The col­lab­o­ra­tion begins with test­ing in a 4 kW Hyworx elec­trolyz­er stack. The part­ners will fur­ther opti­mize irid­i­um load­ing and devel­op cur­rent den­si­ty, with joint stack test­ing planned from the sec­ond half of 2027. From there, the elec­trode tech­nol­o­gy is intend­ed to fol­low Hyworx’s roadmap into its larg­er L- and XL-Series stacks, aimed at mul­ti-megawatt deployments.

Why iridium matters 

Irid­i­um is one of the major cost dri­vers in PEM elec­trol­y­sis. Smoltek’s nanos­truc­tured PTE is designed to make bet­ter use of the avail­able irid­i­um oxide cat­a­lyst, with­out ionomer or binder, so near­ly all of the high-sur­face irid­i­um can be active.

Smoltek’s anode PTE is tar­get­ing 0.1 mg iridium/​cm², while remain­ing com­pat­i­ble with exist­ing stack designs. The goal: reduce pre­cious-met­al con­tent, increase pow­er den­si­ty, and help bring down the cost of green hydrogen.

A shared path from S to XL 

Under the LOI, Smoltek and Hyworx will: 

• Tai­lor the PTE to the S‑Series cell for­mat and oper­at­ing window
• Val­i­date it in S‑Series stacks from H2 2027
• Car­ry the tech­nol­o­gy for­ward to Hyworx’s larg­er L- and XL-Series cells
• Set shared tar­gets for cost, per­for­mance and dura­bil­i­ty across stack generations

Less pre­cious met­al in every cell and more pow­er from the same stack hard­ware is a direct lever on stack cost; and those sav­ings can car­ry across Hyworx’s entire prod­uct family.

Fabi­an Wenger, Head of R&D at Smoltek Hydro­gen high­lights the oper­a­tional upside: “High­er cur­rent den­si­ty with only a frac­tion of the usu­al irid­i­um can boost the rat­ed pow­er of each stack, enabling more hydro­gen pro­duc­tion when renew­able elec­tric­i­ty is abun­dant and inexpensive.”

What this means

This is a prac­ti­cal exam­ple of how advanced mate­ri­als and stack design can work togeth­er: not just improv­ing one com­po­nent but build­ing a scal­able path­way from decen­tral­ized hydro­gen pro­duc­tion to megawatt-class plants.

The LOI is non-bind­ing, and the stat­ed time­lines and per­for­mance fig­ures reflect devel­op­ment goals and lab-cell test­ing rather than final com­mer­cial commitments.

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• Read the offi­cial press release: Smoltek and Hyworx sign LOI to val­i­date low-irid­i­um elec­trodes in PEM elec­trolyz­er stacks