UK-based sustainable technologies company Johnson Matthey (JM) says it has successfully demonstrated its new technology for recycling hydrogen fuel cell and electrolyser materials.

The so-called HyRefine technology uses a purely chemical process to recover both the critical platinum group metals (PGMs) and membrane ionomer. While there are existing methods to recycle PGMs, they often fail to recover the ionomer, a key fuel cell component, making JM’s technology the first to recover both, the company claims in a statement.

JM researchers have demonstrated at lab scale that both the PGMs and the ionomer can be recovered and recycled into new catalyst-coated membranes (CCM) – the components at the core of hydrogen fuel cells and electrolysers. Separate experiments have also proven that the performance of the recycled PGM catalysts matches that of the fresh material, Kallanish learns.

“This demonstration of our HyRefine technology is a key step on our path to providing a circular service for our fuel cells and electrolyser customers in the future,” says Alastair Judge, JM’s chief executive, platinum group metals services.

“It’s a fantastic example of how we can leverage our foundational PGM ecosystem, world-leading recycling capabilities and decades of expertise in hydrogen technologies and apply this to embed circularity into the hydrogen economy,” he adds.

JM claims that the output from the HyRefine technology is 100% recycled. 

Recycled metal offers up to 98% lower carbon footprint than mined metal, providing significant sustainability benefits. Furthermore, the recycled PGM can be integrated into JM’s PGM catalyst manufacturing and subsequent CCM manufacturing, the company explains

After successfully completing 5-litre lab-scale demonstrations, the company is now scaling up the technology to run 50-litre pilot trials in its Brimsdown facility in the UK.