New Low-cost Catalyst Helps Produce Environmentally Sustainable Hydrogen From Water
May 31, 2023 | Business WireEstimated reading time: 1 minute

A team led by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory has developed a new catalyst composed of elements abundant in the Earth. It could make possible the low-cost and energy-efficient production of hydrogen for use in transportation and industrial applications. Clean hydrogen could not only propel vehicles with no emitted pollutants but also help decarbonize industrial processes.
Other contributors to the project include DOE’s Sandia National Laboratories and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, as well as Giner Inc.
Proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzers represent a new generation of technology for hydrogen production. They can split water into hydrogen and oxygen with high efficiency at near room temperature. The reduced energy demand makes them an ideal choice for producing clean hydrogen by using renewable but intermittent sources, such as solar and wind.
This electrolyzer runs with separate catalysts for each of its electrodes (cathode and anode). The cathode catalyst yields hydrogen, while the anode catalyst forms oxygen. A problem is that the anode catalyst uses iridium, which has a current market price of around $5,000 per ounce. The lack of supply and high cost of iridium pose a major barrier for widespread adoption of PEM electrolyzers. The main ingredient in the team’s new catalyst is cobalt, which is substantially cheaper than iridium.
Giner Inc., a leading research and development company working toward commercialization of electrolyzers and fuel cells, evaluated the new catalyst using its PEM electrolyzer test stations under industrial operating conditions. The performance and durability far exceeded that of competitors’ catalysts.
The team’s achievement is a step forward in DOE’s Hydrogen Energy Earthshot initiative, which mimics the U.S. space program’s “Moon Shot” of the 1960s. Its ambitious goal is to lower the cost for green hydrogen production to one dollar per kilogram in a decade. Production of green hydrogen at that cost could reshape the nation’s economy. Applications include the electric grid, manufacturing, transportation and residential and commercial heating.
Suggested Items
Market Share of OLED Automotive Panels Continues to Grow and Could Reach 10% by 2026
09/26/2023 | TrendForceThe latest “Automotive Display Market Analysis” from TrendForce indicates that the overall demand for automotive display panels (automotive panels) is gradually stabilizing and shows an upward trend as the automotive market as a whole slowly recovers, and promotional activities related to smart cockpits continue to expand.
Nanusens Technology is Key to Enabling AI to be Smarter
09/25/2023 | NanusensThe problem at the moment is that sensors are currently manufactured on a tiny sliver of silicon, or die, by a small number of specialist companies with each sensor type being produced on a dedicated production line so it is hard to ramp up production.
Flexible Thinking: Unlocking the Key to Rigid-flex Design Success
09/26/2023 | Joe Fjelstad -- Column: Flexible ThinkingDespite what some seem to believe, rigid-flex circuits are not a new technology. In fact, they are more than a half-century old. At the time of the invention, my friend Thomas Sterns was working at Sanders Associates, the pioneering flex circuit manufacturer. Like many products in the first decades of printed circuit technology, they were working on a military application. The objective was to provide a reliable method for reducing the size, bulk, weight, and questionable reliability of wire harness assemblies while simultaneously reducing cost and assuring that human error might be minimized. These were all vitally important concerns for military and aerospace products.
Gartner Identifies Five Technologies That Will Transform the Digital Future of Enterprises
09/15/2023 | Gartner, Inc.Gartner, Inc. highlighted five technologies that will transform the digital future of organizations. They include digital humans, satellite communications, tiny ambient IoT, secure computation and autonomic robots.
Electronics Industry Supply Chains Look Healthy; Inventories Expand
09/01/2023 | IPCThough cost pressures continue to impact the electronics industry, product demand and inventories remain positive, leading to a healthy supply chain per IPC’s August 2023 Global Sentiment of the Electronics Supply Chain Report.