Clean chemistry company Mattiq has entered into a strategic partnership with precious metals company Heraeus Precious Metals to develop and commercialise advanced electrocatalyst materials for green hydrogen production.

The companies will engineer low-iridium catalysts to significantly reduce the amount of this rare and critical raw material for proton exchange membrane (PEM) water electrolyser manufacturing, before expanding into other innovative electrochemical solutions.

Iridium is indispensable for the green energy transition, as PEM water electrolysis, one of the most promising technologies for producing zero-carbon, or green, hydrogen, depends on its availability.

Iridium is one of earth’s rarest naturally occurring elements, making the efficient use of this critical resource a requirement to serve increasing demand for hydrogen production and other applications.

With current iridium loading requirements, PEM electrolysers will be limited in scale of yearly deployment. Solutions are therefore needed to reduce iridium content in electrocatalysts without sacrificing performance.

As part of their collaboration, Mattiq and Heraeus will shorten the traditional research and development- (R&D-) to-commercialisation timeline, advancing low-iridium catalysts from prototype to industrial-scale solutions.

Mattiq specialises in electrochemical systems design, leveraging its deep expertise in nanotechnology, chemistry, and AI to rapidly synthesise, characterise, and integrate novel catalysts into innovative electrochemical systems.

The foundation of this partnership is Mattiq’s previously announced completion of the world’s most comprehensive study of low-iridium catalysts for PEM water electrolysis, an effort that synthesised and characterised more than one-million unique catalyst materials, which is three orders of magnitude more than all possibilities previously evaluated.

Heraeus has a dedicated hydrogen systems business line, which is spearheading the introduction of low-iridium catalysts for PEM electrolysis globally. The company identified this partnership as an opportunity to accelerate the speed at which its innovations come to market and meet the needs of its customer base.

With ample experience in the manufacturing of advanced precious metal-based catalysts, Heraeus has the experience and capability necessary to develop the identified solutions further, verify their feasibility for large-scale manufacturing, and to deliver an end-product at industrial scale and reliability.

Together, these R&D and manufacturing capabilities will enable the two companies to reduce the cycle time of new innovations.

“By combining our core competence in electrochemical systems design with Heraeus’ . . . capabilities in material development and catalyst manufacturing, we can jointly accelerate the development of high-performance, low-iridium catalysts that can lower the cost of electrolyser manufacturing, ensuring their role in decarbonising heavy industry,” Mattiq CEO Jeff Erhardt said on January 30.

“This partnership will bolster our position as [an] innovator in electrocatalysis and support our efforts in accelerating the energy transition.” said Heraeus hydrogen systems executive VP and of innovation management head Philipp Walter added.

This partnership builds on the ongoing collaboration between Mattiq and Heraeus, first announced in 2023, when Mattiq verified the performance of a new ruthenium-based catalyst for PEM water electrolysis.

The companies intend to expand their partnership into novel applications in electrocatalysis to accelerate the economically viable decarbonisation of the chemical industry.