An error occurred while processing the template.
The following has evaluated to null or missing:
==> .vars['reserved-article-group-id']  [in template "161555#161602#ARTICLE-PAGE---HERO" at line 14, column 20]

----
Tip: It's the final [] step that caused this error, not those before it.
----
Tip: If the failing expression is known to legally refer to something that's sometimes null or missing, either specify a default value like myOptionalVar!myDefault, or use <#if myOptionalVar??>when-present<#else>when-missing</#if>. (These only cover the last step of the expression; to cover the whole expression, use parenthesis: (myOptionalVar.foo)!myDefault, (myOptionalVar.foo)??
----

----
FTL stack trace ("~" means nesting-related):
	- Failed at: #assign groupId = .vars["reserved-art...  [in template "161555#161602#ARTICLE-PAGE---HERO" at line 14, column 1]
----
1<#assign namespace = randomNamespace /> 
2<#assign JSONFactoryUtil = staticUtil["com.liferay.portal.kernel.json.JSONFactoryUtil"] /> 
3<#assign journalArticleLocalService = serviceLocator.findService("com.liferay.journal.service.JournalArticleLocalService") /> 
4<#assign containerId = randomNamespace /> 
5<#assign shareURL = themeDisplay.getPortalURL()+themeDisplay.getURLCurrent()/> 
6 
7<#-- Auto-assign ALL category to every article --> 
8<#assign assetCategoryLocalService = serviceLocator.findService("com.liferay.asset.kernel.service.AssetCategoryLocalService") /> 
9<#assign assetEntryLocalService = serviceLocator.findService("com.liferay.asset.kernel.service.AssetEntryLocalService") /> 
10<#assign journalArticleLocalService = serviceLocator.findService("com.liferay.journal.service.JournalArticleLocalService") /> 
11  
12<#-- Get current JournalArticle --> 
13<#assign articleId = .vars['reserved-article-id'].data /> 
14<#assign groupId = .vars['reserved-article-group-id'].data?number /> 
15<#assign journalArticle = journalArticleLocalService.getArticle(groupId, articleId) /> 
16  
17<#-- Get AssetEntry for this article --> 
18<#assign assetEntry = assetEntryLocalService.getEntry("com.liferay.journal.model.JournalArticle", journalArticle.getResourcePrimKey()) /> 
19  
20<#-- Your ALL category ID --> 
21<#assign allCategoryId = 4614994 /> 
22  
23<#-- Assign ALL category if not already set --> 
24<#if !assetEntry.getCategories()?seq_contains(assetCategoryLocalService.getCategory(allCategoryId))> 
25    <#assign categoryIds = assetEntry.getCategoryIds() + [allCategoryId] /> 
26    ${assetEntryLocalService.updateEntry( 
27        assetEntry.getUserId(), 
28        assetEntry.getGroupId(), 
29        assetEntry.getClassName(), 
30        assetEntry.getClassPK(), 
31        assetEntry.getUuid(), 
32        assetEntry.getClassTypeId(), 
33        categoryIds, 
34        assetEntry.getTagNames() 
35    )} 
36</#if> 
37 
38<div class="hero jmarticle__hero-main-container"> 
39    <div class="container"> 
40        <div class="row"> 
41            <div class="article__cont"> 
42                <h1 class="article__heading">${Title.getData()}</h1> 
43                <#if (SubTitle.getData())??> 
44                    <p class="article__para"> 
45                        ${SubTitle.getData()} 
46                    </p> 
47                </#if> 
48 
49                <#assign Date_Data=getterUtil.getString(Date.getData())> 
50                <#if validator.isNotNull(Date_Data)> 
51                    <p class="article__date"> 
52                        <#assign Date_DateObj=dateUtil.parseDate("yyyy-MM-dd", Date_Data, locale)> 
53                        ${dateUtil.getDate(Date_DateObj, "dd MMMM yyyy", locale)} 
54                    </p> 
55                </#if> 
56 
57                <#if Link_Title?? && Link_Title.getData()?has_content> 
58                    <#list Link_Title.getSiblings() as cur_Link_Title> 
59						<#if cur_Link_Title?? && cur_Link_Title.getData()?has_content> 
60							<#assign linkHref="#" /> 
61							<#assign target="" /> 
62							 
63							<#assign rowId = containerId + cur_Link_Title?index /> 
64							<#if cur_Link_Title.Link_Internal?? && cur_Link_Title.Link_Internal.getFriendlyUrl()?has_content> 
65								<#assign linkHref=cur_Link_Title.Link_Internal.getFriendlyUrl() /> 
