Fuel Cell Membrane (PEM)

Current Proton Exchange Membranes (PEMs), especially Nafion, are costly and produced mainly by a single international supplier (DuPont/Chemours). This monopoly escalates the cost of fuel cells and electrolyzers and limits local manufacturing capacity in South Africa.
Because PEMs are the major component of both PEM fuel cells and PEM electrolyzers, their high cost drives up the cost of green hydrogen. The cost of Proton Exchange Membrane Electrolyzer Cell (PEMEC) system is one of the main reasons why green hydrogen is still more expensive than conventional approaches. Expensive imported membranes compromise the feasibility of producing fuel cells locally. South Africa currently imports PEMs and does not have domestic expertise to produce them, and local PEM manufacturers would support the national hydrogen strategy (HySA).
Conventional PEMs require costly fluorinated polymers. This technology attempts to replace them with natural rubber (NR) based polyisoprene, which is cheap, renewable, locally available in Africa and reduces brittleness compared to synthetic Polybutadiene rubber (PBR) based membranes. Producing hydrogen from renewable electrolysis is still expensive, and reducing PEM costs directly reduces hydrogen costs. This innovation aimed to reduce the cost of hydrogen production by using locally available raw materials.