
QuantumSphere Files Patent on Catalyst Device for
Low-Cost, High-Efficiency Hydrogen Electrolysis
20 September 2006
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Efficiency of QSI Nano-Electrodes
versus DoE 2010 target at different flow rates. Click to enlarge. |
QuantumSphere (QSI),
a manufacturer of nano metals and alloys for applications in renewable energy
and other markets demanding advanced materials, has announced the recent filing of another patent relating to the production of hydrogen by
electrolysis using its proprietary nano electrodes.
Using electrodes composed of QSI nanometals, QuantumSphere has achieved
up to 80% efficiency at lower current flow rates (100 mA/cm2) and approximately 60% efficiency at higher rates (1,000 mA/cm2). Over the next year, QSI believes it will achieve or exceed the DoE 2010 target
of 75% efficiency at rates beyond 1,000 mA/cm2 through further optimization. As a result, the company believes it has enabled
electrolysis to more easily compete with hydrogen generation by steam reformation.
QSI compresses and sinters high surface area metallic nanoparticles into
porous plates to function as liquid and gas diffusion electrodes for water
electrolysis. The electrodes have an expanded metal surface facing away from
the electrolyte for strength and current collection.
Tortuous pathways within them expose large surface area to reacting water
and to also allow the escape of the gaseous products. Electrolyte flows through
the electrode to sweep away the bubbles as they form.
QSI sees the efficiency of its electrolysis system as an important step
in working toward a hydrogen-on-demand system for direct feed into fuel cells
which would eliminate the need for storing hydrogen in pressurized systems
with their attendant cost, logistical and safety issues.
QSI is working with DoppStein Enterprises on the electrolysis system.
Together, we are not only finding new, unexpected and highly
active combinations of nano catalysts, but in the process are also developing
the test methods for evaluation of the electrodes. This allows us to determine
the next round of improvements, and has catapulted us beyond the literature
into uncharted territory. These devices, made to test the electrodes, are
also the embryonic hydrogen generating machines of the future. The collaboration
is very exciting and productive.
—Robert Dopp, president and chief scientist, DoppStein
Enterprises
DoppStein Enterprises, Inc. is an R&D
laboratory located in Marietta, Georgia, working in renewable energy related
fields including metal-air fuel cells, direct methanol fuel cells, and hydrogen
production through water electrolysis.
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