66							<#elseif cur_Link_Title.Link_Media?? && cur_Link_Title.Link_Media.getData()?has_content> 
67								<#assign linkHref=cur_Link_Title.Link_Media.getData() /> 
68							<#elseif cur_Link_Title.Link_Mailto?? && cur_Link_Title.Link_Mailto.getData()?has_content> 
69								<#assign linkHref="mailto:" + cur_Link_Title.Link_Mailto.getData() /> 
70							<#elseif cur_Link_Title.Link_External?? && cur_Link_Title.Link_External.getData()?has_content> 
71								<#assign linkHref=cur_Link_Title.Link_External.getData() /> 
72							</#if> 
73							<#if (cur_Link_Title.Link_Target??) && (cur_Link_Title.Link_Target.getData())?has_content> 
74								<#assign target=cur_Link_Title.Link_Target.getData() /> 
75							</#if> 
76							<div id="blue_button_click_div" data-analytics-asset-type="custom"> 
77								<div class="jmarticle__hero-btn-list"> 
78									<a id="panel_blue_button_${rowId}" class="article__btn" href="${linkHref}" title="${cur_Link_Title.getData()}" target="${target}" data-analytics-asset-action="click" onclick="onBlueButtonClick(this)" > 
79										<span class="btn__text">${cur_Link_Title.getData()}</span> 
80										<span class="arrow__forward"></span> 
81									</a> 
82								</div> 
83							</div> 
84						</#if> 
85					</#list> 
86                </#if> 
87				  <div class="article-download-share"> 
88                
89                    <#if PDFTitle?? && PDFTitle.getData()?has_content> 
90                        <#assign title = PDFTitle.getData() /> 
91                        <#assign pdf_link = "#" /> 
92                        <#assign pdfrowId = containerId /> 
93                        <#if PDFTitle.PDF?? && PDFTitle.PDF.getData()?has_content> 
94                            <#assign pdf_link = PDFTitle.PDF.getData() /> 
95                        </#if> 
96                        <div class="article-download"> 
97                            <div id="blue_button_click_div" data-analytics-asset-type="custom"> 
98                                <div class="jmarticle__hero-btn-list"> 
99                                    <a id="panel_blue_button_${pdfrowId}" class="article__btn" href="${pdf_link}" title="${title}" data-analytics-asset-action="click" onclick="onBlueButtonClick(this)"> 
100                                        <span class="btn__text">${title}</span> 
101                                        <span class="arrow__forward"></span> 
102                                    </a> 
103                                   <a id="panel_blue_button_${pdfrowId}" class="article__btn-mobile" href="${pdf_link}"             title="${title}" data-analytics-asset-action="click" onclick="onBlueButtonClick(this)"> 
104                                       <img src="${themeDisplay.getPathThemeImages()}/new__jm__images/download-white-icon.svg" alt="twitter image"/> 
105                                    </a> 
106                                </div> 
107                            </div> 
108                        </div> 
109                    </#if> 
110                                 
111                </div> 
112                 
113            </div> 
114        </div> 
115       <#if (ImageLarge.getData())?? && ImageLarge.getData() != ""> 
116            <div class="row jmarticle__hero-banner" id="jmarticle__hero-${namespace}"  
117            style="background-image: url(${ImageLarge.getData()})"> 
118        </#if> 
119 
120        </div> 
121    </div> 
122</div> 
123 
124<#if Author?? && Author.getData()?has_content> 
125    <div class="jmarticle__author-info"> 
126        <div class="container"> 
127            <div class="hero__bar"> 
128                     <#list Author.getSiblings() as cur_Author> 
129                            <#if cur_Author?? && cur_Author.getData()?has_content> 
130                                <#assign 
131                                    webContentData = jsonFactoryUtil.createJSONObject(cur_Author.getData()) 
132                                    gId = groupId 
133                                    journalArticle = journalArticleLocalService.getArticleByUrlTitle(gId, webContentData.title) 
134                                    docXML = saxReaderUtil.read(journalArticle.getContent()) 
135 
