Company focusing on developing an oxygen catalyst for PEM electrolyzers that replaces the precious metal iridium with low cost materials
SANTA CLARITA, Calif., March 23, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NewHydrogen, Inc., a BioSolar company (OTC:BSRC), today provided an update on the progress of its green hydrogen technology development under a sponsored research agreement with the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). The company recently announced that it had executed an agreement, replacing the predecessor, to expand ten-fold upon the research efforts.
The initial sponsored research program at UCLA focused on replacing the oxygen catalyst, iridium, a precious metal found only in asteroids, with low cost, earth-abundant materials that meet or exceed the performance characteristics of iridium. The objective is to develop inexpensive and robust materials with an outstanding ability to catalyze the electrochemical oxygen evolution reaction (OER) while achieving overall high performance water electrolysis for hydrogen production.
Recently, a baseline non-precious metal based OER catalyst was selected and optimized for preliminary evaluations. The catalyst was then successfully synthesized upon adjusting its physical parameters and conditions to exhibit the best material characteristics. At each iteration, the catalyst material was characterized using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies. Electrochemical tests were also performed to confirm that the catalyst material indeed was a good reference point for further improvement. Comprehensive testing of the baseline catalyst material gave the researchers high confidence that there would be ample room for further improvement by substituting part of the existing metal element in the baseline material structure.
“We are very pleased to see the progress being made in our green hydrogen program at UCLA,” said Spencer Hall, COO of NewHydrogen. “We have great confidence in Dr. Huang and her team, and are very pleased with what they have accomplished in such a short period of time. While these updates are more technical in nature, we will continue to make the public and broader capital markets aware of the technology objectives and critical steps of the process.”
NewHydrogen is developing ThermoLoop™ – a breakthrough technology that uses water and heat rather than electricity to produce the world’s lowest cost green hydrogen. Hydrogen is the cleanest and most abundant element in the universe, and we can’t live without it. Hydrogen is the key ingredient in making fertilizers needed to grow food for the world. It is also used for transportation, refining oil and making steel, glass, pharmaceuticals and more. Nearly all the hydrogen today is made from hydrocarbons like coal, oil, and natural gas, which are dirty and limited resources. Water, on the other hand, is an infinite and renewable worldwide resource.
Currently, the most common method of making green hydrogen is to split water into oxygen and hydrogen with an electrolyzer using green electricity produced from solar or wind. However, green electricity is and always will be very expensive. It currently accounts for 73% of the cost of green hydrogen. By using heat directly, we can skip the expensive process of making electricity, and fundamentally lower the cost of green hydrogen. Inexpensive heat can be obtained from concentrated solar, geothermal, nuclear reactors and industrial waste heat for use in our novel low-cost thermochemical water splitting process. Working with a world class research team at UC Santa Barbara, our goal is to help usher in the green hydrogen economy that Goldman Sachs estimated to have a future market value of $12 trillion.
Matters discussed in this press release contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. When used in this press release, the words "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "may," "intend," "expect" and similar expressions identify such forward-looking statements. Actual results, performance or achievements could differ materially from those contemplated, expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements contained herein. These forward-looking statements are based largely on the expectations of the Company and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. These include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties associated with: the impact of economic, competitive and other factors affecting the Company and its operations, markets, the impact on the national and local economies resulting from terrorist actions, the impact of public health epidemics on the global economy and other factors detailed in reports filed by the Company with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.
Any forward-looking statement made by us in this press release is based only on information currently available to us and speaks only as of the date on which it is made. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether written or oral, that may be made from time to time, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise.