HANNOVER, Germany – Pajarito Powder, LLC a ventured-backed company located in Albuquerque, NM, USA announced the release a new product line of Engineered Electrolyzer Catalysts, or EEC, for use in PEM, Alkaline and AEM electrolyzer applications.

Product research and development was led by Pajarito Powder CTO & President, Dr. Barr Zulevi, Chief Scientist, Dr. Alexey Serov, and Chief Engineer, Dr. Alia Lubers. The motivation to develop electrolyzer catalysts originated from both an increase in the inquiries about the suitability of Pajarito Powder’s materials for use in electrolyzers and work performed on the company’s contract (contract number DE-AR0000688) with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). Demand for electrolyzer systems has increased in the past year because of rapidly expanding interest in Europe, Asia and North America for clean or “green” hydrogen, spurring demand for more durable and efficient catalysts.

Pajarito Powder CEO and Chairman, Thomas J. Stephenson commented, “We have been working on fuel cell catalysts for over five years, but after conversations with prospective customers it became apparent that electrolyzer catalyst technology required just as substantial an improvement, with systems builders requiring greater efficiency and higher levels of performance than what was available. We are pleased to announce our new EEC products for this purpose.”

What is an electrolyzer? It is an electrochemical device that uses electrolysis, the process of using electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen or is essentially the reverse of a fuel cell. When mated to renewable sources of electricity to power the splitting of water, the production of hydrogen can be completely carbon-free and renewable. The resulting hydrogen is considered an energy carrier that can be used for portable, transportation applications as a lightweight fuel with good energy density or for grid-level storage, converting energy created by renewable sources into a storable medium, for use as electricity at a later point (e.g., at night for solar, when the wind is not blowing for turbine generation, etc.).

Engineered Electrolyzer Catalyst products:

For PEM
Cathode
Pt black
– Pt surface area of 50m2/gr
Pt/ECS
– Pt surface area 100-200 m2/gr
– Total surface area tailored to customer needs IrO2/x
– Surface area 70-200 m2/gr
– Metal content from 10%-0%

Anode
Ti/Ru/Ir composites in development

For AEM/Alkaline
Cathode
Ni-based PGM-free 50-300 m2/gr

Anode
Ru-based 70-200 m2/gr

CTO and President Barr Zulevi stated, ““We are proud to announce that we have developed a range of electrolyzer catalysts to meet market and customer’s needs. Pajarito Powder is a recognized leader in the development and manufacture of advanced catalysts and catalyst support materials for fuel cells, so it was only natural that we would extend the capabilities of our VariPoreTM platform to include electrolyzer catalysts.”

Pajarito Powder, LLC is a venture-backed company that manufactures Engineered Catalyst Supports (ECS), Precious Metal Free (PMF) catalysts for PEM fuel cells and Engineered Electrolyzer Catalysts (EEC). Customers range from automotive OEM and suppliers to Combined-Heat-and-Power (CHP), and makers of stationary fuel cells and electrolyzers.