Jolt Solutions is looking to launch an electrolyser component production line that can put out an electrode a minute in the second quarter of 2024.

Barcelona, Spain-based Jolt says its patented Sparkfuze process can allow alkaline water electrolysis (AWE) and anion exchange membrane (AEM) anodes and cathodes to be coated in less than 60 seconds.

The company also claims it can cut manufacturing voltage requirements using equipment that can be sourced off the shelf in any country at “extremely low” cost, beating existing technology which Jolt says is “slow, energy intensive and expensive.”

Jolt, a spinoff of the Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (Institut Català d’Investigació Química or ICIQ) at the Rovira i Virgili University in Tarragona, Spain, says it will be opening a Sparkfuze line with up to 4 gigawatts of capacity in Barcelona for existing AWE and AEM customers.

In addition, “the small footprint and off-the-shelf production equipment required means the technology can be deployed in production units next to customers quickly and with low investment.”

A Sparkfuze line could take eight or nine months to install, depending on local licensing requirements, says Wayne Thornhill, Global Sales Director – Electrode Solutions. The company has the backing of factory expansions, through its investor Santander Bank.

The Sparkfuze process uses solution combustion to deposit nanocrystal catalyst layers and was developed at ICIQ, a global research institute with a focus on catalysis, electrolysis and solar-to-X technologies.

“The exothermal nature of solution combustion techniques means that very pure metal-based catalysts are produced in a controlled manner,” says Wayne.

“When deployed on nickel-based substrates, as in AWE or AEM, the catalyst layer becomes bonded/fused to the substrate, leading to increased durability.”

Typical thermal decomposition catalyst layers are rigid due to the sintering process, which means they may be subject to cracks, delamination and flaking. This leads to degradation in performance and eventual de-activation, says Jolt.

Traditionally produced catalyst layers are also flat, resulting in low catalytic activity. “To solve this, it is common to repeat the coating process many times, increasing costs and production time,” Wayne says.

In contrast, “With Sparkfuze we use the internal heat from the reaction itself to form the catalyst into the substrate in one stage,” says Wayne. “Putting the coated electrode in front of heat source or into an oven for 40 to 60 seconds at 180ºC will trigger the process.”

Intense heat from this exothermic reaction, which lasts a couple of milliseconds, produces a high-electrochemical active surface area catalyst and fuses it into the top layer of the substrate without damaging. This forms a durable protective coating, Jolt claims.

The company also says its electrodes can work at low and high current densities, at less than 0.6 amps and around 1.2 amps per square centimetre respectively.

Initial industrial Sparkfuze applications have focused on known substrates such as nickel, titanium, stainless steel, iron, copper, chrome, ceramics and carbon in plate, foam, mesh, wire and other formats, and catalysts with or without platinum-group metals.

The process is said to optimise the performance of these known combinations, yielding higher efficiencies and durability. “Later iterations will use newly developed catalyst combinations which are already in development,” says Wayne.

• For more information, contact Wayne Thornhill, global sales director for electrode solutions, at thornhill@jolt-solutions.com.
• This article will be part of the upcoming digital Hydrogen Standard issue 09