This is the sixth grant­ed patent pro­tect­ing our inno­va­tions in hydro­gen solu­tions and it brings our IP port­fo­lio to a total of 92 grant­ed patents.

This spe­cif­ic inno­va­tion regards cor­ro­sion pro­tec­tion of the anode in water elec­trol­y­sis, with non-noble met­al oxides. The inno­va­tion also improves dura­bil­i­ty and effi­cien­cy for anode elec­trodes with low irid­i­um loading.

Fabi­an Wenger, Head of R&D at Smoltek Hydrogen

Most of the hydro­gen pro­duced today is from fos­sil hydro­car­bons with huge emis­sions of car­bon diox­ide to the atmos­phere. How­ev­er, hydro­gen pro­duc­tion through elec­trol­y­sis of water can be made 100% fos­sil-free and avoid­ing those emis­sions. A main obsta­cle though is the use of expen­sive pre­cious met­als, like irid­i­um, as cat­a­lysts in the process of the pro­ton exchange mem­brane (PEM) water electrolyzers.

Cur­rent PEM elec­trolyz­ers face sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenges due to the cor­ro­sive con­di­tions with­in the elec­trol­y­sis cell. The com­bi­na­tion of an acidic envi­ron­ment and high elec­tri­cal poten­tial neces­si­tates the use of high­ly chem­i­cal­ly sta­ble mate­ri­als, such as irid­i­um and platinum.

By using car­bon nanos­truc­tures as cat­a­lyst sup­port for the anode elec­trode Smoltek Hydro­gen has showed that a reduc­tion of irid­i­um load­ing of 95% in the PEM elec­trolyz­ers is pos­si­ble. For the pro­tec­tion of the nanos­truc­ture a plat­inum coat­ing is deposit­ed. With the new­ly grant­ed patent, Smoltek Hydro­gen presents a chem­i­cal­ly sta­ble inno­va­tion that coat the nanos­truc­ture with non-noble met­al oxides, reduc­ing the use of expen­sive plat­inum thus fur­ther reduc­ing the cost for the anode. More­over, the inno­va­tion also improves the dura­bil­i­ty and effi­cien­cy of the cell mak­ing the solu­tion even more attrac­tive to elec­trolyz­er manufacturers.

Smoltek’s patent port­fo­lio now glob­al­ly com­pris­es 92 grant­ed patents. Read more about our IP and patents.