Update on the operational activities in Smoltek Innovation

“We are noti­cing a strong interest in our unique cell mater­i­al from glob­al man­u­fac­tur­ers as well as rel­ev­ant research­ers, which is pos­it­ive for our oppor­tun­it­ies to build a well-func­tion­ing eco­sys­tem around the concept. To main­tain a strong momentum, we are now work­ing to estab­lish a col­lab­or­a­tion for the devel­op­ment with a major inter­na­tion­al man­u­fac­turer, as well as to strengthen the Smol­tek Innov­a­tion team, both with­in the com­pany and through con­sult­ants and extern­al research­ers,” says Ellinor Ehrn­berg, Pres­id­ent of Smol­tek Innovation.

Tech­nic­al development

Since the update in May, Smol­tek has con­tin­ued to work on the pre-study which is aimed at devel­op­ing a tech­nic­al proof-of-concept for a cell mater­i­al for elec­tro­lyz­ers based on the company’s nan­ofiber tech­no­logy. The pre-study is man­aged by Smol­tek, and it is car­ried out in col­lab­or­a­tion with sev­er­al European research groups. Ini­tially, the work was focused on ensur­ing pat­ent pro­tec­tion for our innov­a­tions, but now the scope has been expan­ded to eval­u­ate crit­ic­al tech­nic­al para­met­ers and to assess the pos­sible pro­duc­tion cost. The pre-study has also been expan­ded to include vari­ous meth­ods for cor­ro­sion pro­tec­tion, as Smol­tek has shif­ted its focus to the anode side of the elec­tro­lyz­er, where a low pH value provides an aggress­ive envir­on­ment. The tech­nic­al res­ults and per­form­ance obtained so far have been pos­it­ive, and the fibers pro­duced in a labor­at­ory envir­on­ment have an appro­pri­ate shape when inspec­ted under a scan­ning elec­tron microscope.

With­in the tech­nic­al devel­op­ment, Smol­tek Innov­a­tion are in the pro­cess of con­clud­ing the fol­low­ing near-term milestones:

• Cre­ate a col­lab­or­a­tion pro­ject with a large man­u­fac­turer of elec­tro­lyz­ers or com­pon­ents for elec­tro­lyz­ers for fur­ther devel­op­ment of the company’s concept. Dia­logues are cur­rently ongo­ing with sev­er­al glob­al mar­ket- and tech­no­logy-lead­ing companies.

• Proof-of-concept for the company’s nan­ofiber-based cell mater­i­al for electrolyzers.