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Smoltek Hydro­gen

Unleashing the scale-up of green hydrogen

Smoltek Hydro­gen’s PTE tech­nol­o­gy reduces irid­i­um usage to 0.1 mg/​cm² while main­tain­ing indus­try-stan­dard per­for­mance. Our Cat­a­lyst Coat­ed Sub­strate (CCS) approach uses patent-pro­tect­ed nanofiber depo­si­tion to cre­ate 30× larg­er active sur­face area, ensur­ing near­ly all cat­a­lyst mate­r­i­al active­ly par­tic­i­pates in the reac­tion. This break­through removes the irid­i­um sup­ply bot­tle­neck that cur­rent­ly lim­its elec­trolyz­er scale-up for green hydro­gen production.

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Key technology partners

Heraeus
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Our offer

Smoltek’s PTE technology enables iridium-efficient electrolysis across the supply chain

Our CCS-based elec­trode tech­nol­o­gy part­ners with man­u­fac­tur­ers through­out the PEM elec­trolyz­er val­ue chain to over­come the irid­i­um bot­tle­neck. Here are key col­lab­o­ra­tion oppor­tu­ni­ties for dif­fer­ent indus­try segments.

Electrolyzer Manufacturers

Com­plete PEM elec­trolyz­er sys­tems face irid­i­um sup­ply con­straints lim­it­ing pro­duc­tion scale-up. Smoltek PTE enables 20x more units from the same irid­i­um sup­ply while main­tain­ing per­for­mance stan­dards for indus­tri­al hydro­gen production.

MEA Manufacturers

Mem­brane elec­trode assem­blies tra­di­tion­al­ly rely on cat­a­lyst coat­ed mem­brane (CCM) approach­es requir­ing 2 mg/​cm² irid­i­um. Our CCS tech­nol­o­gy inte­grates with exist­ing MEA pro­duc­tion to deliv­er equiv­a­lent per­for­mance at 0.1 mg/​cm² loading.

Membrane Manufacturers

PEM mem­brane pro­duc­ers can expand offer­ings beyond CCM solu­tions by part­ner­ing with Smoltek to pro­vide com­plete CCS-based elec­trode sys­tems that dra­mat­i­cal­ly reduce cus­tomer irid­i­um require­ments and costs.

Bipolar Plate Manufacturers

Bipo­lar plate pro­duc­ers can inte­grate Smoltek PTE with their plates to offer com­plete elec­trode-plate assem­blies. This posi­tions them as sys­tem sup­pli­ers rather than com­po­nent ven­dors, cap­tur­ing more val­ue in the elec­trolyz­er stack.

PTL Manufacturers

Porous trans­port lay­er pro­duc­ers can inte­grate our nanofiber tech­nol­o­gy to deliv­er enhanced PTL prod­ucts with 30x sur­face area, posi­tion­ing them­selves as sup­pli­ers of next-gen­er­a­tion elec­trode substrates.

PGM Suppliers

Plat­inum group met­al sup­pli­ers face cus­tomers lim­it­ed by irid­i­um avail­abil­i­ty. Smoltek tech­nol­o­gy enables these cus­tomers to scale pro­duc­tion while requir­ing 95% less irid­i­um per unit, expand­ing total mar­ket opportunity.

About us

Built on 20+ years of carbon nanotechnology research

Our approach com­bines 20+ years of car­bon nan­otech­nol­o­gy research from Chalmers Uni­ver­si­ty of Tech­nol­o­gy, patent pro­tec­tion across major elec­tro­chem­i­cal mar­kets, and a team where most R&D staff hold Ph.D.s in mate­ri­als sci­ence, elec­tro­chem­istry, and nan­otech­nol­o­gy processes.

From university research to industrial applications

Smoltek was found­ed in December2005, as a spin-off from research at Chalmers Uni­ver­si­ty of Tech­nol­o­gy with a focus on pre­cise­ly con­trol­ling car­bon nanos­truc­ture growth. Since then, Smoltek has devel­oped this tech­nol­o­gy into prac­ti­cal man­u­fac­tur­ing process­es. Smoltek Hydro­gen applies this proven tech­nol­o­gy plat­form to address the irid­i­um scarci­ty chal­lenge in PEM electrolysis.

Patent portfolio covering core technology and processes

Smoltek’s intel­lec­tu­al prop­er­ty port­fo­lio includes over 120 patents (grant­ed and pend­ing) cov­er­ing core car­bon nan­otech­nol­o­gy, com­po­nent struc­tures, and man­u­fac­tur­ing process­es. This pro­tec­tion spans major mar­kets includ­ing the US, Europe, Chi­na, Japan, and Korea, with grow­ing focus on elec­tro­chem­i­cal applications.

