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Smoltek Nanotech Holding AB ("Smoltek") and Dutch ALD coating company SparkNano have collaborated to develop a breakthrough technology that drastically reduces the consumption of iridium in PEM electrolyzers by 95%. By applying SparkNano's Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) technology to coat Smoltek's carbon nanofibers with ultra-thin layers of precious metals like iridium and platinum, the companies improve catalytic efficiency and stability while significantly lowering the cost of green hydrogen production. The collaboration was highlighted in a white paper and joint webinar on September 25, 2024, where Smoltek's Head of R&D, Fabian Wenger, discussed the potential of this technology to accelerate large-scale green hydrogen production.
Press Release: Smoltek Nanotech Holding AB (publ) ("Smoltek" or the "company") announces that the group company Smoltek Hydrogen, together with the Dutch ALD coating company SparkNano, publishes a white paper and holds a joint webinar on the synergies that the two companies' technology creates. By covering Smoltek's carbon nanofibers with an extremely thin and conformal coating of precious metals, the consumption of iridium in an electrolyzer cell can be reduced by 95 percent. Fabian Wenger, Head of R&D at Smoltek Hydrogen, will participate in a joint webinar on September 25 to discuss the collaboration, the technology and its potential for large-scale green hydrogen production.
Smoltek Hydrogen's unique innovation – a porous transport electrode designed for the anode in PEM electrolyzers – solves one of the biggest technical challenges in the green hydrogen industry: the high cost and limited availability of iridium, used as catalysts in PEM electrolysis. Together with SparkNano's advanced ALD coating technology, for platinum and iridium, a dramatic reduction of precious metals is enabled while maintaining performance and stability.
“With our carbon nanofibers and their ALD coating technology, we can together lower costs and reduce the use of rare precious metals and make green hydrogen available on a large scale”, says Fabian Wenger, Head of R&D at Smoltek Hydrogen.
Revolutionizing reduction of iridium usage
With the ALD (Atomic Layer Deposition) coating technology, platinum is spread extremely evenly over Smoltek's carbon nanofibers, which provides conformal corrosion protection and protects the carbon nanofibers, which are then coated with an ultra-thin layer of iridium.
This enables the consumption of iridium to be reduced by up to 40 times compared to conventional coating methods. The combination of Smoltek's nanofibers and SparkNano's ALD technology also enables more efficient electron transfer pathways, increasing the overall catalytic activity of the electrolyzer cell. The ALD technology also improves the stability of the catalyst, which is a big step forward for the sustainability of green hydrogen technology.
A solution for large-scale production of green hydrogen
Smoltek Hydrogen's innovative nanomaterials have been shown in long-term studies to work very well in PEM electrolyzers. Fraunhofer ISE, a leading German research institute, has already identified in October 2021 that iridium coatings below 0.4 mg/cm² are a must for large-scale production of PEM electrolyzers. This technology can thus pave the way for a faster expansion of green hydrogen production, which is crucial for the transition to fossil-free industrial processes.
“SparkNano is a Dutch company, partly owned by the French gas company Air Liquide. SparkNano's spatial ALD technology enables precise coatings of super-thin material films at higher speeds than older ALD technologies, which is a big advantage now that we start scaling up to larger volumes”, says Ellinor Ehrnberg, CEO of Smoltek Hydrogen
Presentation of the Technical note: Revolutionizing PEM electrolysis
What: SparkNano and Smoltek webinar, about 30 minutes
Where: Online, link to webinar: www.spark-nano.com/webinars
Date: 25 September 2024
Time: 08:30–09:00 (occasion 1) or 14:30–15:00 (occasion 2)
For further information:
Ellinor Ehrnberg, President Smoltek Hydrogen AB
Email: ellinor.ehrnberg@smoltek.com
Telephone: +46 317 01 03 05
Website: www.smoltek.com/investors
Smoltek develops new products with disruptive performance, based on nanotechnology, which solve advanced material engineering challenges in several industrial sectors. Today, the company operates in two business areas: semiconductors and hydrogen. Smoltek protects its unique carbon nanotechnology through an extensive patent portfolio consisting of more than 110 applied for patents, of which 91 are currently granted. The company's share is listed on the Spotlight Stock Market under the short name SMOL. Smoltek is a development company and forward-looking statements regarding time to market, production volume and price levels are to be interpreted as forecasts and not commitments.
