figure 4. Potential demand for cerium and platinum in 2050.
Source: Susana Moreira, Tim Laing. Sufficiency, sustainability, and circularity of critical materials for clean hydrogen. Hydrogen Council. Available at: WB-Hydrogen-Report-2022.pdf
Primary Demand vs Resource
It is necessary to differentiate between resource and reserve. The second is where there is certainty that the mineral exists in the ground. Most of the critical mineral reserves in the hydrogen value chain will be used for the construction of renewable electricity generators (wind and solar). The following is a forecast of the amount needed by the hydrogen value chain of the different minerals in 2050 as a percentage of the expected global demand:

Figure 5. Hydrogen value chain demand as a percentage of global reserves.
Source: Susana Moreira, Tim Laing. Sufficiency, sustainability, and circularity of critical materials for clean hydrogen. Hydrogen Council. Available at: WB-Hydrogen-Report-2022.pdf

Figure 6. Hydrogen value chain demand as a percentage of reserves.
Source: Susana Moreira, Tim Laing. Sufficiency, sustainability, and circularity of critical materials for clean hydrogen. Hydrogen Council. Available at: WB-Hydrogen-Report-2022.pdf
The importance of platinum
The demand for this mineral in the hydrogen value chain is expected to increase considerably. In electrolysers and PEM fuel cells, platinum is used as a catalyst for the electrochemical reaction. This increase in demand is due to the increased use of PEM technology due to its better integration with the variability of renewable energies, as well as being the technology best suited to FCEVs. This, although it does not imply a large increase in demand, may increase prices and thus create bottlenecks in the supply of ore for the development of the technology.
By 2040, primary ore demand is expected to fall due to several factors. Firstly, fuel cells and electrolysers are expected to use less platinum as a catalyst and, secondly, a higher scrap recycling rate is expected making less platinum mining necessary. Platinum is currently used as a catalyst in petroleum refining and in combustion car catalysts for emission reduction. Recovery of this platinum may be key to avoiding a rise in ore prices.

Figure 7. Evolution of platinum demand in tons.
Source: Susana Moreira, Tim Laing. Sufficiency, sustainability, and circularity of critical materials for clean hydrogen. Hydrogen Council. Available at: WB-Hydrogen-Report-2022.pdf
Circular Economy
South Africa and Russia account for 90 % of platinum mining (70 % and 20 %). Circular economy is defined as “an economic system that replaces the concept of “end-of-life” with reduction, alternative use, recycling and recovery of materials in production and consumption processes”. There are recovery rates for platinoids of between 50-75 %.
Throughout the hydrogen value chain there are several strategies applicable to the circular economy:
- Material efficiency, improvements reduce material input requirements.
- Individual components and fuel cells can be repaired or replaced without changing entire products.
- At end-of-life, materials can be recovered through recycling.
In the case of PEM technology, its platinum content makes recycling and material recovery economically attractive. However, due to the small size of the market, it is not yet widely practiced.

Figure 8. Functional diagram of the PEM technology value chain.
Source: Brain Baldassarre. Cicular economy in critical value chains: the case of hydrogen electrolysers and fuel cells. Available at: AxtBaldassarreetal-2023.pdf
As already mentioned, recycling is a key element in the circular economy, and the hydrogen sector will be no less important. Many of the materials that will be used in the hydrogen value chain are already used in other technologies and processes. It is necessary to know which of these materials can be recycled, which depends on the ease of recycling, the availability of scrap and secondary production. Typically, the more expensive minerals, such as platinum, have the greatest incentive to be recycled. On the other hand, minerals such as cerium are not used in other sectors, so it will be important to recycle them in the hydrogen value chain itself.

Figure 9. Mineral demand by source in the hydrogen value chain.
Source: Susana Moreira, Tim Laing. Sufficiency, sustainability, and circularity of critical materials for clean hydrogen. Hydrogen Council. Available at: WB-Hydrogen-Report-2022.pdf
The European Union and the Critical Materials Law
Some technologies for mobility and hydrogen production rely on certain metals that may have problems meeting demand. For example, the platinum group is used in PEM technology and, for alkaline and solid oxide, minerals such as neodymium, lanthanum and cerium are used. All technologies require more common strategic metals such as cobalt, nickel, manganese and boron.
For these reasons, the European Commission has proposed the Critical Materials Act with the aim of establishing a common strategy and a secure legislative framework for access to these critical materials, thus ensuring their availability and affordability.
The targets set by the European Commission are 10%-40%-15% for extraction, processing and recycling respectively. It also aims to reduce imports through a 65% import diversification target. This may pose a problem since, for example, the platinum used in PEM technology comes mostly from South Africa (71% platinum and 93% iridium).
The European Commission has set a period of three years for member countries to create legislation at national level to implement programs containing measures to improve the circular economy, such as the recycling of scrap and other waste.
Raw materials in the world
In 2017, the European Commission updated the list of critical materials for the European Union. It framed 26 matters as critical out of a total of 61 metals assessed. This list of critical materials is as follows:

Figure 10. List of critical materials
Source: European Commission. Study on the revision of the list of critical raw materials. Executive summary. Available at: CRM list 2017_Executive Summary_Final_EN.pdf
These minerals, not surprisingly, do not share a geographic location, but are found around the globe. Currently, China controls 36.7% of the world’s rare earth reserves, followed by Brazil and Vietnam. Although China has deposits of these minerals in operation, it is a major importer for the processing of this type of material, with 42.3% of the world’s exports of rare earths coming from China in 2008.

Figure 11. Distribution of critical materials in the world
Source: European Commission. Study on the revision of the list of critical raw materials. Executive summary. Available at: CRM list 2017_Executive Summary_Final_EN.pdf

Figure 12. Detailed table with the distribution of critical materials
Source: European Commission. Study on the revision of the list of critical raw materials. Executive summary. Available at: CRM list 2017_Executive Summary_Final_EN.pdf
Conclusions
Although hydrogen and its value chain require the use of critical materials, it seems that it will not be an intensive industry in the use of these minerals, since certain minerals such as platinum can be used in other types of technologies. In any case, due to the expected rapid growth of this type of technology, it will be important for governments and regulatory bodies to plan the extraction and distribution of these materials correctly in order to avoid bottlenecks between production and demand as far as possible.
It is also necessary to comment on the large monopoly that China has acquired in many of the rare earths in recent years. This control over many minerals may make it difficult for Western technology to compete with Chinese technology due to possible tariffs imposed by China on other countries. In summary, China can control the energy transition in the production of renewable electric generators and in the hydrogen value chain due to its strong control over the resources necessary for the development of this type of technology.