Deep technical knowledge from research to manufacturing

Most of our R&D team holds Ph.D.s in mate­ri­als sci­ence, elec­tro­chem­istry, or nan­otech­nol­o­gy engi­neer­ing. Our tech­ni­cal depth spans from fun­da­men­tal car­bon nanofiber growth mech­a­nisms to inte­gra­tion in PEM elec­trolyz­er man­u­fac­tur­ing, ensur­ing both sci­en­tif­ic rig­or and indus­tri­al scalability.

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Our process

From initial samples to commercial production

We work with indus­tri­al part­ners through a struc­tured devel­op­ment process that aligns with how large enter­pris­es eval­u­ate and inte­grate new tech­nolo­gies. Each stage builds on the pre­vi­ous one, with clear tech­ni­cal and com­mer­cial milestones.

Technical evaluation and samples

We pro­vide engi­neer­ing sam­ples of our PTE for your ini­tial test­ing. Your tech­ni­cal team gets direct access to our R&D engi­neers to dis­cuss per­for­mance data, man­u­fac­tur­ing para­me­ters, and poten­tial appli­ca­tions. This stage typ­i­cal­ly involves lab-scale test­ing to val­i­date basic func­tion­al­i­ty and compatibility.

Formal collaboration and feasibility study

Fol­low­ing pos­i­tive ini­tial results, we estab­lish a for­mal col­lab­o­ra­tion agree­ment. This can take the form of a joint devel­op­ment project, fea­si­bil­i­ty study, or tech­ni­cal advi­so­ry agree­ment. We con­duct detailed analy­sis of tech­ni­cal require­ments, man­u­fac­tur­ing inte­gra­tion, and com­mer­cial via­bil­i­ty spe­cif­ic to your applications.

Licensing agreement and design integration

With proven tech­ni­cal and com­mer­cial fea­si­bil­i­ty, we forge a licens­ing part­ner­ship. You gain access to our IP port­fo­lio, man­u­fac­tur­ing know-how, and design doc­u­men­ta­tion. Your engi­neer­ing teams can then per­form detailed design work and inte­grate our tech­nol­o­gy into your pro­duc­tion processes.

Production support and ongoing development

Our rela­tion­ship con­tin­ues through com­mer­cial pro­duc­tion. Your team retains access to our R&D spe­cial­ists for tech­ni­cal sup­port, process opti­miza­tion, and co-devel­op­ment of next-gen­er­a­tion solu­tions. This ensures con­tin­u­ous improve­ment and helps address evolv­ing requirements.

Fea­tures

How Smoltek PTE technology addresses electrolyzer manufacturing challenges

PEM elec­trolyz­er man­u­fac­tur­ing faces crit­i­cal con­straints from irid­i­um scarci­ty and inef­fi­cient cat­a­lyst uti­liza­tion in con­ven­tion­al CCM approach­es. Our CCS-based PTE tech­nol­o­gy solves these fun­da­men­tal lim­i­ta­tions through advanced nanofiber archi­tec­ture and opti­mized cat­a­lyst deposition.

30X larger active area

We grow ver­ti­cal­ly aligned car­bon nanofibers on the PTL sub­strate, cre­at­ing mas­sive elec­tro­chem­i­cal­ly active sur­face area with­in the same foot­print. This 3D archi­tec­ture enables pre­cise con­trol of fiber prop­er­ties, mul­ti­ply­ing reac­tion sites while main­tain­ing opti­mal mass transport.

Ultra-low iridium utilization

Our CCS approach ensures every irid­i­um atom active­ly par­tic­i­pates in the oxy­gen evo­lu­tion reac­tion through direct elec­tri­cal con­tact via the con­duc­tive nanofiber scaf­fold. This enables 0.1 mg/​cm² load­ing ver­sus 2 mg/​cm² in CCM systems.

Integrated corrosion protection

Each car­bon nanofiber receives a thin plat­inum coat­ing that pre­vents oxi­da­tion in the aggres­sive anod­ic envi­ron­ment. This pro­tec­tive bar­ri­er main­tains struc­tur­al integri­ty dur­ing long-term oper­a­tion, ensur­ing reli­able elec­trode per­for­mance through­out the elec­trolyz­er’s oper­a­tional lifetime.

