Renewable Hydrogen Magnesium pilot plant

1. Renewable Hydrogen Magnesium pilot plant Integrated Renewable-Hydrogen-Magnesium pilot plant for green-energy high-capacity production Fabrizio D’Errico (Project Coordinator) Politecnico di Milano, Department of Mechanics, Milano (ITALY)

2. Project KEY TARGETS • Bridging the gap between research and market to introduce on marketplace a promising eco-efficient technology (resulting from several years of R&D both on the process and the material aspects) for raw magnesium extractionfrom renewable and inexhaustible resources; • Demonstrating the feasibility in terms of economic self-sustainability of such a carbon-free scalable industrializing pathway, suitable for integrated production of magnesium and hydrogen, the two basic elements for early markets in the hydrogen economy.

3. Broad context and starting point: Hydrogen Economy barriers and magnesium solution One of the most promising process for a carbon free hydrogen production is the water electrolyzing, if electricity consumed for process is produced from renewable sources; Hydrogen economy is far from developing since infrastructure is not able to satisfy potential demand from users; With no adequate infrastructure for delivering to end-users, demand side could not increase (“eggs and chicken” problem); Capital costs for infrastructure are major impediments to competitive prices of delivered hydrogen on marketplace; Cost-effective solutions for storage and hydrogen delivery are needed to overcome prohibitive capital costs for the infrastructure; In transition phase, building end-users demand requires high synergies among stakeholders so to lead transition from fossil fuel to hydrogen economy, gradually implementing simplified but economically self-sustained systems;

4. Basic concept • To overcome main barriers of high capital costs for transferring hydrogen from these remote production plants and for the delivering to end-users: Main interesting solution for sustain in early markets transition from fossil fuel to hydrogen energy system is to store hydrogen into container tanks trough magnesium hydrides then transferred at power generation stations (remote conversion sites), where hydrogen is desorbed from tanks and then employed to produce green-electricity

5. As-Is scenario for current magnesium market • The raw magnesium production in Western countries have been shutting down for last years, since production plants are not competitive with cheapest magnesium produced by China (Pigdeon process, mainly) • Pigdeon processes (thermal) are too much un-clean for magnesium prime production to be successfully exploited for weightsaving transport sector and reduce CO2 emissions (take into account the whole LCA!)

6. To-Be Scenario • Electricity costs that drive primarily raw magnesium extraction cost via-electrolytical process are drastically cut whether electricity powering electrolysis process comes from solar thermal; • Ores for magnesium extraction are produced inexhaustibly in a line-process from renewable sources, that is from desalination of seawater to produce MgCl2 brine • Distilled water byproductobtainedduring evaporation phase for MgCl2 precipitation is the input product for hydrogen production by water electrolysis (powered by solar energy) • Magnesium production cost is therefore decoupled from electricity cost (today major cost share) from grid (electricity will be on-site produced) • Magnesium produced keeps low production cost, but increased its value in forthe hydrogen production and delivering supply-chain (magnesium will be processed to realize high value Mg-based materials for hydrogen storage, key for hydrogen trading)

7. The RHM Project: the pilot

8. The GREEN ENERGY MARKET served by RHM upscaled plants

9. PARTNERS and main TASKS General Infrastructure (PEC Srl)

10. Grazie per l’attenzione Fabrizio D’Errico LIFE10 ENV IT 323 – RHM Pilot Plant Project Coordinator Politecnico di Milano, Dipartimento di Meccanica Via La Masa 34, Milano fabrizio.derrico@polimi.it