SBIR/STTR Award attributes
Under this Phase II grant, NuMat Technologies (NuMat) will continue to develop metal-organic frameworks as point-of-use hydrogen purifiers. These purifiers, once realized, will be deployed to ensure high purity hydrogen is delivered to fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs). Data collected at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory has shown that hydrogen purity at fueling stations can be lower than the required standards outlined by the Society of Automotive Engineers. Impurities can damage the fuel cell catalyst reducing its lifetime and requiring expensive repairs. Decreases in hydrogen purity are a result of the introduction of contaminants during the transportation, storage, and compression of hydrogen. The point-of-use purifiers developed by NuMat under this SBIR contract will capture the impurities introduced, guaranteeing the delivery of high purity hydrogen to the fuel cell. These filters will increase FCEV lifetimes, reduce maintenance costs, and keep vehicles on the road longer. Through Phase I research, NuMat showed that metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) could be used to adsorb impurities found in a hydrogen fuel stream, including carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulfide, and ammonia. Under Phase II, NuMat will build upon this work, developing and testing a prototype filter system. The materials will be optimized, scaled, and formed before they are deployed in a filter. These prototype systems will be extensively tested to determine their efficacy, and several rounds of optimization will be performed. This work will leverage NuMat’s extensive experience in integrating MOFs into commercial products. NuMat is dedicated to the commercialization of technologies that leverage the unique properties of MOFs. A multidisciplinary team of over thirty people has been assembled to achieve this goal, including chemists, engineers, and business experts. This team has successfully developed the first commercial MOF based product, ION-X®, which is a product used in the electronics industry to safely store and deliver highly toxic gases sub-atmospherically, including arsine and phosphine. Beyond ION-X®, NuMat has a robust product pipeline that includes gas purification products used in the semiconductor industry and filter materials deployed by the Department of Defense in filter applications. In developing these technologies, NuMat has developed a robust product pipeline to transition MOF-based technologies to higher technology readiness levels (TRLs). This SBIR will use NuMat’s product pipeline to advance hydrogen purifiers to higher TRLs. This SBIR opportunity presents an ideal route for growth at NuMat, aligning with the goals of the company to expand MOFs into new commercial opportunities. NuMat’s initial commercial success has been a result of identifying small volume and high-value applications where MOFs could be leveraged to overcome commercial challenges. NuMat is now seeking to establish market opportunities where MOFs can be deployed to overcome emerging problems that have the potential to grow exponentially. The inline purification of hydrogen is an application that will proliferate over the coming years as hydrogen markets expand. Data collected under Phase I shows that MOFs are uniquely suited to play a critical role in this market. Furthermore, the MOF-based technologies developed here may also be broadly applicable to the bulk purification of hydrogen.
