1) What is the name of your product?

Precious metals for hydrogen ramp-up – enabling every step of the value chain.

2) What are the possible applications of your product?

Precious Metals support almost every step of the hydrogen economy: from precious metal catalysts for PEM electrolysis during hydrogen production, to gas purification, storage and transport, until industrial applications or transport-related use.

What is new/innovative about it? Does the product have a USP? If yes, what is it?

Heraeus Precious Metals is globally leading in the precious metals industry. By combining trading, innovative products, and recycling, we provide our customers with the industry's most comprehensive offering across the precious metals life cycle.

Heraeus hydrogen catalysts offer up to 90% less loading of the rare and essential precious metal iridium for PEM electrolysis, making them a key enabler for hydrogen ramp-up. Catalyst solutions for storing hydrogen in the form of ammonia are also innovative. These innovations are complemented by proven solutions for gas purification, for example, or boil-off catalysts for transport.

Here, it is crucial that the recovery of precious metals from production waste and end-of-life materials is taken into account from the outset. Heraeus offers the specific know-how and capacities for recycling these valuable materials from the hydrogen industry worldwide.

3) What is the product’s main benefit for the customer?

Can these benefits be expressed in numbers (e.g. process is 30% more efficient)?

As a one-stop-shop for precious metals solutions, our customer benefits from substantial synergies. However, securing the precious metal supply chain is even more important, especially for iridium, which is extremely rare and indispensable for PEM electrolysis. Firstly, this is achieved through procuring precious metals by a world-leading precious metals expert, secondly through recycling solutions, and thirdly - and currently most importantly - by saving iridium for PEM electrolysis.

The innovative Heraeus precious metal catalysts enable up to 90% savings compared to the first generation of iridium catalysts. It is also essential that test results, including stability data, are available for these solutions. The solutions can also be tested and tailored to customers' needs in our own test centers.

4) How can your product contribute to industrial transformation?

The hydrogen ramp-up in Europe needs a strategy for the demand of iridium, an indispensable raw material for PEM electrolysis. Europe aims to build 175 GW of hydrogen capacity by 2030, 40% of it with PEM electrolysis, which is particularly suitable for green hydrogen production. With conventional catalyst loadings, an estimated 28 tons of iridium is needed, with only about 12 tons available in this period. Using low-loaded catalysts reduces this requirement to about 7 tons of iridium, making the hydrogen ramp-up possible.

Moreover, producing hydrogen alone is not enough. The hydrogen has to be purified, stored, transported, and, in the end, put to use. Whether this is done through ammonia or methane synthesis, precious metal catalysts are used in almost all these processes. Therefore, a transformation of the industry is only possible with precious metals.