136                                    fName = docXML.valueOf("//dynamic-element[@name='FullName']/dynamic-content/text()") 
137                                    jobTitle = docXML.valueOf("//dynamic-element[@name='JobTitle']/dynamic-content/text()") 
138                                    role = docXML.valueOf("//dynamic-element[@name='ContactInfo']/dynamic-content/text()") 
139                                    photoXML = docXML.valueOf("//dynamic-element[@name='Photo']/dynamic-content/text()") 
140                                    photoSrc = JSONFactoryUtil.createJSONObject(photoXML).getString("uuid") 
141                                    fullName = docXML.valueOf("//dynamic-element[@name='Title']/dynamic-content/text()") 
142                                    authorImageXML = docXML.valueOf("//dynamic-element[@name='ImageLarge']/dynamic-content/text()") 
143                                    authImageSrc = JSONFactoryUtil.createJSONObject(authorImageXML).getString("uuid") 
144                                    summary = docXML.valueOf("//dynamic-element[@name='Summary']/dynamic-content/text()") 
145                                /> 
146 
147                                    <div class="author"> 
148                                        <figure class="author__image"> 
149                                            <#if authImageSrc?? && authImageSrc?has_content> 
150                                                <img src="/documents/${groupId}/${authImageSrc}" alt="${fullName}" class="author_img_class_new"> 
151                                            <#elseif photoSrc?? && photoSrc?has_content> 
152                                                <img src="/documents/${groupId}/${photoSrc}" alt="${fName}" class="author_img_class_new"> 
153                                            </#if> 
154                                        </figure> 
155                                        <div class="author__details d-flex flex-column"> 
156                                            <h3 class="author__name"> 
157                                                <a rel="author"> 
158                                                    <#if fullName?? && fullName?has_content> 
159                                                        ${fullName} 
160                                                    <#elseif fName?? && fName?has_content> 
161                                                        ${fName} 
162                                                    </#if> 
163                                                </a> 
164                                            </h3> 
165                                            <p class="author__desc text-size-a author_job_title"> 
166                                                <#if jobTitle?? && jobTitle?has_content> 
167                                                    ${jobTitle} 
168                                                </#if> 
169                                            </p> 
170                                            <span> 
171                                                <p class="author__desc text-size-a"> 
172                                                    <#if summary?? && summary?has_content> 
173                                                        ${summary} 
174                                                    </#if> 
175                                                    <#if role?? && role?has_content> 
176                                                        ${role} 
177                                                    </#if> 
178                                                </p> 
179                                            </span> 
180                                        </div> 
181                                        <div> 
182                                            <div class="author__contact"> 
183                                                <ul class="author__contact-list"> 
184                                                </ul> 
185                                            </div> 
186                                        </div> 
187                                    </div> 
188                             </#if> 
189                     </#list> 
190            </div> 
