For hydrogen to gain commercial acceptance it will need to be efficiently produced in industrial volumes – and making it from salt water rather than fresh water would be a plus. But alkaline electrolyzers are generally limited to low production capacity. One small tech firm in Eastern Kansas wants to change that, and they just landed a $750,000 grant to complete a commercial-sized ‘stack’ for the on-site splitting of water into hydrogen and oxygen.
Joseph Barforoush, Avium CEO
“What we’re able to do in the alkaline environment is to operate at two to four times the production rate (of existing alkaline electrolyzers) while staying within the same voltage range,” Avium CEO Joseph Barforoush, Ph.D. told the 4thEst8. “Our core technology is the catalyst. The catalyst is deposited on the electrodes to improve efficiency. We have a very low cost catalyst synthesis using Earth-abundant materials such as nickel and iron that create this unique and highly active catalytic structure.”
This grant is a Phase II SBIR from the National Science Foundation. Barforoush landed the Phase I in 2018 as he completed his Ph.D. at the University of Kansas, started his company, and moved into the KU Bioscience & Technology Business Center.
