Green Hydrogen

Fuel Cells and Electrolysers

Mastermelt’s vision for green hydrogen is to support our partners in realising their H2 journey by enabling efficient circular processing of valuable precious metals, driving down the cost per kW. 

Rising precious metal demand

In the race to meet emission and sustainability targets by 2030, significant growth in hydrogen energy use is expected in applications such as heavy industry, marine, aviation and rail as technology for these sectors, so reliant on fossil fuels, develop.  

The demand for precious metals in the manufacture of Membrane Electrode Assemblies (MEA) is rapidly increasing.  In particular, Platinum, Iridium and Ruthenium are being used extensively in the Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) Electrolyser and Fuel Cell sectors. For the market to sustain the increasing demand for these scarce metals, it is vital that they are reclaimed and recycled for re-use.   

 

Sustainable metal recycling for green hydrogen energy

Mastermelt provides sustainable recycling and metal loop reclamation services to numerous customers in the green energy and hydrogen business, focusing on optimising metal recovery and reducing metal lead times. Reclaimed precious metals can either be sold or the metal credited to the customer’s account for the supply of new product. 

Ultimately the Mastermelt approach is to work in partnership with our customers to understand their processes in order to optimise the value chain from their scrap and waste streams. 

Recycle animation

What materials from the green hydrogen sector can be recycled?

A number of waste streams containing precious metal are generated by the green energy and hydrogen industries: 

CATALYST PRODUCTION WASTE:

Mixed Metal Oxide waste residue & product; Ir/Pt/Ru (dry)

Production Waste; filters, wipes, PPE, coated glassware

Bag house filters (dust)

MEA COATED WASTE:

Carbon gas diffusion layer (GDL).

Sealants 

QC rejected CCM/MEA 

R&D Trials 

COATING FORMULATION WASTE:

Aqueous rising solutions from spray application (dilute).

Paste from screen printing (concentrated) 

DISMANTLING:

Recover spent MEA’s from PEM Fuel Cells.

Reclaim Platinum, Iridium and Gold coated & Titanium components in Electrolysers.

ADDED REVENUE STREAM:

Provide reclaim services support within customers supply chain.

What is the process for reclaiming metal from green hydrogen? ​

Mastermelt has 37 years of experience in processing a wide range of precious metal containing materials, with different wastes from the green hydrogen and energy sectors being one of our specialities. 

To arrange a process audit with one of our Technical Sales Managers,

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