191    	</div> 
192    </div> 
193</#if> 
194 
195 
196 
197<div class="container"> 
198    <div class="row"> 
199        <div class="article__intro"> 
200            <#if (Introduction.getData())??> 
201            	${Introduction.getData()} 
202            </#if> 
203 
204           <div class="article-download-share"> 
205                
206                    <#if PDFTitle?? && PDFTitle.getData()?has_content> 
207                        <#assign title = PDFTitle.getData() /> 
208                        <#assign pdf_link = "#" /> 
209                        <#assign pdfrowId = containerId /> 
210                        <#if PDFTitle.PDF?? && PDFTitle.PDF.getData()?has_content> 
211                            <#assign pdf_link = PDFTitle.PDF.getData() /> 
212                        </#if> 
213                        <div class="article-download"> 
214                            <div id="blue_button_click_div" data-analytics-asset-type="custom"> 
215                                <div class="jmarticle__hero-btn-list"> 
216                                    <a id="panel_blue_button_${pdfrowId}" class="article__btn" href="${pdf_link}" title="${title}" data-analytics-asset-action="click" onclick="onBlueButtonClick(this)"> 
217                                        <span class="btn__text">${title}</span> 
218                                        <span class="arrow__forward"></span> 
219                                    </a> 
220                                   <a id="panel_blue_button_${pdfrowId}" class="article__btn-mobile" href="${pdf_link}"             title="${title}" data-analytics-asset-action="click" onclick="onBlueButtonClick(this)"> 
221                                       <img src="${themeDisplay.getPathThemeImages()}/new__jm__images/download-white-icon.svg" alt="twitter image"/> 
222                                    </a> 
223                                </div> 
224                            </div> 
225                        </div> 
226                    </#if>               
227                
228                   
229               <div class="article-share"> 
230                   <a href="https://linkedin.com/shareArticle?url=${shareURL}&title=<#if (Title.getData())??>${Title.getData()}</#if>" target="_blank"> 
231                       <img class="socialicons__img" src="${themeDisplay.getPathThemeImages()}/new__jm__images/social_icons-LinkedIN.png" alt="twitter image"/> 
232                    </a> 
233                      <a  href="https://twitter.com/share?url=${shareURL}&text=<#if (Title.getData())??>${Title.getData()}</#if>" target="_blank"> 
234                       <img class="socialicons__img" src="${themeDisplay.getPathThemeImages()}/new__jm__images/social_icons-Twitter.png" alt="twitter image"/> 
235                    </a> 
236                </div> 
237            </div> 
238       
239        </div> 
240    </div> 
241</div> 
242 
243<style> 
244    img.author_img_class_new { 
245        width: 100% !important; 
246        height: 100% !important; 
247        position: absolute; 
248        margin: auto; 
249        top: 0; 
250        bottom: 0; 
251
252     
253    .article__btn:focus-visible { 
254    outline: 2px solid blue !important; 
255
256 
257@media (min-width: 320px) and (max-width: 650px) { 
258	.article__intro li { 
259	   margin-left: -32px !important;		 
260
261	.journal-content-article .container .article__intro { 
262    margin-top: 22px !important; 
263
264
265@media (min-width: 540px) and (max-width: 834px) { 
266    .article__intro li { 
267	      margin-left: -32px !important;		 
268
269    .article__intro { 
270        margin: 60px 15px 0 5px !important;         
271
272
273  
274@media (min-width: 320px) and (max-width: 539px){ 
275.jmarticle__author-info { 
276    padding: 0px 0; 
277
278.jmarticle__author-info .author__image { 
279    width: 39px; 
280    height: 40px; 
281
282 
283.jmarticle__author-info .author__name a { 
284    line-height: 0px; 
285    font-size: 18px !important; 
286    margin-right: 10px; 
287
288 
289.jmarticle__author-info .author__desc { 
290     
291    line-height: 14px; 
292    font-size: 12px !important; 
293    margin-bottom: 7px; 
294
295
296  
297</style> 