Substrate flexibility

Our CCS approach works on most con­duc­tive sub­strates, not just tita­ni­um mesh. Unlike CCM which lim­its man­u­fac­tur­ing to mem­brane pro­duc­ers, our nanofiber tech­nol­o­gy enables more sup­ply chain par­tic­i­pants to offer enhanced elec­trodes for diverse applications.

Tes­ti­mo­ni­al

Industry expert perspective on Smoltek PTE technology

Lis­ten as Dr. Felix Büchi pro­vide his expert analy­sis of Smoltek PTE tech­nol­o­gy. Dr. Büchi is a rec­og­nized expert in PEM elec­tro­chem­i­cal sys­tems with over 20 years of expe­ri­ence at Paul Scher­rer Insti­tute. As Group Head of the Elec­tro­chem­istry Lab­o­ra­to­ry, Dr. Büchi spe­cial­izes in PEM fuel cells and elec­trolyz­ers, with par­tic­u­lar exper­tise in char­ac­ter­iz­ing porous mate­ri­als for these appli­ca­tions. This inter­view was record­ed fol­low­ing his inde­pen­dent tech­ni­cal assess­ment of Smoltek Hydrogen’s break­through elec­trode technology.

Fre­quent­ly asked questions

What performance can PTE achieve?

We have demon­strat­ed 0.1 mg/​cm² irid­i­um load­ing achiev­ing 2.5 A/​cm² at 2V while main­tain­ing indus­try-stan­dard per­for­mance. This rep­re­sents a 95% reduc­tion from con­ven­tion­al 2 mg/​cm² CCM approach­es. Our car­bon nanofiber archi­tec­ture cre­ates 30x larg­er active sur­face area with­in the same foot­print. Inde­pen­dent val­i­da­tion by Dr. Felix Büchi con­firms equiv­a­lent per­for­mance with dra­mat­i­cal­ly reduced pre­cious met­al usage.

How is PTE manufactured?

We oper­ate a fab­less mod­el with estab­lished man­u­fac­tur­ing part­ner­ships. Spark­Nano pro­vides Spa­tial ALD tech­nol­o­gy while AGC Plas­ma Tech­nol­o­gy Solu­tions sup­plies PECVD sys­tems for nanofiber growth. Our addi­tive process uses stan­dard indus­tri­al equip­ment and can be inte­grat­ed into exist­ing PTL pro­duc­tion lines. We pro­vide com­plete tech­nol­o­gy trans­fer pack­ages includ­ing process spec­i­fi­ca­tions and qual­i­ty con­trol procedures.

What does a licensing involve?

Our licens­ing mod­el includes three com­po­nents: upfront licens­ing fees for patent access, non-recur­ring engi­neer­ing fees for inte­gra­tion sup­port and qual­i­fi­ca­tion assis­tance, and pro­duc­tion roy­al­ties based on net sales of prod­ucts incor­po­rat­ing our tech­nol­o­gy. The spe­cif­ic terms are struc­tured based on your appli­ca­tion and vol­ume requirements.

What applications is addressed?

We start with PTE com­po­nents for PEM elec­trolyz­ers as our imme­di­ate mar­ket focus. The devel­op­ment roadmap includes fuel cell appli­ca­tions where our nanofiber tech­nol­o­gy reduces con­tact resis­tance, fol­lowed by oth­er elec­tro­chem­i­cal sys­tems requir­ing enhanced sur­face area and low pre­cious met­al load­ing. Each appli­ca­tion builds on the same core car­bon nanofiber platform.

What support do you provide?

Our R&D team works direct­ly with your engi­neer­ing teams through­out the inte­gra­tion process. This includes design opti­miza­tion for your spe­cif­ic appli­ca­tions, process para­me­ter adjust­ment, qual­i­fi­ca­tion test­ing sup­port, and ongo­ing tech­ni­cal con­sul­ta­tion. We main­tain this rela­tion­ship through pro­duc­tion and future prod­uct development.

Your questions answered

Eval­u­at­ing new elec­trode tech­nol­o­gy requires under­stand­ing per­for­mance spec­i­fi­ca­tions, man­u­fac­tur­ing require­ments, and inte­gra­tion path­ways. Here are answers to com­mon ques­tions about our Smoltek PTE tech­nol­o­gy from our tech­ni­cal dis­cus­sions with indus­try partners.

We active­ly seek part­ner­ships with elec­trolyz­er man­u­fac­tur­ers and com­po­nent sup­pli­ers to bring PTE tech­nol­o­gy to mar­ket. Our R&D team works direct­ly with prospec­tive part­ners to eval­u­ate com­mer­cial oppor­tu­ni­ties and address spe­cif­ic inte­gra­tion challenges.

