Smoltek Hydrogen’s plans revealed

In episode 639 of the pod­cast Entre­prenörs­driv (”Entre­pre­neur’s Dri­ve”), Tomas Tränkn­er inter­viewed Elli­nor Ehrn­berg, Pres­i­dent  of Smoltek Hydro­gen AB. This insight­ful inter­view cov­ered the inno­v­a­tive solu­tions Smoltek Hydro­gen is devel­op­ing, Ehrn­berg’s back­ground and qual­i­fi­ca­tions, the com­pa­ny’s growth plans, indus­try feed­back, and busi­ness strat­e­gy for the next five years. This arti­cle sum­ma­rizes the key points of the inter­view, high­light­ing Smoltek Hydro­gen’s unique approach to solv­ing crit­i­cal chal­lenges in the green hydro­gen sec­tor and show­cas­ing Ehrn­berg’s exper­tise in lead­ing the com­pa­ny to sig­nif­i­cant growth.

Solving a critical challenge in green hydrogen production

Smoltek Hydro­gen AB address­es one of the most press­ing issues in green hydro­gen pro­duc­tion: the depen­dence on irid­i­um, one of the world’s rarest and most expen­sive met­als. Irid­i­um is essen­tial for PEM (Pro­ton Exchange Mem­brane) elec­trolyz­ers, which pro­duce hydro­gen by elec­trol­y­sis of water. How­ev­er, irid­i­um’s scarci­ty and high cost are sig­nif­i­cant bar­ri­ers to scal­ing up green hydro­gen pro­duc­tion. The price of irid­i­um in 2024 is around EUR 200,000 per kilo­gram. It is expect­ed to rise sharply due to lim­it­ed annu­al pro­duc­tion of only 9 tons, sourced main­ly from South Africa and Russia.

Smoltek Hydro­gen has devel­oped a tech­nol­o­gy that dra­mat­i­cal­ly reduces the irid­i­um required in PEM elec­trolyz­ers by up to 95%. This makes green hydro­gen pro­duc­tion more eco­nom­i­cal and scal­able, con­tribut­ing sig­nif­i­cant­ly to the glob­al tran­si­tion to sus­tain­able energy.

Ellinor Ehrnberg’s way to Smoltek Hydrogen

Elli­nor Ehrn­berg brings a wealth of expe­ri­ence and exper­tise to her role as Pres­i­dent of Smoltek Hydro­gen AB.

She has a Ph.D. in Indus­tri­al Man­age­ment focus­ing on tech­no­log­i­cal change and dis­rup­tive innovation.

Her career includes strate­gic roles in long-term plan­ning and busi­ness devel­op­ment, inno­va­tion man­age­ment and merg­ers and acqui­si­tions (M&A) at SKF, Mölnly­cke and Husq­var­na. Before join­ing Smoltek, she worked on tech­nol­o­gy trends and strate­gic plan­ning at RISE (Research Insti­tutes of Swe­den), work­ing with CTOs from major Swedish companies.

Scaling up Smoltek Hydrogen AB

Smoltek Hydro­gen AB is strate­gi­cal­ly posi­tioned to cap­i­tal­ize on the rapid­ly grow­ing demand for elec­trolyz­ers dri­ven by the glob­al push for green hydro­gen. As the need for PEM (Pro­ton Exchange Mem­brane) elec­trolyz­ers sky­rock­ets, the lim­it­ed avail­abil­i­ty of irid­i­um is becom­ing a sig­nif­i­cant bot­tle­neck. Man­u­fac­tur­ers urgent­ly seek solu­tions to reduce irid­i­um con­sump­tion, mak­ing Smoltek Hydro­gen’s inno­va­tion critical.

The indus­try moves through sev­er­al stages, from con­cept to pro­to­type devel­op­ment, fol­lowed by pilot pro­duc­tion and full-scale indus­tri­al­iza­tion. Smoltek Hydro­gen has care­ful­ly aligned its scal­ing strat­e­gy with these indus­try stages. By syn­chro­niz­ing its devel­op­ment time­lines with major elec­trolyz­er man­u­fac­tur­ers, Smoltek Hydro­gen ensures it is ready with a scal­able, irid­i­um-effi­cient solu­tion when the mar­ket needs it. This proac­tive approach posi­tions Smoltek Hydro­gen as a leader in green hydro­gen tech­nol­o­gy. It ensures they can effec­tive­ly meet the grow­ing demand, pro­vid­ing a crit­i­cal solu­tion to an indus­try-wide challenge.

