Gearing up for Hydrogen Economy
Kolon Industries has established a system to mass-produce polymer electrolyte membranes (PEMs), a key material for fuel cells for hydrogen cars, the company announced on Nov. 19.
Kolon Industries is planning to complete the establishment of a PEM mass-production line in Gumi within November and start production in 2021 after test operations. In September 2019, the company decided to mass-produce fluorine PEMs before hydrocarbon PEMs to speed up commercialization.
PEMs are one of the four main components of hydrogen fuel cells. They are separators that show selective permeability. Hydrogen gases introduced from the outside are separated from the electrode layer into hydrogen ions and electrons, which produce currents along a wire.
The facility provides Kolon Industries with a base to produce membrane electrodes assemblies (MEAs), which are PEMs combined with electrodes. The company already holds patents on interface control technology that can simultaneously enhance MEAs’ performance and durability.
As Kolon Industries is the only company in Korea that produces PEMs and MEAs at the same time, the company will be able to weather uncertainties regarding the supply of raw materials, performance, and prices, which could arise in the early stage of the market.
In particular, the new PEM volume-production facility can produce redox flow batteries for energy storage systems (ESSs) rapidly growing in the market and separators applied to water electrolysis technology for eco-friendly hydrogen production. Kolon Industries is developing hydrocarbon PEMs where the company has a global technological edge with the aim of commercializing them early. Like these, the company is gradually expanding its hydrogen and eco-friendly businesses.