Why this startup?
Hydrogen is increasingly seen as a central component of a decarbonized world given its potential for reducing greenhouse gas emissions across transportation, power generation, and industrial processes.
In this evolving landscape, hydrogen separation becomes increasingly important: efficient hydrogen separation is essential for producing high-purity hydrogen, which is crucial for fuel cells, industrial applications, and synthetic fuels.
However, many industrial players in the hydrogen sector are hindered by the reality that today’s hydrogen separation systems are not good enough. Pressure swing absorption, the status quo approach for purifying hydrogen from electrolysis, is a batch process that requires multiple units to ensure a continuous supply, making it fundamentally unsuited to distributed and on-demand applications. Gas separation membranes that leverage the fundamental selectivity of palladium (Pd) enable continuous and efficient hydrogen purification, but thin-film Pd membranes degrade at high temperatures (650º C or above), limiting their effectiveness and economic viability. To live up to its promise in a decarbonized world, the hydrogen industry needs a real breakthrough in gas separation technology.
The addressable market for hydrogen separation is vast and largely untapped. With increasing demand for clean hydrogen in industries such as transportation, power generation, and chemicals presents, hydrogen purification market is already $4 billion dollar market and is continuing to grow at a high CAGR .
Providing gas separation equipment for the hydrogen industry
This company will commercialize next-generation gas separation systems that enable efficient hydrogen purification at high temperatures. The company’s separation systems will leverage proprietary membrane technology and will be designed to plug into both mature and established processes that involve hydrogen purification, including:
- Blue hydrogen facilities (steam methane reforming)
- Liquid-organic hydrogen carrier (LOHC) conversion facilities, especially those that use MCH-Toluene
- Ammonia to hydrogen conversion facilities
- Synthetic fuel facilities that convert CO and H2 to hydrocarbons using the Fischer-Tropsch process
As governments and industries worldwide invest in hydrogen infrastructure and policies to support the hydrogen economy, the market potential for advanced hydrogen separation technologies is growing exponentially. This company, with its differentiated technology and focus on high-temperature hydrogen separation, is well-positioned to capitalize on this expanding market, driving the transition towards a sustainable hydrogen economy.
Differentiated technology
The core technology behind this startup concept is based on groundbreaking research by the Karnik Group at MIT. This group has developed innovative membranes consisting of nano-structured palladium, which offers several advantages over traditional palladium films. These membranes use significantly less precious metal, operate at higher temperatures (800 ºC and above), and exhibit greater resistance to hydrogen embrittlement.
The membranes feature discrete nano-structures (“plugs”) of palladium embedded in silica pores. This configuration ensures thermodynamic stability and provides interfaces for defect migration, unlike conventional metal films. These palladium plugs in silica pores demonstrate hydrogen selectivity greater than 100:1, and preliminary studies indicate they can tolerate high temperatures that typically delaminate metal films.
Early technical specifications:
- Hydrogen permeance: 10E-7 to 10E-6 mol/m2-Pa-s. This is similar to conventional Pd membranes.
- Hydrogen/helium (and other gases) selectivity: >100 (this requires no leaks or defective plugs).
- Operating temperature range: 200 ºC to 800 ºC and likely much higher. This is an advantage over conventional Pd membranes.
- Opportunity for lower cost: Pd layer is ~1 µm, compared with existing membranes with ~20 µm Pd layers. Membrane cost scales with the Pd thickness. The cost at scale of the support layer (likely silicon) is unknown.
- In principle, defects have the ability to migrate to a surface more easily, so these should be more robust to hydrogen embrittlement and irradiation.
Maybe hydrogen is just the beginning…
High-temperature Pd membranes could also unlock major gains in other markets beyond the hydrogen economy, especially the separation of gaseous exhaust from fusion power plants.
Specifically, new Pd membranes could be especially impactful in fusion power plants for:
- Metal foil pumps. A high-temperature Pd membrane could make it possible to place the metal foil pump inside a tokamak, which would remove the need for separate divertor pumps and shorten the direct internal recycling (DRI) loop
- Fuel cleanup and tritium extraction systems. These systems will likely employ hydrogen-selective tubes, and a porous-substrate-and-plug membrane design could help resolve the design tension between thin walls for greater permeability and thick walls for mechanical robustness.
Current Status and Next Steps
Technology readiness level:
IP:
People:
Further de-risking:
- Long-term performance in real environments remains to be verified; may necessitate changes in membrane design or material
- Cost and manufacturability of the porous substrates
- Selectivity: can we get beyond 100:1?
- Geometry: Can this membrane be built into tubular form factors?
To learn more
- Palladium plug membranes for hydrogen separation
- Sweeney et al., Techno-economic Analysis and Optimization of Intensified, Large-Scale Hydrogen Production with Membrane Reactors
- Jokar et al., The recent areas of applicability of palladium based membrane technologies for hydrogen production from methane and natural gas: A review
- Adams et al., The role of palladium in a hydrogen economy