PERTH (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed TNG will partner with Germany-based strategic engineering group SMS Group for the development of a carbon-neutral technology to produce green hydrogen as part of an optimisation strategy for the Mt Peake vanadium/titanium/iron project, in the Northern Territory.

Under the agreement, the two companies will partner to develop technology to produce green hydrogen from various renewable, secondary or fossil hydrocarbon sources by means of plasma pyrolysis, with SMS to manage all development activities, and to apply the technology to TNG’s own TIVAN process.

“There is a huge amount of momentum globally moving towards a hydrogen-based economy, and this is an exciting opportunity for TNG, while at the same time having the potential to move our TIVAN process towards carbon-neutral, which is important as we continue on our pathway to secure TNG’s position as a sustainable metals producer,” says TNG MD and CEO Paul Burton.

“We believe that being able to use a carbon-neutral product in our patented TIVAN process will be a further significant advantage to TNG in relation to other competing technologies used for the extraction of high quality titanium, vanadium and iron products from a titanomagnetite ore, sands and slags.”

The technology, which consumes around one-third of the electricity required to produce the same amount of hydrogen by electrolysis of water, could be the preferred reduction agent for the TIVAN process, and has the potential to be applied for the production of hydrogen and syngas from various fossil, biogentic and waste materials, opening additional business opportunities.

A by-product of this process is anticipated to be a highly pure carbon black powder, and possibilities to produce graphene or carbon nanotubes from this powder will also be investigated.

Burton says that the agreement with SMS will not impact the front-end engineering and design study completion and the delivery of turnkey engineering, procurement and construction proposal from SMS, with the hydrogen technology development programme to run in parallel, and subject to the confirmation of technical and commercial feasibility and integration with the project development planning.