Leading forecasters, such as the International Energy Agency, see hydrogen growing to become as big as electric power is today by 2050, as it is increasingly taken up across industry, transportation and the power sector. As the only zero carbon route, electrolytic (green) hydrogen production is forecast to play a major role in the transition to a net zero. 

Proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysis is one technology used to produce electrolytic hydrogen. PEM electrolysers use catalyst coated membranes (CCMs) at their core to split water into oxygen and hydrogen under an electric current. For this reaction to occur, iridium-based catalysts at the anode and platinum-based catalysts at the cathode are used. These platinum group metals (PGMs) are ideal due to their activity and stability in the electrolyser system. There are currently no suitable alternatives that can work reliably in the high-voltage, acidic conditions of a PEM cell. 

The crucial role of PGMs—particularly iridium—has led to concern around supply and whether there is enough to support sufficient scale-up of PEM capacity to produce electrolytic hydrogen. Some commentators have quoted iridium requirements that far exceed supply, painting iridium availability as an insurmountable challenge. However, these concerns are misplaced. We can manage targeted capacity growth within available supply if we use the raw materials efficiently, and if we recycle. 

 

Myth-busting the iridium challenge  

The iridium market is very small compared to other commodity metals, so unsurprisingly its supply dynamics are not widely understood. Iridium is mostly produced as a minor by-product of platinum mining in southern Africa, specifically South Africa and Zimbabwe, which typically accounts for up to 95% of iridium mined annually.  These southern African operations are owned by reputable, large, publicly traded companies. The remaining 5% or so of iridium supply is mainly a trace by-product from nickel mining in Russia and Canada. Nobody mines for iridium in its own right, but it will continue to be produced as long as platinum is. 

The main myth surrounding iridium is that there is not enough of it to support the growth of PEM electrolyser technology, but this assumes that the intensity of iridium use will not change. If we look at today’s technology, around 400 kg of iridium is required for every 1 GW of electrolyser capacity. To make sufficient progress towards net-zero targets, the Hydrogen Council estimates PEM capacity would need to increase to around 80 - 100 GW by 2030, assuming a 40% PEM market share. If we used today’s technology for all that capacity, we would require 30 - 40 tonnes of iridium over the next eight years—a challenging requirement given just 7 - 8 tonnes of iridium is mined each year, never mind the likelihood of competition with other sectors for the metal. Increasing capacity further to the levels required by 2040 and 2050 could then start to look unattainable. 

These projections are wrong because they do not factor in either thrifting—reducing the quantity of iridium required per gigawatt—or recycling, both of which are a given for a relatively new technology that uses PGMs. We have seen exactly this trend for other PGM-using technologies to date. For example, the use of PGMs in catalytic converters for gasoline and diesel vehicles has only been sustainable with greatly increased efficiency of metal use and with recycling, which is driven by the value of these metals. 

Critics argue that iridium is not recycled, citing that very little recycled or secondary iridium is returned to be sold on the market. But considerable quantities of iridium are routinely recycled. This metal is usually reused within the same application in a process we term ‘closed-loop’ recycling. This recycling is not seen by the market, as the metal value remains with the original owner, but it significantly reduces the amount of primary iridium these industries need to buy. Johnson Matthey is the world’s largest secondary PGM recycler by volume and is skilled in efficiently recovering and refining PGMs, including iridium, to a high purity so they can be reused. And we continue to invest in research and technology in this area. 

In order to make the available iridium stretch as far as possible, we need to thrift. This will allow us to get the most from each gram of iridium used—and reused. Thrifting requires innovation, particularly in formulating more effective catalysts, more efficient membranes, and tuning the way they are assembled into CCMs.  For example, if the iridium required per gigawatt were reduced by 75%, this would mean just 8 - 10 tonnes of iridium is needed to install the targeted levels of PEM capacity by 2030--around 10 - 20% of supply between now and 2030. And make no mistake, reductions of that order and more are being targeted. Then if CCM efficiency is also increased, not only are you using less iridium per gigawatt, but each gigawatt of capacity can produce more hydrogen, truly maximising the efficiency of raw materials use. 

Iridium supply is limited, and this will inevitably pose a potential constraint, but we are in a good position to navigate this challenge so that it doesn’t restrict the growth of hydrogen. A focus on efficiency and circularity of this valuable element within the supply chain will support hydrogen’s valuable part in our net zero journey.  

 

This article was originally published in the Hydrogen Economist's Outlook 2023 special report.

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