Industry Feedback and validation

Demand for PEM elec­trolyz­ers is expect­ed to grow rapid­ly, mak­ing the effi­cient use of irid­i­um crit­i­cal. Two approach­es are avail­able: the exist­ing tech­nique of deposit­ing irid­i­um direct­ly onto the pro­ton exchange mem­brane and Smoltek’s method of deposit­ing irid­i­um on met­al in con­tact with the membrane.

The exist­ing tech­nique wastes much irid­i­um, and attempts to reduce this waste have proven inad­e­quate. Inde­pen­dent stud­ies have shown that elim­i­nat­ing this waste is phys­i­cal­ly impos­si­ble by plac­ing irid­i­um ink direct­ly on the pro­ton exchange membrane.

Smoltek Hydro­gen’s solu­tion is to cre­ate a for­est of nanoscale met­al rods to which the irid­i­um is attached atom by atom. This allows every irid­i­um atom to come into con­tact with the mem­brane and be use­ful. In this way, Smoltek can reduce irid­i­um usage by 95% with the same effi­ca­cy as today.

Until recent­ly, Smoltek Hydro­gen did not make a big deal about its tech­nol­o­gy. There was no point until they demon­strat­ed in a 1,000-hour dura­bil­i­ty test that the solu­tion met real-world require­ments. How­ev­er, with the suc­cess­ful com­ple­tion of the 1,000-hour test, they have now begun to show­case their solu­tion. This break­through has attract­ed con­sid­er­able atten­tion at the 245th Elec­tro­chem­i­cal Soci­ety Meet­ing, high­light­ing Smoltek Hydro­gen’s poten­tial to rev­o­lu­tion­ize the green hydro­gen indus­try by address­ing a crit­i­cal resource challenge.

Smoltek Hydrogen’s Five-year business plan

Smoltek Hydro­gen’s five-year busi­ness plan focus­es on find­ing a strate­gic part­ner, indus­tri­al or finan­cial, to co-cre­ate a com­mer­cial prod­uct based on its tech­nol­o­gy. Dis­cus­sions are under­way with sev­er­al poten­tial part­ners. The plan is to devel­op pro­duc­tion capac­i­ty in sync with the part­ner’s devel­op­ment project: First, a pilot plant for small-scale indus­tri­al pro­duc­tion, fol­lowed by a full-scale, high-vol­ume pro­duc­tion unit. They already have a sup­pli­er ready to build a turnkey pro­duc­tion facility.

Giv­en the new par­a­digm for build­ing PEM elec­trolyz­ers, intro­duced by Smoltek’s solu­tion, many sur­round­ing com­po­nents can be improved for greater effi­cien­cy. Smoltek Hydro­gen wants to be part of this broad­er devel­op­ment. Elli­nor Ehrn­berg says, “We are at the cen­ter of it all; it’s in irid­i­um that things are hap­pen­ing.” This strate­gic approach posi­tions Smoltek Hydro­gen to lead the way in rev­o­lu­tion­iz­ing PEM elec­trolyz­er pro­duc­tion and improv­ing the over­all effi­cien­cy of green hydro­gen technology.

Conclusion

This arti­cle sum­ma­rizes the key points from Elli­nor Ehrn­berg’s inter­view on the Entre­prenörs­driv pod­cast. It high­lights how Smoltek Hydro­gen address­es the crit­i­cal chal­lenge of irid­i­um scarci­ty in green hydro­gen pro­duc­tion, Ehrn­berg’s exten­sive back­ground, the com­pa­ny’s strate­gic growth plans, and the indus­try’s pos­i­tive feed­back. To gain deep­er insights into Smoltek Hydro­gen’s inno­v­a­tive solu­tions and prospects, lis­ten to the full episode: