NewHydrogen has agreed to expand its existing funded research arrangement with the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) to develop technology to lower the cost of green hydrogen production.
With the new agreement, the program’s scope is expanded to cover research and development of reliable and stable PEM electrolyzer-based hydrogen production.
The objective of NewHydrogen’s supported research at UCLA is to steadily lower the cost of green hydrogen by improving the performance of vital hydrogen generator components. These electrolyzers now rely on scarce materials like iridium and platinum, which make up a significant amount of the cost, to split water into oxygen and hydrogen.
Researchers at UCLA who were supported by NewHydrogen in 2021 dramatically enhanced the efficiency of PEM electrolyzers by creating a low-cost oxygen catalyst that does not require pricey iridium. Hydrogen catalysts that use far less platinum or none at all were also produced.
The business is currently in the process of building a complete prototype electrolyzer using its innovative oxygen and hydrogen catalysts. The agreement broadens its technological focus to incorporate new gas diffusion layer, ion exchange membrane, and catalyst layer component developments. The ultimate objective of the company is to create a low-cost, high-performance electrolyzer made up of numerous ground-breaking parts.
