This technology is a high-capacity water electrolyzer for hydrogen production based on ultrathin proton-conducting oxide membranes with higher electrolysis efficiency than conventional polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) electrolyzers.
Current efforts in creating electrolyzers include moving towards “zero-gap” polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) electrolyzers with lower ionic resistances and comparable efficiencies to alkaline electrolyzers. However, the ultrathin Nafion membranes used in these “zero-gap” PEM electrolyzers typically still have a thickness of 125-250um. Attempts to reduce energy losses associated with ionic resistance from these thicknesses have limited success due to decreased manufacturing yields and mechanical failure. Additionally, achieving thicknesses below 50um will be difficult, and doing so may still not yield step changes in electrolyzer performance.
This technology is a low-temperature water electrolyzer for hydrogen production that uses ultrathin oxide membranes to increase efficiency compared to conventional polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) electrolyzers. This technology uses proton-conducting oxide membrane electrolyzers composed of oxidized silicon, titanium, or tungsten, with lower ionic resistance. This allows the technology to increase electrolysis efficacy by 20% at high current densities while being several orders of magnitude thinner than conventional Nafion electrolyzers. This technology also has a lower expected capital cost than today’s PEM electrolyzers, making it a competitive tool for the effective production of clean hydrogen that can compete with fossil-derived hydrogen.
Patent Pending (WO/2024/197118)
IR CU23239, CU25218
Licensing Contact: Dovina Qu
