Essay by Eric Worrall

Perhaps they should take it slow with this “opportunity”.

Focus on South Africa’s own green hydrogen market first, Air Products recommends

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly) – South Africa should initially focus intently on its local green hydrogen market rather than the global market, and progress at its own pace, which has the potential to give it a global lead.

Air Products MD Charles Dos Santos makes this point strongly in a sponsored post that is currently being videod on the website of Mining Weekly’s associate Engineering News publication, within the context of the Green Hydrogen Summit in Cape Town, where Toyota, Valterra Platinum and Air Products showcased together.

“We have an opportunity to develop our own green hydrogen economy without a dependency on the global dynamics,” Dos Santos points out in the video interview, “so let’s focus on our own market, and as those global markets look to diversify the risk of their supply chain, we will participate in it. It’s inevitable.

“But in the short term, the focus should be on our own localised requirements rather than relying on international demand to create a justification for the multiple projects that we’re looking at in the region,” Dos Santos advocates.

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Read more: https://www.miningweekly.com/article/focus-on-south-africas-own-green-hydrogen-market-first-air-products-recommends-2025-06-19

Unfortunately there is no genuine demand for green hydrogen. “… The economics don’t make a lot of sense yet … the global demand … is almost non-existent …” (Charles Dos Santos speaking in the video below).

Even if the economics made sense, producing green hydrogen requires lots of electricity, a commodity South Africa has been struggling with lately.

It’s not just South Africa. President Biden was a fan of green hydrogen, though Biden upset entrepreneurs who answered his call by insisting the electricity used to produce the hydrogen actually has to be green.

Australian leaders are also pushing green hydrogen, even though nobody has any idea who will buy this product.

If green hydrogen has no market, why are some political leaders getting excited about it?

The obvious explanation is political green hydrogen advocates are confusing enthusiasm for demand. Enthusiasm doesn’t pay the bills, people paying you money is what pays the bills. If there is no genuine demand for the product, nobody is going to pay you money – no matter how many words of encouragement other leaders shower on your effort to bring a product to a market which does not exist.