Smoltek has been granted a new patent within hydrogen technology

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.