Advances in our technology for new cell material for electrolyzers

Smoltek’s R&D‑team has car­ried out sol­id and determ­ined work in order to achieve proof-of-concept of Smoltek’s nan­ofiber-based cell mater­i­al for elec­tro­lyz­ers. This also con­sti­tutes a fur­ther con­firm­a­tion of the oppor­tun­it­ies with our pat­ent pro­tec­ted tech­no­logy plat­form for con­trolled nan­ofiber growth. The tech­no­logy has sub­stan­tial poten­tial to be used to con­trib­ute to a new gen­er­a­tion of PEM (Pro­ton Exchange Mem­brane) elec­tro­lyz­ers, where either sur­face effi­ciency (high­er cur­rent dens­ity) or reduced need of costly iridi­um-based cata­lyst are in focus.

“We have now shown that our cell mater­i­al is an excel­lent car­ri­er for the cata­lyst particles used in PEM elec­tro­lyz­ers, and some of these res­ults have already been presen­ted to poten­tial indus­tri­al part­ners in the form of large inter­na­tion­al man­u­fac­tur­ers in the elec­tro­lyz­er field. Our mater­i­al works as an inter­face lay­er with very low con­tact res­ist­ance for cata­lyt­ic nan­o­particles, for both elec­trons and hydro­gen ions, and this is exactly what is in-demand in this seg­ment,” says Fabi­an Wenger, Tech­no­logy Lead at Smol­tek Innovation.

The prop­er­ties of the cell mater­i­al also makes it suit­able for oth­er related applic­a­tions, includ­ing fuel cells.

“Our mater­i­al con­sti­tutes a pos­sible solu­tion which can be applied broadly in the field of elec­tro­chem­ic­al cells. This includes fuel cells, which are expec­ted to play an import­ant role in the com­ing years for heavy trans­ports. Water elec­tro­lyz­ers on the oth­er hand are key for pro­du­cing green hydro­gen gas that allows energy-intens­ive indus­tries, like steel pro­duc­tion, to become fossil free. Just look­ing at our home mar­ket Sweden, we are noti­cing very large invest­ments in green steel pro­duc­tion,” says Ellinor Ehrn­berg, Pres­id­ent of the group com­pany Smol­tek Innov­a­tion, which is respons­ible for the devel­op­ment of the cell material.

Smol­tek is con­duct­ing dis­cus­sions with poten­tial indus­tri­al part­ners ahead of the con­tin­ued devel­op­ment of the cell mater­i­al. At the same time, the devel­op­ment team is work­ing to cre­ate a suit­able anti-cor­ro­sion coat­ing. This is required to make sure that the mater­i­al is not dam­aged by the aggress­ive envir­on­ment on the anode side of the PEM electrolyzer.

Image: Amin, Henri, Qi, Sim­in and Elisa – parts of Smol­tek R&D‑team