“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.