NewHydrogen, a developer of clean energy technologies, offered a significant update on the status of its development of green hydrogen technology through a funded research agreement with the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
The company’s sponsored research program at UCLA is now focused on developing alternatives to iridium, a rare valuable metal found exclusively in asteroids, that meet or exceed iridium’s performance qualities.
The goal is to produce low-cost, resilient materials that have an exceptional ability to catalyze the electrochemical oxygen evolution process (OER) while also attaining high-performance water electrolysis for hydrogen production.
Previously, the business announced that a non-precious metal-based OER catalyst was selected and effectively produced after its physical parameters and circumstances were adjusted to demonstrate the best material features.
The researchers recently developed a non-precious metal-based catalyst that significantly improved OER in acidic circumstances by swapping a portion of the existing metal element in the structure of the aforementioned catalytic material. While the novel catalyst’s intrinsic activity and OER kinetics are less than those of precious metal-based catalysts, its low cost and great durability make it an attractive choice for commercial water electrolysis systems running at high current densities.
The researchers intend to scale up the procedure in the future for use in electrolyzer experiments. A fully working hydrogen-generating electrolyzer will eventually serve as a reference prototype to assist electrolyzer manufacturers worldwide in evaluating NewHydrogen’s game-changing technology for creating low-cost green hydrogen.
“We are very pleased to see the exciting progress being made in our green hydrogen program at UCLA,” said Dr. David Lee, CEO of NewHydrogen. “We have great confidence in Dr. Huang and her team, and plan on further extending the OER side of the sponsored research program beyond the current term.”