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Our Promise

How we will work with you

We under­stand that adopt­ing dis­rup­tive tech­nol­o­gy requires trans­paren­cy and pre­dictabil­i­ty. Our part­ner­ship approach focus­es on work­ing togeth­er through each tech­ni­cal and com­mer­cial mile­stone in a dis­ci­plined and struc­tured way.

Minimize upfront risk

You don’t need to com­mit to a full-scale license right away. We rec­om­mend start­ing with spe­cif­ic projects, such as fea­si­bil­i­ty stud­ies or joint devel­op­ment work, to address par­tic­u­lar tech­ni­cal chal­lenges. This approach enables your engi­neer­ing teams to val­i­date our tech­nol­o­gy with­in your exist­ing elec­trolyz­er sys­tems and appli­ca­tions before mak­ing larg­er commitments.

Clear development timeline with measurable goals

We fol­low a struc­tured devel­op­ment plan with spe­cif­ic per­for­mance tar­gets for each mile­stone. We have achieved our break­through tar­get of 0.1 mg/​cm² irid­i­um load­ing with indus­try-stan­dard per­for­mance. Exten­sive 1,000-hour dura­bil­i­ty test­ing val­i­dates the long-term sta­bil­i­ty of our elec­trode tech­nol­o­gy. This rep­re­sents the crit­i­cal thresh­old for com­mer­cial via­bil­i­ty, enabling 95% reduc­tion in pre­cious met­al usage com­pared to con­ven­tion­al approach­es. Our strate­gic col­lab­o­ra­tion with Her­aeus focus­es on com­bin­ing our respec­tive exper­tise to enhance PTE func­tion­al­i­ty and effi­cien­cy, tar­get­ing high­er hydro­gen out­put per kilo­watt in next-gen­er­a­tion elec­trodes for PEM electrolyzers.

Complete technical capability from research to manufacturing

We cov­er all aspects of PTE devel­op­ment, pro­vid­ing sup­port through­out your eval­u­a­tion and imple­men­ta­tion process:

  • Research basis: Our tech­nol­o­gy orig­i­nates from research in car­bon nan­otech­nol­o­gy at the Depart­ment of Microtech­nol­o­gy and Nanoscience (MC2), Chalmers Uni­ver­si­ty of Tech­nol­o­gy, begin­ning in 2000. Since Smoltek was found­ed in 2005, we have main­tained a close col­lab­o­ra­tion with Chalmers researchers and con­tin­ue using their spe­cial­ized lab­o­ra­to­ry equip­ment for ongo­ing devel­op­ment as well as hav­ing our own R&D tools at the MC2 laboratory.
  • Process devel­op­ment: We have devel­oped both patent­ed meth­ods and deep know-how for trans­fer our car­bon nanofiber research into man­u­fac­tur­ing process­es. Our patents cov­er the growth and coat­ing tech­niques, while our know-how encom­pass­es the prac­ti­cal details need­ed for con­sis­tent man­u­fac­tur­ing. This com­bi­na­tion enables us to trans­fer lab­o­ra­to­ry results to indus­tri­al-scale man­u­fac­tur­ing using stan­dard equipment.
  • Man­u­fac­tur­ing part­ner­ships: We have estab­lished part­ner­ships that cre­ate a seam­less path from lab to com­mer­cial pro­duc­tion. Spark­Nano pro­vides Spa­tial ALD tech­nol­o­gy for cat­a­lyst depo­si­tion, while AGC Plas­ma Tech­nol­o­gy Solu­tions sup­plies PECVD sys­tems for nanofiber growth. Our strate­gic col­lab­o­ra­tion with Her­aeus demon­strates com­mer­cial readi­ness for scal­ing from lab­o­ra­to­ry sam­ples to pro­duc­tion volumes.

This com­plete capa­bil­i­ty means we can sup­port your project from ini­tial sam­ples through com­mer­cial manufacturing.

Whitepa­per

Introducing Smoltek Electrolyzer Technology

A deep dive into Smoltek’s elec­trolyz­er tech­nol­o­gy – get your free copy from Smoltek. This is not a mar­ket­ing brochure, but a 15-page tech­ni­cal whitepa­per authored by our nan­otech­nol­o­gy experts. Learn about how CVD-grown car­bon nanofibers can rev­o­lu­tion­ize hydro­gen pro­duc­tion, improve cat­a­lyst effi­cien­cy in PEM elec­trolyz­ers, and enable more effi­cient renew­able ener­gy storage.

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