The ‘hydrogen refueling station’ was premiered by President Sebastián Piñera, who highlighted that “Chile has a gigantic potential to become a world leader in the production of green hydrogen”.
News extracted from: actualidad.rt.com
The first green hydrogen (H2v) refuelling station, called a ‘hydrogenera’, was inaugurated in Chile, which will be used to supply vehicles used in the mining industry.
The project is being developed by British mining company Anglo American at its Las Tórtolas plant, located in the Colina district of the Chacabuco province in the Santiago Metropolitan Region.
This ‘hydrogen refuelling station’, as reported at the inauguration ceremony, produced Chile’s first green hydrogen molecule, which will serve as an energy source to decarbonise Chile’s powerful mining industry and is expected to become an export product.
The ‘hydrogen refuelling station’ was inaugurated by the Chilean president, Sebastián Piñera, who highlighted that “Chile has a gigantic potential to become a world leader in the production of green hydrogen”.
“The goal is to develop an industry that exports more than 30 billion dollars a year, a level close to current copper exports,” he said.
Piñera highlighted the benefits of using green hydrogen in the mining industry, such as “reducing diesel consumption”.
“This is a clean, transportable, competitive and sustainable fuel, which will allow us to greatly reduce CO2 emissions,” emphasised the president, who pointed out that with this contribution, the country is fulfilling its commitment to “combat this climate crisis”.
Production and use
At the inauguration, it was also emphasised that green hydrogen is obtained using clean energy.
“The hydrogen refueling station that began operating today will generate green hydrogen from water and electricity produced by a photovoltaic plant located in the municipality of Colina. The water will go through a demineralisation process, the discharge of which will be used to feed the electrolyser. There, the electrolysis of the water will be carried out, giving hydrogen as the main product and oxygen as a by-product, which will be returned to the atmosphere,” says a press release from the Chilean Presidency.
Energy and Mining Minister Juan Carlos Jobet, who called green hydrogen “the fuel of the future”, said that in addition to mining, its use will be extended to freight transport, industrial processes and even for residential use, mixing it with natural gas in home networks.
“We have identified more than 40 green hydrogen projects in our country today. There are some that are for producing hydrogen itself, like the one we saw today. There are some that are to produce ammonia, which is a derivative of hydrogen and is used in fertilisers and explosives for mining. Others are going to produce synthetic fuels, for example in the Magallanes Region,” he said.
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