G. Ong
Celadyne Technologies,
United States
Keywords: fuel cells, proton exchange membrane
Summary:
Successful deployment of hydrogen technologies, which are being created to decarbonize hard-to-abate sectors (trucking, steel and concrete manufacturing, fertilizer), depends on improved fuel cell durability to make it competitive with a diesel engine. Similarly, electrolyzer efficiency and current density must be improved to decrease the cost of hydrogen production. This can be done simultaneously if fuel cell and electrolyzer manufacturers are given access to a new proton exchange membrane that is conductive with low gas permeability at scale. Celadyne is commercializing this membrane: it is a bilayer membrane built upon the existing supply chain to make it easy to scale and integrate. The material integrates a thin, low gas permeability layer on existing perfluorosulfonic acid materials in order to decrease gas permeability directly with minimal effects on overall membrane resistance. By shutting down gas crossover across the membrane, the material simultaneously addresses the root cause of low fuel cell durability and low electrolyzer current density. In fuel cells, low durability is caused by hydrogen crossover. That harmful crossover enables free radical formation, which in turn leads to membrane thinning and pinhole formation. Pinhole formation means catastrophic failure of the fuel cell. In electrolyzers, low current density is caused by hydrogen crossover. Reducing this crossover traditionally requires the use of thick membranes to keep below 4% OSHA safety limits: this thickness adds substantially to cell resistance. Switching existing proton exchange membranes from current commercial materials to Celadyne materials improves fuel cell durability by five times, to a robust 15 years under heavy-duty conditions. It improves electrolyzer current density by two times or more under equivalent operating conditions. Celadyne's technology was first developed with support from the Chain Reactions Innovations program at Argonne National Lab, the National Science Foundation, Department of Energy, ARPA-E, and the US Air Force through the AFWERX program. The company has since shipped materials to major OEMs, membrane partners, and fuel cell manufacturers and is currently performing scale-up studies with Eastman Kodak. The company is venture-funded by Shell Ventures, Maniv Mobility, EPS Ventures, and Dynamo Ventures.