b.spkl completes Climate Response Accelerator

“GNS’ catalyst-coated hydrogen membrane technology, which the b.spkl venture is seeking to commercialise, has the ability to overcome a significant bottleneck in manufacturing electrolysers. It has the potential to unlock clean hydrogen production at scale, and provides many possible commercial adjacencies,” says Sheena Thomas, GNS Commercial and Business Partnerships Manager.

In the current global context of supply chain issues, rising costs, and shortages of raw minerals, b.spkl can add significant value by reducing the cost and resource barriers to generating clean hydrogen. 

Key announcements by the European Union in 2019 and 2020, has seen a 200 percent increase in demand for hydrogen electrolyser systems and announcements for more than 1.3 million hydrogen fuel cell vehicles to be manufactured.

“At the heart of b.spkl’s innovation is the membrane that significantly reduced the amount of platinum and iridium required in an electrolyser,” says Ion Beam Material Scientist Jerome Leveneur.

“Presently around $26,000 USD of platinum group minerals are needed per electrolyser. Imagine if it was possible to reduce the amount of platinum group mineral requirements to just $6,500USD, says Jerome.

Key to scaling is efficiency in manufacturing innovation which has become a huge focus in countries like the USA and Germany to meet its goal of $1 per 1kg of Hydrogen. This is essential to overcome this technology’s dependency on critical minerals that are in short supply, like platinum and iridium.