Let’s continue talking about the role of materials in electrolysis technologies.
The picture below puts in the same image all the electrolysis technologies, including AEM, the quantity order of magnitude per MW (tonnes or kilos with red indicating a 10-fold increase respect black), the chemical elements and prices forming these materials, and their supply challenges.
As it can be seen, all the technologies will need to deal with important challenges regarding materials to fabricate them, either in terms of supply and/or price.
This makes me to reflect on the need of a good diversification in the development and use of electrolysis technologies.
The least dependent we will be from one technology or the other, less constrains we will face. Let’s use each of them what they are best.
Also, from now on and for all technologies, good recyclability strategies need to be implemented.
The recovery of all these tonnes of materials after the lifetime of the systems seem essential to develop good sustainable systems.
Finally, I must remember here the importance of good R&D around material science to continue developing the performance of our materials while we either use cheap and abundant materials, or little quantities of the expensive ones.
Please be generous in your R&D investments, understanding the long-term perspective of this work and how priceless it is for our future generations.
Source: Carlos Bernuy-Lopez (LinkedIn)
