Enabling green hydrogen production through vapor-based manufacturing of high performing catalyst coated membranes
Mbranes accelerate the development of efficient catalyst coated membranes
Development of efficient catalyst coated membranes (CCMs) is crucial for the transition towards a hydrogen-based, low carbon economy. Conventional CCM production processes require multiple steps and high loadings of scarce metals. To tackle this challenge, VSPARTICLE introduces Mbranes. By combining spark ablation, a vapor-based nanoparticle synthesis method, with additive manufacturing, production process of CCMs is simplified and catalyst loading is reduced without compromising performance or durability.
Development of High Performing Catalyst Coated membranes for PEM water electrolysis
PEM water electrolysis is one of the applications that has gained a lot of interest recently. However, market penetration is hindered because PEM electrolysers rely on the use of scarce and expensive noble metal catalysts, such as iridium. As a solution to this challenge, iridium catalyst coated membranes were developed using VSPARTICLE’s technology and tested by an external party in a single-cell PEM water electrolyser. Results proved that less catalyst loading was required compared to the commercially available standard. More specifically, the Ir-speficic power density was reduced up to an order of magnitude and durability was good based on three different degradation protocols.
Key features
Outstanding performance with up to an order of magnitude reduction in catalyst loading
Superior durability and lifetime performance
Single-step and ink-free coating process
Our Solution
For the manufacturing of the Mbranes CCMs, VSPARTICLE introduced a new product, the VSP-P1 Nanoprinter. The VSP-P1 is an R&D platform for material development and small-scale production testing of nanoporous thin films/layers with a high surface-to-volume ratio. The VSP-P1 contains an integrated VSP-G1 Nanoparticle Generator as the nanomaterial production source. The technology is scalable and a next generation of the VSP-P1 with increased material output is already under development
Solutions
We accelerate the development of next generation CCM’s
The VSPARTICLE NanoPrinter is the infrastructure to enable a fully automated development lab that reduces development cycles from months to minutes
With our technology we are eliminating 85% of the current production steps
Conventional CCM manufacturing processes are primarily ink-based and therefore require multiple steps for the material synthesis and coating process. Using our approach the nanoparticle synthesis and deposition process only requires one integrated step.
PEM water electrolysis test results have shown that Mbrane-produced CCMs had better activity with less iridium content compared to the commercial standard. Ir-specific power density was decreased by up to an order of magnitude.
