Tracking Green Hydrogen Projects—eHy-1002 Iridium Catalyst Operates Stably for Over 15,000 Hours

Recently, Momentum Conservation Green Energy's eHy-1002 porous IrO₂ catalyst has stably operated for over 15,000 hours, marking a critical breakthrough in PEM water electrolysis anode catalyst technology and laying an important foundation for the industry's scaled application.

Technical Background and Industry Challenges

Proton exchange membrane (PEM) water electrolysis technology offers excellent compatibility with fluctuating new energy sources like wind power and PV, due to advantages such as low energy consumption, high current density, compact electrolyzer size, and wide power regulation range. As a core material affecting electrolyzer performance and cost, the performance optimization of anode catalysts has always been a key research focus in the industry.

The anode catalyst widely used in current PEM electrolyzers is rutile-phase iridium dioxide (IrO₂), but it faces two major bottlenecks: first, the intrinsic catalytic activity needs improvement—the excessively high reaction energy barrier in the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) causes the anode oxygen evolution overpotential to account for 30%–50% of the total electrolyzer overpotential, restricting system energy efficiency improvement; second, there is high iridium dependency—the membrane electrode iridium loading typically reaches 1–2 mg/cm², while iridium resources are scarce and prices are high, severely hindering the large-scale commercialization of PEM water electrolysis technology.

Product Core Breakthroughs and Highlights

Addressing industry pain points, Momentum Conservation's eHy-1002 porous IrO₂ catalyst achieves dual innovations in structure and material composition:

• Structural Innovation: Distinct from traditional granular IrO₂, it exhibits a regular porous layered morphology with a porosity as high as 74%. The unique highly porous nanostructure fully exposes highly active edge iridium sites, synergistically optimizing the mass transfer, charge transfer efficiency, and catalytic activity of the catalytic layer.
• Material Composition Breakthrough: The bulk iridium mass fraction is reduced to approximately 70 wt%, balancing performance and cost while reducing reliance on precious metals, providing key support for lowering the total cost of the membrane electrode.

Core Performance Indicators

The eHy-1002 catalyst demonstrates excellent performance and stability even under the low loading condition of a membrane electrode Ir loading of only 0.75 mg/cm²:

• Performance: 1.96V@4A/cm²@N115@80°C, maintaining high current density performance at low iridium loading, breaking the limitation of traditional catalysts requiring "high loading for high performance."
• Durability: Stable operation for over 15,000 hours with a voltage increase rate of <3 μV/h; long-term operational stability far exceeds the industry average, meeting the stringent material lifespan requirements for scaled applications.

Capacity and Application Services

The eHy-1002 porous IrO₂ product has now been validated by multiple industry customers, with a capacity reaching 600 g/d, possessing batch supply capability. For key clients, the company also provides catalyst slurry preparation and coating process guidance services, assisting customers in achieving technology implementation and production line compatibility. Test data and demonstration application cases will be continuously updated in the future to promote the industry's collective development.

Technical Strategic Significance and Industrial Value

The breakthrough of the eHy-1002 catalyst not only addresses the energy efficiency and cost bottlenecks of anode catalysts in PEM water electrolysis technology but also has profound implications for the development of the hydrogen energy industry. On one hand, reducing iridium dependency can significantly lower the production costs of PEM electrolyzers, accelerating their large-scale integration with wind and solar power. On the other hand, high stability and compatibility provide more efficient and reliable core material support for green hydrogen production, contributing to cost reduction and efficiency improvement in the "green electricity to green hydrogen" industry chain. This injects key technological momentum into the realization of the national "dual carbon" goals and the high-quality development of the hydrogen energy industry.